Valéry undergoes the Genoa crisis
Poet involved
What happened
During a stormy night of 4–5 October 1892 in Genoa, Italy, where he was staying with relatives, Valéry experienced a profound personal and intellectual crisis. He resolved to reject what he regarded as the seductions of literature, love and imprecision. The episode became a decisive turning point in his inner life.
Literary impact
The Genoa crisis led to his prolonged withdrawal from poetry and redirected his energies towards consciousness, mathematics, philosophy and language. His subsequent notebooks became a laboratory for the disciplined examination of thought, laying the intellectual foundations for much of his later writing.
Source: Wikipedia
