Introduction -- Ernst Bloch's philosophical prose -- Heidelberg's apostles : Bloch reading Lukács reading Bloch -- Eschatology and messianism : Bloch with Buber, Landauer and Rosenzweig -- The form of the messianic : Bloch and Benjamin -- The void of utopia and the violence of the system : Bloch contra Adorno -- Conclusion : drawing the utopian line.