The reverse side of our history of mind, art, and culture, its mysterious realm of shadows, is populated by all those artworks that were lost or destroyed, whether intentionally or accidentally, as a result of accidents, wars, or entirely personal crises. With laconic humor and in a guaranteed incomplete enumeration, Henri Lefebvre guides us through the galleries and libraries, the concert halls, theaters, and cinemas, into the studies lined with piles of burned letters, discarded manuscripts, and lost works, where everything missing presents itself to us in a paradoxically vivid presence. An elegy for what once was, never achieved, censored, discarded, or brutally destroyed.