The Baphomet (Paperback)

by Pierre Klossowski (Author), Sophie Hawkes (Translator), Stephen Sartarelli (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Awarded the Prix des Critiques in 1965, this elegant novel will be of considerable interest to those with a taste for the rarefied currents of contemporary French intellectual experimentation. Opening with the events precipitating the dissolution of the Templar Order in 1307, the setting moves quickly beyond the historical into the theological as the focus shifts to the disembodied spirits of the dead, martyred members of the Order. Klossowski, who identifies this work as "gnosis or fable, or Oriental tale," investigates the problematic nature of identity by asking what becomes of a soul dissociated from a body. This question is further complicated by the "pure" souls' erotic interest in the alluring and recently abandoned body of a young page, variously populated by the spirits of the dissipated Grand Master of the Order and of St. Theresaa situation that allows Klossowski to stage a discussion of idolatry and the nature of deities. Foucault's essay further illuminates the theoretical principles at stake in Klossowski's adumbrated visions of eternity. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"THE BAPHOMET -- transforming into myth the legend of the Templars -- translates the experience of Nietzsche's Eternal Return with baroque sumptuosity." -- Maurice Blanchot

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Product Details

• Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: Marsilio Publishers (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568860560
• ISBN-13: 978-1568860565
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #336,498 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Teresa of Avila, breaths, spirits, inspirations & Templars, September 20, 2007

By	John L Murphy "Fionnchú" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This follows "Roberte Ce Soir & The Evocation of the Edict of Nantes" and "Diana at Her Bath & The Women of Rome" (both reviewed by me) as intellectual exercises, couched less as fiction and more as essays in "Diana," and as a more straightforward (relatively speaking) imaginary excursion in "The Baphomet." The preface, included here, is an essay by Michel Foucault on the moment of Acteon's attempt to restrain the huntress. Well-written and easier to understand than perhaps Klossowski in his many recondite moments, Foucault's essay, however, seems oddly placed. It should have been introducing the other book--- the one on Diana!

"The Baphomet" appears in a very handsome volume, with four illustrations by the author. This tale does open more dramatically than most of his imaginary stories, with the Templars' infamous rituals about to be exposed. This shifts into a visit from a sufflation, a breathed spirit, of St Teresa (spelled here in the French fashion) of Avila. The problem is that the characters in the action, such as it is, have been turned into emanations seeking vainly a re-entry into the flesh. Such is their fate, repeated endlessly, and they cannot hope for any exit from this existentialist cycle. So seems the case, according to the saint. As with Klossowski's earlier fictions, this predicament inspires extended theological and diabolical debate. Eventually, centered around the androgynous figure who incarnates as the Baphomet, the arc segues back to the Templars' earlier clash-- before another seismic jolt forward. Near the end, an enchanting meditation on Martha vs. Mary enters into a consideration for what we'd call "living in the moment"--yet this earns eloquent expression, a reminder of the difficulty we have in living in a time that does not seem our own. Klossowski by his narrative appears to instruct us to forget fitting in, and to embrace the suspended, brief, fleeting moments when we slip temporal bounds.

The book stops with a jolt. The book's beautifully translated in parts, and in other parts falls into the same affliction that makes this author's work tendentious and dull. It forgets there's a reader who must be entertained as well as educated. Extreme edification and erudite elucidation can tire a reader not up to Klossowski's wry intellect and sophisticated pose. Klossowski's method often appears to me scattershot, with rare moments of insight couched in overly mannered prose stylized in the fashion of French philosophical speculation, scholastic terminology borrowed from Catholic medieval erudition, and sporadic episodes of brief erotic grappling. I cannot imagine that there are many readers sufficiently educated in the nuances of all three discourses. But Klossowski, ex-Dominican seminarian, student of Bataille, mentored by Gide, and explicator of Sade and Nietzsche, is the one writer who'd search for and reward perhaps this rarified audience.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A theological and Metaphysical Wonder, December 1, 2006

By	Jere Perro "sanctum occularis" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Baphomet (The Eridanos Library, 9) (Hardcover)

Klossowski's combinatin of theological, metaphysical,eroticism and irony is well worked in this page turner of Templar myth. Klossowski's fanciful concept of the "breaths" of Templars long past gathering on the anniversary of the torment and execution of their Grand Master and revisiting the very iniquities and blasphemies that they were force to admit to by a corrupt church and government. The mystical journey Klossowski takes his readers on is pure thrill. You will meet the Grand Master as a hornet, Nietzsche in the body of an anteater, the author himself as the confessor and a cast worthy of a Fellini movie. Foucault said that: "The theory of the 'breaths' in Klossowski's Baphomet is related, for who knows how many aspects, to the entirety of Western philosophy". A good good read and should have a place in anyones library

2 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great...especially if you aren't afraid of your own shadow, March 4, 2005

By	baphomette de medici (blue state of pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

a classic. oui, chef d'oeuvre. every american christian should read this. will affect your faith if you are centrifugal-centric..........centripetal types, please avoid and pray for your mythic "rapture" to come ("o end of days........."!!!!)