Why does a man who describes the French left as a “great backward-falling corpse” continue to associate himself with it? This is the question Fred Siegel tackles in his review of Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism by Bernard-Henri Levy. Even at its most exasperatingly fatuous, the world of French politics has a certain alluring romance—many readers will value the poetical reflections of one of its most prominent figures.