Novelist, Poet, critic, and writer of short stories, Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues has won considerable praise in France for his highly imaginative work and exquisite poetic style. His 1967 novel La Marge won the Prix Goncourt.

Following an introductory biographical chapter in this first full-length critical study of Mandiargues, David bond discusses Mandiargues's novels and a selection of short stories, finding recurring thematic patterns in his haunting and magical dream world. Bond maintains that the French writer uses fantasy, symbolic statement, and mythical and frankly erotic motifs to explore some of the oldest, most persistent human preoccupation-time, destiny, the beyond, salvation, love-themes that for him defy logical expression. Bond concludes with a discussion of Mandiargues's relationship to other contemporary writers and especially to the surrealists.

Bibliography, notes, and index are included, along with a rare painting of Mandiargues by his wife, Bona.