The third volume of Cocteau's collected works is as full of “pioneering” texts for Russian culture as the previous two volumes. Two essays (“The Difficulty of Being” and “The Diary of a Stranger”), in which existential problems are discussed in parallel with the story of “life and art,” are of interest not only from the point of view of the mechanisms of artistic thinking, but also as a panorama of the art of France in the second third of the 20th century . The essay “Opium,” marked by a special, sharp confessionality, is a self-ruthless diary of a drug addict undergoing detoxification. In translations, the word of Cocteau the poet acquires a bright Russian adequacy; the powerful energy of the brilliant master does not lose its power in the interpretation of the translators. This book is an important contribution to building a holistic picture of French culture of the 20th century in Russian “bookishness”; its importance for Russian intellectuals can hardly be overestimated.