Abstract

This article sets out to explore the personal and intellectual relationship between Luigi Gualdo and Paul Bourget, taking a close look at their relationship, their reciprocal travels between France and Italy, and their novelistic and poetic outputs. It is believed that psychological criticism arises from a confluence of personal crisis and the prevailing generational context, compelling intellectuals to analyze themselves and their contemporaries. Bourget and Gualdo are two particularly interesting examples of this: imbued with a sense of decadence, they wanted to be analysts, each adopting a dilettante, impassive, even critical stance. This modern attitude was enriched by their exchange. Particular emphasis is placed on their individual trajectories as cosmopolitan writers, which constitute a self­critical process and form the basis of their psychological approach.