Charmes

audiobook

Charmes

by Paul Valéry

FR·~1 hours·7 chapters

Chapters

7 total
1

AURORE

12:14
2

FRAGMENTS DU NARCISSE

19:00
3

LA PYTHIE

8:36
4

ÉBAUCHE D’UN SERPENT

11:17
5

LE CIMETIÈRE MARIN

8:31
6

PALME

2:27
7

TABLE DES MATIÈRES

0:33

Description

An exuberant opening bursts into light, where a restless mind shakes off melancholy like dawn’s shadows. The narrator slips into a cascade of images—sun‑kissed roses, buzzing bees, golden ladders—each line a breath of confidence and wonder. This first act reads like a waking prayer, inviting the listener to follow a journey through interior landscapes woven with silk‑soft metaphors.

The work then turns toward the ancient platane, its towering limbs becoming a dialogue between solidity and wind, between the yearning of verses and the stubbornness of roots. Through vivid, almost tactile descriptions, the poet explores how ideas cling like spider‑webs, how hope swims in invisible pools, and how the desire for transcendence trembles at the edge of consciousness. Listeners will be carried on a rhythmic tide of lyricism that balances sensual richness with philosophical inquiry, leaving space for personal reflection without revealing the story’s later twists.

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Details

Language

fr

Duration

~1 hours (60K characters)

Publisher of text edition

Project Gutenberg

Original publisher

France: Gallimard, 1926.

Credits

Laurent Vogel (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica))

Release date

2023-06-27

Rights

Public domain in the USA.

About the author

Paul Valéry

Paul Valéry

1871–1945

A leading French poet, essayist, and thinker of the early 20th century, he is best known for the musical, intellectually rich poem "Le Cimetière marin" and for writing with unusual precision about art, language, and the mind. After an early burst of poetry, he spent years in near silence before returning to literature and becoming one of France’s most influential literary voices.

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