Samarius Velikovsky (1931–1990) is a famous philosopher, cultural critic, and literary critic. The book traces the fate of humanistic consciousness in the context of upheavals experienced by Western civilization in the twentieth century. Against the general background of the state and development of philosophical thought in Europe, a deep analysis of the work of outstanding thinkers of France is given - Malraux, Sartre, Camus and other masters of words, revealing the ideological essence of the mentality of tragic humanism, its two initial components - “loss of meaning” and “search for meaning”. The core of this analysis is the moral quest of the individual in the historical stream, their reflection in French prose, theater, and lyric poetry. Many pages of this book will resonate with today’s reader, a person of the 21st century, who finds himself faced with problems, existential and everyday, of this new time. In the author’s manner letters have their own artistic style.