What is a good tragedy? What is a really funny comedy? How to understand the rules of their composition? What is the method for becoming a good literary and dramatic critic? The questions posed by the Poetics resonate with particular acuteness in the Greece of theatrical competitions known to Aristotle. But they go beyond the ancient context to nourish contemporary reflections linked to literature and the fine arts. More than a technical manual, this work, Aristotle's best known and most translated, is a true treatise on philosophical aesthetics, analyzing the work of the poet without ever losing sight of a fundamental idea: the mastery of one's art must serve the pleasure of the recipient. Given in a new translation which makes Aristotle's text accessible to today's reader, Hellenist or not, the Poetics opens the debate on the meaning and value of art, and on its importance for human life.