Eli Friedlander introduces the work of Walter Benjamin by way of subtle and revealing commentaries of short stories that Benjamin wrote in the 1930s. As Friedlander shows, these stories, also reproduced in the book, can be read as condensed abbreviations of fundamental philosophical themes in Benjamin. In this manner, they are philosophical miniatures— philosophical-literary monads that concentrate in themselves and mirror out of themselves an entire world of thought.

  Commenting on stories including 'In the Sun', 'Rastelli's Tale' and 'Agesilaus Santander' the book follows the movement through which a story unfolds its thought content. Friedlander also identifies the way in which Benjamin's miniatures touch upon aspects of his life, even if they're not always immediately recognizable as autobiographical. To draw out this biographical dimension, each chapter is framed by exchanges—frequently epistolary—between Benjamin and interlocutors such as Scholem, Adorno and Schmitt. These exchanges not only offer a way into the stories and give a direction to reading, but they also relate the stories to contingencies of Benjamin's life, as well as to the vicissitudes of his fame or afterlife. For those who are familiar with Benjamin's work and those who are newer to it, Friedlander's essays offer a poignant perspective on why Benjamin's thought continues to resonate.