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Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Camille Paglia (Author), Emily Durante (Narrator), Tantor Audio (Publisher)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 406 ratings
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In this brilliantly original book, Camille Paglia identifies some of the major patterns that have endured in western culture from ancient Egypt and Greece to the present. According to Paglia, one source of continuity is paganism, which, undefeated by Judeo-Christianity, continues to flourish in art, eroticism, astrology, and pop culture. Others, she says, are androgyny, sadism, and the aggressive western eye, which has created our art and cinema.

Paglia follows these and other themes, from Nefertiti and the Venus of Willendorf to Apollo and Dionysus, from Botticelli and Michaelangelo to Shakespeare and Blake and finally to Emily Dickinson, who, along with other major 19th-century authors, becomes a remarkable example of Romanticism turned into Decadence.

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  1. Listening Length
    35 hours and 15 minutes
  2. Author
    Camille Paglia
  3. Narrator
    Emily Durante
  4. Audible release date
    November 7, 2017
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Tantor Audio
  7. ASIN
    B07772KC8C
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 35 hours and 15 minutes
Author Camille Paglia
Narrator Emily Durante
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date November 07, 2017
Publisher Tantor Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B07772KC8C
Best Sellers Rank #45,603 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#58 in Sex Instruction
#214 in General Gender Studies
#258 in Gender Studies (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
406 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book interesting and compelling, with enlightening insights and powerful arguments. They describe the prose as well-written and entrancing. Readers praise the book's brilliant distillation of art history and philosophy. However, some feel the pacing is inconsistent and the author's thoughts are too self-contradictory.

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InsightWordinessArt historyPacing
27 customers mention "Insight"27 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting and compelling. They find the insights enlightening, powerful, and stimulating. The implications are vast and the author is considered a deep thinker.

"...It's still relevant, and either way it prompts thinking. Some paragraphs can be lengthy and dense and may require a couple reads...." Read more

"A great insight into that world." Read more

"...her writing style alone makes this worth reading, as it's nearly as fascinating as the ideas she's putting forth...." Read more

"Far-reaching and enlightening...." Read more

11 customers mention "Wordiness"8 positive3 negative

Customers find the book well-written and engaging. They describe it as a hard read, an important text for feminists, and entrancing even when they can't follow the prose. The writers are described as fascinating and original.

"Paglia is a hard read...." Read more

"...lot of bold assertions, and argues her point of view with bold, well-crafted prose...." Read more

"Very detail analysis of a vast and diverse art forms. Excellent reading. Different perspective...." Read more

"This book changed my life. Camille's prose is entrancing even when i cant follow or agree with everything she says." Read more

8 customers mention "Art history"8 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's art history. They find it a classic in feminist art studies and philosophy, with an insightful commentary on diverse art forms. The commentary is original and interesting, making it a good resource for writing about feminism and female art.

"This is now a classic in feminist art studies and philosophy. Readers in this field will know that Paglia's work can be polarizing...." Read more

"...Personae" is worth reading on the grounds of its brilliant distillation of art history—but Paglia's incisive commentary that undergirds it adds new..." Read more

"...by Jean Gebser, and Paglia's thesis, though often unsatisfying, is very original and insightful in her way, and I would say worth reading, though..." Read more

"Fot those who are searching a good resource to write about feminism and femal art it's a great book...." Read more

4 customers mention "Pacing"0 positive4 negative

Customers find the book's pacing inconsistent. They mention the author's thoughts are self-contradictory, with excessive generalizations and projections. The evidence presented is considered massive, but the author has a very restricted, essentialist view of the world.

"...She has a very restricted, essentialist view of the world that does not seem to allow for much nuance..." Read more

"...almost 700 page book, but found the author's thoughts to be too self-contradictory...." Read more

"Thought provoking and unafraid" Read more

"Interesting but contradictory and overly deterministic..." Read more

Dive in - you won’t be sorry .
4 out of 5 stars
Dive in - you won’t be sorry .
OMG ... this lady is the real deal : no filler here - she knows what she’s talking about ; tough to follow , but well worth the ride !
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Top reviews from the United States

  • arthistorian100
    5.0 out of 5 stars Continues to be relevant and thought-provoking
    Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    This is now a classic in feminist art studies and philosophy. Readers in this field will know that Paglia's work can be polarizing. Camille Paglia and Donna Haraway--though substantially different from each other--wrote major tomes at the same time which affected the trajectory of feminist studies for the next two decades causing a proverbial divergence in the field. Fascinating writers and speakers, they are erudite and original. Paglia's first major book pushed boundaries and fomented interdisciplinary discussions and debates. This book is not for a general audience, though I think it might be a good idea for general readers to challenge their assumptions by reading a chapter or two and then coming back to it to see if their point of view has changed. Parts of the book read as if they are slightly dated from a different time while other parts read as if they could have been written this week. It's still relevant, and either way it prompts thinking. Some paragraphs can be lengthy and dense and may require a couple reads. Recommend this book (at least several chapters of it) for graduate seminars and upper division undergraduate courses.
    22 people found this helpful
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  • Paul D Wilson
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great read on a current topic
    Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2024
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    A great insight into that world.
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  • Barb
    5.0 out of 5 stars Nice quality paperback
    Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2024
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    Good quality paperback, good service. Arrived sooner the expected.
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  • Scott Harn
    4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating, incisive odyssey through art and history
    Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2020
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    I somehow managed to make it through post-grad studies in English without being exposed to Paglia's writing, and wish I had read her much sooner. While I find myself at odds with some of her propositions in this book (and in whole agreement with others), her writing style alone makes this worth reading, as it's nearly as fascinating as the ideas she's putting forth. Her voice manages to be both highbrow and egalitarian simultaneously—dense, but still strangely accessible. Even if you find yourself disagreeing with her, it is difficult to stop reading.

    As the book progresses, Paglia evocatively guides her audience through a pointed tour of art and sexuality, tracking it from pre-modern history through the 20th century. Her thesis, when reduced to its base elements, is that art and human sexuality are inextricable, and she makes persuasive arguments for her positions.

    If for no other reason, "Sexual Personae" is worth reading on the grounds of its brilliant distillation of art history—but Paglia's incisive commentary that undergirds it adds new dimensions that are worth thinking about.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Kevin
    5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Text and Voice for Today's Feminism
    Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2017
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    Far-reaching and enlightening. Think about what feminism (especially on college campuses) has today become----in my English class, literally when analyzing Yeats' 'Leda and Swan' one looking-serious female student made a yet dumb, self-righteous point of negating/denying/bashing Zeus as part of a "rape culture" and further wondering if God asked Mary for consent to Annunciation and begetting Jesus...CUT IT OUT. If this is the product of today's feminism, I am willing to sign out from such misled 'club'. It begins to miss, dismiss, undermine, fracture, with its often easy-to-pick-up flawed arguments here and there, a consistent civilization/society having developed since ancient times.
    18 people found this helpful
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  • jimmy_b
    5.0 out of 5 stars Camille Paglia will make you think.
    Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2022
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    If you ave not read Camille Paglia, you should. She is a deep thinker. Rush Limbaugh liked her too. :)
    7 people found this helpful
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  • M. L. Casey
    5.0 out of 5 stars A True Classic
    Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2020
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    This is an erudite read which made quite a splash when it first came out. I felt that I had been out of the loop, so thought I would try and see what all the fuss is about. I am still plodding though it and taking brief rests along the way. You can skip around different chapters with no penalty of understanding. I believe the content was considered shocking for its time, but not for our present time.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Danelectro
    3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but contradictory and overly deterministic
    Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2024
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    I am not an academic in the field of literature and art although I do possess a doctorate in psychology. I bought the book as it's so famous, even Bowie listed it as a favorite. For a start, it's not an easy book.

    I also felt the author wrote in the kind of jargony way that is overutilized in academia, which rendered arguments in places impossible to understand. Her main thesis is the struggle between sky-cults, or Apollonian perspectives, associated with modern technology, the arts, progress, order, hierarchy, typically male it seems as, if I understood it correctly, these derived from an ability to silence to some extent the Dyonisian, earth-cult, called chthonian, associated with biology, nature, the passions, always trying to pull us down or apart. Superficially such a model resembles cognitive theory, a la Daniel Kahneman (System 1 and 2), but with Paglia the attempt is to forge a more psychoanalytic tension of deepest drives, which is argued has guided the evolution of painting, sculpture, poetry, cinema, music and fiction, and presumably all civilization.

    One of my biggest problems with the book is how lots of examples of decadence and Eros are alligned with the Apollonian when one would think they would be with the Dyonisian. Paglia's thesis therefore seems a matter of choosing for no compelling reason which force is the predominant in each example, which weakens the central argument.

    Paglia also jumps so frequently into rival examples that one must read a furious attempt to make a point, rather than to carefully argue it for the reader. Paglia is brilliant, but her mind could also use a little time to organize her thoughts and how to express them.

    Forgetting that psychoanalysis is today considered a pseudoscience, there is validity (I've experienced it myself in my psychology training) in hypothesizing psychoanytic factors when conceptualizing a person, as a means of trying to understand a personality, but today we recognize that conceptualizing dimensions or aspects of people is not to be confused with fully capturing them, as people are more complex. People (brains) also have meaning systems unique to them, which must be captured in attempts to understand them. The meaning-making universe described by Paglia is obviously not that of the actual artists involved, which simplifies her model, rendering it excessively deterministic and black and white, which gets boring the more you find it applied to every artist under consideration. But that doesn't mean she hasn't captured an important idea in every paragraph.

    You are going to feel more lost when she puts to analysis dozens of writers you ashamedly had not yet read, which was the case with me. But the reading also motivated me to improve in my exposure to, and engagement with, those artists, which is a good thing.

    People are also products of culture. They are existentially thrown into slave, feudal or capitalist societies in which they wrestle with the beliefs of their time, and not only their biological make-up. Many of the struggles artists or people faced may be viewed as somewhat culture-bound, even if they never realized it. Without understanding that context, one might assume the struggle to be part of life, part of biology, as Paglia does. And I say that without denying we experience conflicts made of sexual forces, identities, roles, even deep-seated urges to consume, rule, die, destroy.

    In my view the book belongs to such similar attempts to paint human history with a broad brush, some of the best being Total Man by Stan Gooch, The Origin of Consciousness by Julian Jaynes, The Ever-Present Origin by Jean Gebser, and Paglia's thesis, though often unsatisfying, is very original and insightful in her way, and I would say worth reading, though skeptically, as should be the case with any reading.

    I can imagine myself delving into the tomes she discussed, then peeking back into her work to see what she said about them, although having read many of the works she does discuss, I am not entirely convinced her views will always help me understand them.
    3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Alexandre Bartilotti Machado
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book!
    Reviewed in Brazil on January 3, 2021
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    Camille Paglia is the brilliant voice that we all must hear!
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  • A. Reynolds
    5.0 out of 5 stars Grows In Importance With Time's Passing
    Reviewed in Canada on October 3, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Welp, Paglia - as a second-wave feminist - has now been disavowed (and virtually canceled) by the third and fourth wavers (in much the same way as Christina Hoff-Somers, Erin Pizzey, and Gloria Steinem); this makes it all the more important to get hold of her works while one can - before they are consigned to the memory hole. This is a fairly heavy, and critical, examination but is easily accessible to the moderately intelligent.
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  • Tecumseh
    5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 28, 2021
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    One of those few books which change your way of seeing the world around you. A masterpiece of insight and research. I keep the reading of this book for the most silent, reclusive moments available, so I can absorb as much as possible from every page. Some books smack you with pieces of wisdom once, some, a few times. This book leaves you gobsmacked several times per page. It's mind blowing. Crème de la crème.
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  • Xavier
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente.
    Reviewed in Mexico on July 6, 2019
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    Excelentes conceptos de una interesante y polémica autora
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  • F
    5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome
    Reviewed in Italy on August 28, 2020
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    One of the best essays I've ever read, hugely informative and beautifully written.
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