This book analyses Malraux's writing from his journalism in Indochina to his novels, art studies and (anti)memorialist essays. Cutting through the established dual biographical image of Malraux as a committed leftwinger and revolutionary novelist turned unconditional Gaullist and diehard anti-Communist at the Liberation, it makes a balanced assessment of Malraux as a non-ideological if elitist artist who shaped his public role as much as he shaped the existence of his heroes both novelistic and real.