Jules de Gaultier

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Jules de Gaultier was a poet and philosopher. He worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance until he retired in 1919. Following his retirement, he devoted his time to writing poetry and philosophical tracts. From Kant to Nietzsche was originally written as a series of essays published by Mercure de France, to which de Gaultier was an extensive contributor. It was followed almost immediately by Le Bovarysme, which discusses and contemplates Emma Bovary’s life in Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary. These books and their critique of bourgeois philosophy became the basis of a philosophical movement, Bovarysme, that acknowledges the human tendency to seek escape from the mundanity of everyday life through the use of idealization and romanticism. This literary and psychological concept has been elevated to a philosophy that outlines a technique for creating meaning and purpose in life by the use of the will to illusion. From Kant to Nietzsche follows the evolution of de Gaultier’s ideas and influences as they relate to the philosophy of Kant and Nietzsche.