Gaston Bachelard

Shows how our perceptions of home shape our thoughts, memories, and dreams, and discusses each space from cellar to attic

The Poetics of Space

Klára Kováčiková 

Maybe it is a good thing for us to keep a few dreams of a house that we shall live in later, always later, so much later, in fact, that we shall not have time to achieve it. For a house that was final, one that stood in symmetrical relation to the house we were born in, would lead to thoughts--serious, sad thoughts--and not to dreams. It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality.

The house derives reserves and refinements of intimacy from winter: while in the outside world, snow cover all tracks, blurs the road, muffles every sound, conceals all colors. As a result of this universal whiteness, we feel a form of cosmic negation in action.

Poetic revery, unlike somnolent revery, never falls asleep.

is on the plane of the daydream and not on that of facts that childhood remains alive and poetically useful within us. Through this permanent childhood, we maintain the poetry of the past.

...there exists for each one of us an oneiric house, a house of dream-memory, that is lost in the shadow of a beyond, of the real past.

There does not exist a real intimacy that is repellent.

In reality, however, the passions simmer and resimmer in solitude: the passionate being prepares his explosions and his exploits in this solitude. And all the spaces of our past moments of solitude, the spaces in which we have suffered from solitude, enjoyed, desired and compromised solitude, remain indelible within us, and precisely because the human being wants them to remain so. He knows instinctively that this space identified with his solitude is creative; that even when it is forever expunged from the present, when, henceforth, it is alien to all the promises of the future, even when we no longer have a garret, when the attic room is lost and gone, there remains the fact that we once loved a garret, once lived in an attic. We return to them in our night dreams. These retreats have the value of a shell.

I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.

Memories of the outside world will never have the same tonality as those of home and, by recalling these memories, we add to our store of dreams; we are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.

The poet speaks on the threshold of being.

A beloved multidisciplinary treatise comes to Penguin Classics Since its initial publication in 1958, The Poetics of Space has been a muse to philosophers, architects, writers, psychologists, critics, and readers alike. The rare work of irresistibly inviting philosophy, Bachelard’s seminal work brims with quiet revelations and stirring, mysterious imagery. This lyrical journey takes as its premise the emergence of the poetic image and finds an ideal metaphor in the intimate spaces of our homes. Guiding us through a stream of meditations on poetry, art, and the blooming of consciousness itself, Bachelard examines the domestic places that shape and hold our dreams and memories. Houses and rooms; cellars and attics; drawers, chests, and wardrobes; nests and shells; nooks and corners: No space is too vast or too small to be filled by our thoughts and our reveries. In Bachelard’s enchanting spaces, “We are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.” This new edition features a foreword by Mark Z. Danielewski, whose bestselling novel House of Leaves drew inspiration from Bachelard’s writings, and an introduction by internationally renowned philosopher Richard Kearney who explains the book’s enduring importance and its role within Bachelard’s remarkable career. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

João Pesce

maitha mana

Bachelard goes into depth into how human beings occupy space; from shelter, to aesthetic, to collecting miniatures, and the safe corners in our minds. He does it wonderfully using quotes from literature, and different philosophers. This book felt like a warm blanket and my room suddenly makes sense, those sea shells carefully arranged on the shelf, the cookie jars, the flowers, and books; they all make more sense. Nothing preserved or appreciated is ever random or shortlived.

Beloved and contemplated by philosophers, architects, writers, and literary theorists alike, Bachelard's lyrical, landmark work examines the places in which we place our conscious and unconscious thoughts and guides us through a stream of cerebral meditations on poetry, art, and the blooming of consciousness itself. Houses and rooms; cellars and attics; drawers, chests and wardrobes; nests and shells; nooks and corners: no space is too vast or too small to be filled by our thoughts and our reveries. With an introduction by acclaimed philosopher Richard Kearney and a foreword by author Mark Z. Danielewski.

Sometimes i'm astonished at the length he could go to romanticize and dramatize, sometimes i envy his eyes and the joy he was able to have just by observing things and conjuring personal meanings for himself. Reading the poetics of space kinda calibrates my ability to appreciate, and introduces a variety of new things to be felt, especially so at the first half. It's a bit caucasian boomer centric, but still enjoyable. It's also a beautiful book to read in a beautiful day. Lately i've been going out to enjoy the start of spring with this book on hand, flowers blooming, birds chirping, chocolate on the side, and eluvium on play, and it was great great. What might be a memorable take from this book is that we're all phenomenologists. Just as he was able to extract so much happiness from life, i should be too.

The Poetics of Space

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