Julio Cortázar

Julio Cortázar's intention was to create "a kind of dialogue where Keats would be as present as possible." He explores Keats's poetics and finds traits that resonate with his own. Cortázar paints an endearing portrait of the poet, strolls and converses with him, follows the itinerary of his life, and comments on his work.

Julio Cortázar wanders through the poetry and letters of John Keats, creating an endearing portrait of the poet. This multifaceted journey includes other guests, poets, and literary critics who accompany them. The meticulous work on the Romantic poet's oeuvre leads the author to a dialogue where John Keats ponders poetic tasks and life, and Cortázar responds by extracting a truth that aligns with his own time. "A loose and disheveled book, full of interpolations, jumps, and great flaps and plunges": perhaps these words from the author best convey the tone of this book that slept for almost fifty years.

Cortázar's pen thus draws an Image of John Keats that is not a biography or an essay but could be the diary of that imaginary encounter. The two-century gap between them dissolves in this intimate space that Cortázar creates as a tribute to John Keats.