This book explores the work of spectres in Denis Diderot's Salons , Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu , and Gilles Deleuze's Francis Bacon, logique de la sensation . It examines the extent to which Diderot, Proust and Deleuze are able to resist the 'Marcellus complex'.
Several different authors on Goodreads are named Thomas Baldwin, including an aeronaut, at least one theologian, a philosopher, a novelist, an agriculturist and a self-help writer. They wrote between the 18th century and today.
I was really excited to read this. Turns out I shouldn't have been. Despite the wealth of quotations – and work with Georges Didi-Huberman, who I'm very keen to see adopted in English-language scholarship – the book never caught, an argument never truly appeared, and I felt let down. Sigh.