The life of the bees

Despite its first appearance as a simple descriptive nature book, and despite Maeterlinck's statement on the first page that he does not intend to say almost anything "that is not known to anyone who has dealt even a little with bees", The Life of the Bees is none other than a book of a journey into the secret of existence. Before us is an inviting invitation to enter a magical and mysterious world, in which wonders and questions arise abundantly one after the other, and for the most part remain unanswered; An enigmatic world, in which the hidden prevails over the visible. This is also, in a nutshell, the second thread that runs throughout Maeterlinck's varied and extensive work, and which drives the whole of his literary work: to try to penetrate the mystery of life, to come into contact with the deep forces that operate in the universe, and to illustrate the great wonder at the existence of God.