The Sorrows of Priapus (Sorrows of Priapus Ppr) [Paperback]

Edward Dahlberg (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Marion Boyars (February 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714506702
• ISBN-13: 978-0714506708
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,392,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Misanthropic bile, February 19, 1999

By 

Andrew Rasanen (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sorrows of Priapus (Sorrows of Priapus Ppr) (Paperback)

This is a most unusual book, of interest chiefly as that rarest of literary objects, a manifesto of pessimism. Dahlberg's intent seems to have been as much to display his bulging erudition and arch, archaic way with words as to decry man's slavery to the sexual urge. His ostensible subject is often buried beneath an avalanche of classical, historical, and anthropological allusions, but at least the book is riddled with eccentric epithets along the lines of "Man is double, and who may know his heart: he is a moral hermaphrodite." The author's tone is judgmental and defiant throughout, but that doesn't energize the book. The tedium of reading finally overwhelms any interest his oblique approach might provide, and there are no illuminating observations about the eternal itch, merely a catalogue of references to Greek gods, Mayan myths, and "primeval potherbs."

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Whoa! What's up with this book?!, January 22, 2003

By 

Donald Frades (Los Osos, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sorrows of Priapus (Sorrows of Priapus Ppr) (Paperback)

Get me another scotch and turn on the lava lamp! I started reading this one, and then started thumbing around from front to back, and I still don't know what is going on -- but it was sure interesting while it lasted!

I found this book at a library book sale, so excuse me for not knowing anything about its literary pretensions or context.

WARNING, right off: You will have no idea what this book is about unless you take a class on this guy, which is probably unlikely, or have an odd, non-Hefnerian view of sex. Or if you're the sort to sit in a tweed blazer and monocle and snicker alone late at night over the Discovery channel with one hand down your pants.

When an author starts off by telling you unabashedly that he's going to use the whole range of the English vocabulary going back to the Elizabethans, whether you know what he's talking about or not, and then goes off to frolic around in weird, wordy and highly literary word-acrobatics about copulation and who-knows-what, you know you've gotten into something not exactly "summer reading."

I'm not sure who this book was intended for (from the intro, I'd say no-one), but it's always good to have it on your shelf, especially if the title is prominently displayed, and you can pull it out periodically and read vague and archly erudite chuckles about pudenda and whatnot.

As for "misanthropic," well, ya got me there. Really, that's just nitpicking with a book this weird.