The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism [Hardcover]

Octavio Paz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 1995

In this series of essays Paz explores the intimate connection between sex, eroticism, and love in literature throughout the ages. Rich in scope, The Double Flame examines everything from taboo to repression, Carnival to Lent, Sade to Freud, original sin to artificial intelligence. “Brimming with insight, thoughtfulness, and sincerity” (Kirkus Reviews). Translated by Helen Lane.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a gem of a book, Mexican poet, critic and essayist Paz explores the boundaries between love, sex and eros. He defines eroticism as sexuality transfigured by the imagination, and romantic love as a desire for completeness manifested as a mysterious attraction toward a single person. The Nobel laureate moves easily in these erudite, reflective essays through Plato, Sappho, Provencal love poetry, Dante, Lady Murasaki's The Tale of Genji, Gnostic and Taoist erotic practices, Proust, Joyce, Freud, Breton and Lawrence. He argues that love, in the West, is an exercise in freedom, a creative and subversive sentiment, whereas in the East love has been conceived within a religious tradition. Modern sexual freedom, according to Paz, has become a narcissistic pursuit, accompanied by the erosion of family and personal values. Rejecting comparisons between the human mind and the computer, he calls for a dialogue between science and philosophy that restores the centrality of love and the soul.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Originally published in Spanish (La llama doble, amor y erotismo, 1993), this work by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1990) consists of reflections on the diverse manifestations of sex, eroticism, and love from ancient to contemporary times. Definitions are given: "Sex is the primordial source. Eroticism and love are forms derived from the sexual instinct: crystallizations, sublimations, perversions, and condensations which transform sexuality." From Plato and the great civilizations of antiquity to the modern period (including an examination of medieval courtly love and side excursions into Eastern approaches), the themes are studied through their literary and philosophical aspects. Paz bemoans today's commercialization of eroticism but optimistically posits that science is, after a centuries-long hiatus, returning to an examination of the ontological (and hence, moral) questions of love as part of being. This is an erudite, thought-provoking work, intended for readers acquainted with literary and philosophical traditions. Recommended for general collections serving a sophisticated clientele.
-?Charles E. Perry, East Central Univ., Ada, Okla.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (March 29, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151001030
• ISBN-13: 978-0151001033
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,645,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eroticism: In Its Finest Form, November 28, 2001

By 

Uday Roy (Cleveland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism (Paperback)

The big bang of my holiday reading began with ever-enigmatic Octavio Paz's another master piece, "The Double Flame". A three hundred sixty degree recount of history and genre of Love & Eroticism. During his diplomatic job at India, being inspired by the Buddhist erotic statues of Karli (alas the other Mecca of history & culture that I never had a chance to visit), Octavio wanted to write a 100 page polemic on this subject. He waited almost 15 years. Finally in 1993, wrote this 276 page authoritative, eclectic, mesmerizing and fascinating book. I found Paz always dwells on this interesting issue. In his poems about India such as Mathura and Vridabaan, Octavio brings the erotic images of ancient India as living objects. But through this book only I discovered the depth and breath of his reading on this occult issue. Beginning with Plato's Symposium, Paz gives us a short history of love and eroticism in literature throughout the ages. From Greeko-Alexandria to Roman-Europe to Tantrik Bengal, Octavio swims us through every current and under current of human sexuality. To him, eroticism to sexuality is same as poetry to language. The courtly love in Heian Japan to twelfth century amorous lit of France, Paz is everywhere. It helped me understand Baudelaire better. It explains the erotic nuances of Madame Bovary and Ulysses. The Double Flame is translated to English by Helen Lane and published by Harcourt Brace & Company.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insights from one of Latin America's greatest poet-essayists, August 13, 2001

By 

Michael J. Mazza - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism (Paperback)

"The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism," by Octavio Paz, is an impressive prose exploration of the title subject. The book has been translated from Spanish into English by Helen Lane.

In this extended multi-part essay, Paz considers the presence of love, eroticism, and related phenomena in literary works that span many cultures and centuries: the biblical Song of Songs, the writings of the Marquis de Sade, Joyce's "Ulysses," Murasaki Shikubu's "Tale of Genji," Mohammed Ibn Dawud's "Book of the Flower," the poems of Sappho, and much more. Paz also considers a wide range of other social and scientific phenomena that are relevant to his project: the "Big Bang" theory, the AIDS crisis, artificial intelligence, the Buddhist concept of Nirvana, the "Luciferian" movement in art, and more.

Occasionally, Paz seems to be a little too full of himself; he sometimes issues pronouncements on highly debatable points as if they were undebatable facts. But his overall passion and intelligence make these occasional lapses forgivable.

"The Double Flame" is also rich in what I call "Pazisms": characteristically witty, wise, and highly quotable statements. Here's one of my favorite Pazisms: "Love has been and is still the great act of subversion in the West" (from the 5th chapter, "A Solar System"). If you are interested in love and eroticism, in the art of nonfiction prose, or in Latin American literature, check out this book.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Double Flame: Love is still all that matters, March 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism (Hardcover)

Spellbinding in its scope, the Double Flame strips humanity of every tradition and circumstance and presents it at its most ritual level, which is the act of love itself. In a nutshell, sex is the root, eroticism is the stem, and love is the flower that blooms as a result of the two. Octavio Paz simply gives it a soul, injecting new life into an entity that seems to grow more trivial as nature succumbs to change. Its a definite shot in the arm for an increasingly technocratic society.