This text contains Camus's works of his early 20s - essays, verse, parables, and fairy tales - that reveal how his writing developed. They range from essays on Verlaine and Jehan Rictus, a study of Nietzsche's and Schopenhauer's theories of music, and a dialogue between God and His Soul, to three fairy tales in "Melusina's Book" and "Voices from the Poor Quarter". French critic Paul Viallaneix sets them in perspective and relates them to Camus's later writing.