Synopses & Reviews
Novel, translated by Joachim Neugroschel. Bataille's scandalous Story of the Eye, written under the pseudonym Lord Auch, centers around the exploits of a young couple exploring the utmost boundaries of the sacred and profane. This hallucinatory melding of sex and religion has lost none of its transgressive power since its original publication in the 1920s, and prefigures Bataille's later studies of death and sensuality, including Erotism and The Tears of Eros, also published by City Lights and available from SPD.
Review
"Bataille's book, far from obliging us to 'confront the idea of pornography as a serious literary genre, ” as Susan Sontag loudly proclaims on its cover, only obliges us to confront once again the fact that pornography is to be sure a difficult art, and that pornography as high art is generally more preposterous but no less tedious than the garden variety. This is the first volume in a projected complete English edition of Bataille." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Synopsis
In 1928, Georges Bataille published this first novel under a pseudonym, a legendary shocker that uncovers the dark side of the erotic by means of forbidden obsessive fantasies of excess and sexual extremes. A classic of pornographic literature, Story of the Eye finds the parallels in Sade and Nietzsche and in the investigations of contemporary psychology; it also forecasts Bataille's own theories of ecstasy, death and transgression which he developed in later work.
Synopsis
Bataille's first novel: a legendary shocker that uncovers the dark side of the erotic by means of forbidden obsessive fantasies of excess and sexual extremes.
A classic of pornographic literature, Story of the Eye finds the parallels in Sade and Nietzsche and in the investigations of contemporary psychology; it also forecasts Bataille's own theories of ecstasy, death and transgression which he developed in later work.
"Bataille's works ... indicated the aesthetic possibilities of pornography as an art form: Story of the Eye being the most accomplished artistically of all pornographic prose I've read."--Susan Sontag, "Notes on 'Camp'"
"Bataille denudes himself, exposes himself, his exhibitionism aims at destroying all literature. He has a holocaust of words. Bataille speaks about man's condition, not his nature. His tone recalls the scornful aggressiveness of the surrealist. Bataille has survived the death of God. In him, reality is conflict."--Jean Paul Sartre, Nausea
"I found myself being absorbed in Story of the Eye ... the symbolism really intrigued me. ... I am fascinated by the surreal erotic style of Bataille; I think he is an author I need to explore in greater details."--Michael Kito, Knowledge Lost
About the Author
Georges Bataille was born in Billom, France, in 1897. He was a librarian by profession. Also a philosopher, novelist, and critic he was founder of the College of Sociology. Bataille died in 1962.