Written by one of twentieth-century Spain's most prominent intellectuals, this book--part memoir, part lyrical novel--is both a Bildungsroman about a young woman's intellectual formation during a crucial period of Spanish history (1929-1931) and a philosophical meditation upon the individual's place in society.

Maria Zambrano's Delirium and Destiny makes the work of this major Spanish philosopher available in English for the first time. An excellent introduction to Zambrano's life and thought, it traces the intellectual formation of a young woman who became one of Jose Ortega y Gasset's most distinguished pupils, and it chronicles Zambrano's redefinition of his philosophical positions. A truly interdisciplinary work, this translation is accompanied by an extensive critical essay, a translator's afterword, and a glossary of pertinent historical and philosophical terms.