Variations: The Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze

An insightful reading of Deleuze, from the point of view of a student, a reader and a fellow philosopher with whom Deleuze himself corresponded about his work

`Boundas and Dyrkton have rendered an invaluable service by opening access to Jean-Clet Martin''s important response to the work of Deleuze, a response that combines both philosophical rigor and poetic elegance with an insistence on demonstrating and relaying the conceptual multiplicity at the heart of Deleuzian philosophy, rather than merely commenting on it.'' Eugene W. Holland, Ohio State University

Jean-Clet Martin, while being a distinguished philosopher in his own right, was one of the earliest and best interpreters of Gilles Deleuze''s work. The letter-preface that Deleuze provided for the original French publication of Variations further testifies to the confidence that Deleuze had placed in him.

In Variations, a book having gone through several editions in France, Martin offers a unique analysis of Deleuze''s texts. Equally at home in Kant''s critical philosophy, baroque art, the mathematics of the virtual and the Anglo-American novel, Martin delivers a philosophically rigorous and superb literary-style reading of Deleuze''s work which will serve the student and the Deleuze scholar equally well. This is the first translation of Martin''s work in English and as such is essential reading for anyone dedicated to the study of Deleuze. Martin has provided a new postscript for the translation, which brings his text into the present and anticipates his new work that will rekindle the discussion on Deleuze''s relationship to Hegel.

Jean-Clet Martin, while being a distinguished philosopher in his own right, was one of the earliest and best interpreters of Gilles Deleuze''s work. He has since published eighteen books and has come to occupy a special place among contemporary French philosophers.