The article aims to analyze the presence of the French poet and writer Paul Valéry in the work of German philosopher Walter Benjamin. For many reasons - that will be investigated in detail - no interpreter seems to be more akin to Valéry than Walter Benjamin. Benjamin payed particular attention to Valéry: he followed his development, admired his greatness and reserved him special praise, that of having acquired the authority of a classic author. The article aims to show that Valéry remains for Benjamin intrinsically linked to the heroic period of the European bourgeoisie and that he is one of the most noble examples of what Benjamin calls "the old European humanism", of which Benjamin himself is one of the greatest protagonists, but also a disillusioned interpreter and relentless critic. The interpreter Benjamin recognized in Valéry was undoubtedly an "allied", as he found in his vision of the world a poetic image full of wit and melancholy. This image was also Benjamin's own, and he remained paradoxically faithful to it even in times of more fervent political and revolutionary passion. These are the principal points from which the article will start to rebuild and rethink the elective affinity between the French poet and the great German critic.
