Guilty [Hardcover]

Georges Bataille (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0932499554 | ISBN-13: 978-0932499554 | Publication Date: October 1988 | Edition: First US edition.

A searing personal record of spiritual and communal crisis, wherein the death of god announces the beginning of friendship.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

To many Western critics, Bataille (1897-1962) stands as one of the most arresting and influential writers of this century. Accordingly, this first English translation of Le Coupable will surely gratify those interested in contemporary intellectual history or literature. Guilty , which defies classification by genre, is presented as series of reflections and meditations. Tellingly begun in September 1939, Bataille's philosophical inquiries are heightened by the war and its introduction of profound uncertainty: "I started this book as the result of an upheaval that ended up challenging everything and freed me from undertakings I was stuck in. Once war broke out, there was no way I could wait any morewait, that is, for the liberation which this book is for me." Elegant and gnomic passages challenge the barriers imposed on the self by language and by conceptions of the sacred: "Human existence is guilty: it is this to the degree it opposes nature. A humility that makes humanity ask forgiveness (Christianity) overwhelms human existence without excusing it. Christianity's advantage is that it at least aggravates the guilt it proclaims . . . . " Bataille probes this fundamental imprisonment in an argument made here poetic and accessible through a lucid translation.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 161 pages
• Publisher: Lapis Pr; First US edition. edition (October 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932499554
• ISBN-13: 978-0932499554
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,996,948 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Contribution to Bataille Scholarship, May 21, 2011

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Rowan G. Tepper "Dianus" (Binghamton, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Guilty (SUNY Series in Contemporary French Thought) (Paperback)

This outstanding translation supersedes the old 1988 translation by Bruce Boone, and is vastly superior in every way. This edition includes, in English translation for the first time, the notebook and manuscript versions of the book, allowing the reader to see the work in development as well as much of the context of the book's writing that was deleted from the published version. While I could quibble over a very few renderings, the translation is eminently readable and provides an accessible introduction to Bataille, the philosopher, during his greatest and most overlooked period (Kendall's translation largely matches up with those I have myself done). Along with Inner Experience, On Nietzsche and the "fictions" of The Impossible, Guilty presents the philosophical foundation upon which Bataille's later works (The Accursed Share, Erotism, The Tears of Eros) rests. At last, the English-speaking world can hear Bataille's words undistorted by an unreliable translation. Highly recommended. Let's hope that Stuart Kendall is already at work on new translations of Inner Experience and On Nietzsche!