The Dreams of Gaston Bachelard

In a few episodes from the great philosopher’s life, Jean-Philippe Pierron paints a portrait of Gaston Bachelard that even the youngest readers will remember.

In 1914, a thirty-year-old Gaston is a postman in a small French town, spending evenings with his friends Henri and Adrian and his fiancé Jeanne. His normal life is disrupted by the war: Gaston is sent to the frontline. What will he find at home when he returns five years later? Whom will a simple provincial postman become? And what is Gaston Bachelard’s dreaming of?

Adapting the stories of the greatest thinkers for the kids, the authors of Plato & Co. series do not aim to retell their lives, but create a striking image that will stay with the reader. For example Bachelard, being one of the most influential cultural theorists of the twentieth century, valued imagination no less than science or philosophy. Neither his background, nor the horrors of the war and the loss of loved ones diminished his hunger for knowledge, and that’s how he is portrayed by Jean-Philippe Pierron: a brilliant and passionate philosopher, teacher and dreamer. The image is complete with wonderful illustrations by Yann Kebbi that imitate children’s drawings with coloured pencils.