Some of the greatest thinkers and writers of our age meditate on play and the mysteries of inanimate life. The essays and reflections in this collection explore the seriousness of play and the mysteries of inanimate life – 'the unknown spaces, noises, dust, lost objects, and small animals that fill any house' – which have provoked many writers to take the side of these dead or non-human things, resulting in some of the most profound passages in literature. With contributions from: Kleist, Baudelaire, Freud, Rilke, Kafka, Bruno Schulz, Walter Benjamin, Elizabeth Bishop, Dennis Silk and Marina Warner.