Brief Eternity

Pascal Bruckner is the best-selling author of many books including The Tyranny of Guilt, Perpetual Euphoria and The Fanaticism of the Apocalyse.

‘In this excellent essay Pascal Bruckner does not limit himself to exploring the multiple existential questions raised by the recent lengthening of human life or to showing how, in the course of modernity, the third age has become “the philosophical age par excellence”: he constantly and rightly emphasizes the ambiguities, equivocations and ambivalences of this new situation.’Le Monde‘A Brief Eternity is an ode to desire, to the passion for life, to the warm glow of human discoveries, immense or small.’L’Express"Human beings have invented a new epoch in their lives: Indian summer, as Pascal Brucker calls it in his thoughtful meditation on life after 60.  No longer just an anteroom to death or a fantasied Neverland of blissful retirement, it has distinct challenges and novel satisfactions that one appreciates better after reading A Brief Eternity.  Written with verve and a joyful irony, it is a stimulating travelogue for that journey we all hope to make." Mark Lilla, Professor of Humanities, Columbia University "Pascal Bruckner’s most personal essay to date, A Brief Eternity deploys the writer’s remarkable erudition and culture to respond to a very recent and important question: how to live our extended 'middle age,' our prolonged 'Indian Summer,' wisely and to the fullest. Steeped in Bruckner’s usual wit, verve, and delight in paradox, A Brief Eternity is also, surprisingly, a bracing reminder of life’s limitations as well as its possibilities in the Age of Covid 19. A very timely book.” Richard J. Golsan, University Distinguished Professor  Senior Scowcroft Fellow, the Bush School, Texas A & M University"Pascal Bruckner is the philosopher of the new, always alert to the moment, always capable of identifying the unexpected turn that modern culture is taking, always two steps ahead of everyone else in describing these things, always deft, always brilliant, sometimes deep. Read any two pages, and you will see it."Paul Berman, author of Power and the Idealists and other books

• Introduction: The Unfrocked Priests of the Cult of Youth NotesPart I The Indian Summer of Life1 Giving Up on Giving UpThe swinging doorCold showerWisdom or resignation?Notes2 Staying in the Dynamics of DesireRetreat or disaster?The philosophical ageWhat shall we do with our twenty years (of additional life)?NotesPart II Life Always Begun Again3 The Saving Routine“It is enough to be” (Madame de Lafayette)The splendor of the trivialHere begins the new lifeThe two natures of repetitionThe eternal rebirthSwan song or dawn?Notes4 The Interweaving of TimeLive as if you were to die at any moment?The old boudoir of the pastIt’s always the first timeBecome like children again?Our phantom selvesNotesPart III Late Love Affairs5 Desire Late in LifeAsymmetries and expiry datesThe yoke of concupiscenceIndecent requestsNotes6 Eros and Agape in the Shadow of ThanatosDevotees of the twilightThe tragedy of the last loveThe chaste, the tender and the voluptuousNotesPart IV Fulfill Oneself or Forget Oneself?7 No More, Too Late, Still!Lost opportunitiesThe round of regretsKairos, the god of timelinessOn the blank page of your future livesNotes8 Make a Success of One’s Life, and Then What?I am I, alasThe three faces of freedomA door opening on the unknownSucceed, but not entirelyNot everything is possibleNotesPart V What Does Not Die in Us9 Death, Where is Thy Victory?Monsieur Seguin’s GoatEternity in love with timeThe luck to die someday?“Love what will never be seen twice”?The martyrs of enduranceThe zombie in usNotes10 The Immortality of MortalsWhat do bodily ills teach us?The hierarchy of painsPoor consolationsJust a moment, Mr ExecutionerEternity is here and nowNotesConclusion: Love, Celebrate, Serve