This is a biography of Henri Bergson, a Nobel-winning French philosopher with a rock star-like status, down to the crowds of swooning women and mingling with other intellectual greats like Proust (they were cousins), Shaw, and James; a famous debate with Einstein, and the enmity of Bernard Russell, who would become as dramatically forgotten in the interbellum years, all without seeming to affect his own demeanor on things much.

Bergson's philosophical role is hard to place. His philosophical projects are wide and varied, and while often called anti-science it was an allegation that he protested throughout his life. He was concerned with perception and its understanding of the world in a way that rankled scientists, even if it looks like more a case of them talking past one another, and he brought up a much more constructive view of the evolutionary process than became fashionable as the century progressed.

Explaining the why of Bergson was my hope and fear of the book. There is no great why to explain what happened to and with him. I have thoughts, but I think that they are speculative. But at the same time I wanted a novel and comprehensive explanation as to what happened with him, or some sort of pitch as to why he was the most significant thinker of the century, I, er, also did not. There is enough clickbait-titled books out there trying to oversell the importance of something or someone to move product through either identity or audacity.

Here, the author points to some of his lines of philosophical and aesthetic influence, and offers a few speculations, but is content to be much more about the biography and providing an introduction into his admittedly big ideas. There is examination of how the book's subtitle plays out in Bergson's life, which I like because it is as much about the way his popularity is understood, and the unfortunately misogynistic or antisemitic turns there. But overall, it is a book that sets out to be an introduction, does so effectively, and wrangles some big ideas into manageable form in the process.