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Witold Gombrowicz, novelist, essayist, and playwright, was one of the most important Polish writers of the twentieth century. But his works were considered scandalous and subversive by the ruling powers in Poland and were banned for nearly forty years.

Gombrowicz spent his last years in France teaching philosophy, and this book, translated into English for the first time, is a series of reflections related to his lectures. Gombrowicz discusses Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Heidegger, Nietzsche, and Marx in what reads revealingly like notes for the lectures.

The text - a small literary gem full of sardonic wit, brilliant insights, and provocative criticism - re-constructs the philosophical lineage of his work.