In the summer of 1990, one of the most eminent sociologists of the 20th century, the German Norbert Elias, died in Amsterdam. His profoundly interwoven life and work are a reflection of the complexity �the light and shade� of the last century. With this proposed intellectual portrait, taking the opportunity of the twentieth anniversary of his death, we attempt offer an introductory guide to a figure and a body of work which, because of its magnitude and originality, undoubtedly deserves to be considered among the most important in sociology. As the thread running through this portrait, we propose a combination of the physical and symbolic places, spaces and people, events and connections that marked a long life and academic career which was little known and largely unrecognised until his later years. It is a career which undoubtedly constitutes one of the most outstanding and attractive legacies that the sociology of the last century has passed on to new generations of social science researchers.