Walter Benjamin - The Pearl Diver

An accessible and authoritative biography of Walter Benjamin that guides the reader through the complexity of his intellectual legacy and the turbulence of his time
 
Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) is widely considered one of the most creative cultural critics of the twentieth century. Esteemed for his literary acumen and capacious imagination, he developed a unique style of criticism-his friend Hannah Arendt called it pearl-diving-that sought out fragments of redemption in the ruins of bourgeois civilization.
Award-winning author Peter E. Gordon tells Benjamin's story in a vivid and poetic style, inviting the reader to look beyond the image of Benjamin as a tragic figure of German-Jewish history and portraying him as a complex personality of unique and multifaceted gifts. Tracing Benjamin's life from his Berlin childhood to his Parisian exile, through the romanticism of the youth movements and the conflicts over modernism and Marxism, Gordon brings Benjamin to life.

About the author

Peter E. Gordon

Product details

• Authors: Peter E. Gordon, Gordon Peter E.
• Publisher: Yale University Press Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 14.04.2026
• EAN: 9780300216868
• ISBN: 978-0-300-21686-8
• No. of pages: 224
• Series: Jewish Lives
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Humanities, art, music > Philosophy; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Philosophers, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Jewish, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political, Biography: general, Biography: historical, political & military, Philosophy, Political leaders & leadership, Biography: philosophy and social sciences, Biography: historical, political and military, Political leaders and leadership, Relating to Jewish people and groups