The Tears of Eros [Paperback]

Georges Bataille (Author), Peter Connor (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001

Tears of Eros is the culmination of Georges Bataille's inquiries into the relationship between violence and the sacred. Taking up such figures as Giles de Rais, Erzebet Bathory, the Marquis de Sade, El Greco, Gustave Moreau, Andre Breton, Voodoo practitioners, and Chinese torture victims, Bataille reveals their common obsession: death.

This essay, illustrated with artwork from every era, was developed out of ideas explored in Erotism: Death and Sexuality and Prehistoric Painting: Lascaux or the Birth of Art. In it Bataille examines death—the ""little death"" that follows sexual climax, the proximate death in sadomasochistic practices, and death as part of religious ritual and sacrifice.

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. In 1959, Bataille began Tears of Eros, and it was completed in 1961, his final work. Bataille died in 1962.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Paperback: 213 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872862224
• ISBN-13: 978-0872862227
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #486,250 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

50 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exploration of value through excessive experience, June 3, 1999

By 

Joo Heung Lee ([e-mail]) (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tears of Eros (Paperback)

The Tears of Eros is a fitting culmination of Bataille's search for value through excess. Although Bataille addresses many of the themes touched on here in greater detail in earlier works (Eroticism, The Accursed Share), The Tears of Eros is notable for the significant amount of artwork included to illustrate the connection Bataille develops between sex, death, expenditure, and sovereign value. This is a "must-read" for any serious student of contemporary philosophy and--for that matter--any who would insist that value resides elsewhere than in a petty, bourgeois individualism.

12 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars why the fuss?, June 5, 2005

By 

Arizona (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tears of Eros (Paperback)

I cannot understand why the fuss over this book. The text is disappointing: repetitive, opinionated, insubstantial, more like desultory notes than anything else. The images are all black-and-white and poorly reproduced, and again repetitive and disconnected.

There is too much horror in it. Bataille associates violence, horror, terror, pain, cruelty, with eroticism, madness, ecstasy, the sacred. Perhaps intense cultivation of pleasure creates a corresponding accumulative cultivation of pain. Why should this be so? I don't know except that we have what it takes to explore and we can explore in all and any direction. It's as simple as that.

It's possible to write books and essays that are lucid and meaningful and it's possible to write "The Tears of Eros".

10 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary treatment of sex and death, emotions and words, September 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tears of Eros (Paperback)

It is from woman, we come and to woman, we return because we all have both aspects in our being...female and maleness