'The house shelters daydreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.' Since its initial publication in 1958, The Poetics of Space has been a muse to philosophers, architects, writers, psychologists, critics, and readers alike. 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 mediations 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 corner: no space is too cast 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 out emotion is perhaps nothing by an expression of a poetry that was lost.' The new edition features a foreword by mark Z. Danielewski, whose bestselling novel House of Leaves drew inspiration form Bachelard's writings. '[Bachelard] reminds me of skilled chess players who can take the biggest pieces with little pawns.' Michael Foucault Translated by Maria Jolas