This first volume shows that even as a young man Benjamin possessed astonishing intellectual range and depth. His topics here include poetry and fiction, drama, philosophy, history, religion, love, violence, morality, mythology, painting, and much more. He is as compelling and insightful when musing on riddles or children's books as he is when dealing with weightier issues such as symbolic logic or epistemology.

Walter Benjamin (1892¿1940) was the author of many works of literary and cultural analysis.