In this classic work, often described as "The History of the Rise, Decline, and Fall of the Love Affair," Denis de Rougemont explores the psychology of love from the legend of Tristan and Isolde to Hollywood.

One of the principal reasons for the confusion in which recent technological developments, and developments in the physical, chemical and biological sciences generally, have plunged us, consists in our inability to harmonise our means and our ends, to subordinate the former to the latter, to verify constantly their appropriateness or their incompatibility, and to evaluate their overall relation to man's final ends.

Introduction.--1. ptie. Primauté du spirituel?--2. ptie. Principes dúne politique du pessimisme actif.--3. ptie. Idoles.--4. ptie. Problèmes de la révolution personnaliste.--Appendice.