front cover of Ecstasies
Ecstasies
Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath
Carlo Ginzburg
University of Chicago Press, 2004
Weaving early accounts of witchcraft—trial records, ecclesiastical tracts, folklore, and popular iconography—into new and startling patterns, Carlo Ginzburg presents in Ecstasies compelling evidence of a hidden shamanistic culture that flourished across Europe and in England for thousands of years.
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front cover of God
God
The Autobiography
Franco Ferrucci
University of Chicago Press, 1996
At the center of Franco Ferrucci's God: An Autobiography is one tender, troubled character: God. In the beginning is God's solitude, and because God is lonely he creates the world. He falls in love with Earth, plunges into the oceans, lives as plant and reptile and bird. His every thought and mood serve to populate the planet, with consequences that run away from him—sometimes delightfully, sometimes unfortunately. Witty, thought-provoking, and beautifully translated, this playful and irresistible Short will leave you wondering where philosophy ends and fiction begins, while it recounts thousands of years of religious thought—and reminds you that above all else, God knows how to tell a good story.

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front cover of The Life of God (as Told by Himself)
The Life of God (as Told by Himself)
Franco Ferrucci
University of Chicago Press, 1996
At the center of Franco Ferrucci's inspired novel is a tender, troubled God. In the beginning is God's solitude, and because God is lonely he creates the world. He falls in love with earth, plunges into the oceans, lives as plant and reptile and bird. His every thought and mood serve to populate the planet, with consequences that run away from him—sometimes delightfully, sometimes unfortunately.

When a new arrival emerges from the apes, God believes he has finally found the companion he needs to help him make sense of his unruly creation. Yet, as the centuries pass, God feels more and more out of place in the world he has created; by the close of his memoir, he is packing his bags.

Highly praised and widely reviewed, The Life of God is a playful, wondrous, and irresistible book, recounting thousands of years of religious and philosophical thought.

"A supreme but imperfect entity, the protagonist of this religiously enlightened and orthodoxically heretical novel is possessed by a raving love for his skewed, unbalanced world. . . . Blessed are the readers, for this tale of God's long insomnia will keep them happily awake. . . . Extraordinary." —Umberto Eco

"The Life of God is, in truth, the synthesis of a charming writer's . . . expression of his boundless hopes for, and poignant disappointments in, his own human kind." —Jack Miles, New York Times Book Review

"Rather endearing. . . . This exceedingly amusing novel . . . is a continuous provocation and delight; there isn't a dull page in it." —Kirkus Reviews

"A smart and charming knitting of secular and ecclesiastic views of the world. . . . The character of God is likable—sweet, utterly human. . . . The prose is delightful . . . the writing is consistently witty and intelligent and periodically hilarious." —Allison Stark Draper, Boston Review

"'God's only excuse is that he does not exist,' wrote Stendhal, but now Franco Ferrucci has provided the Supreme Being with another sort of alibi." —James Morrow, Washington Post Book World
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front cover of Nocturne and Five Tales of Love and Death
Nocturne and Five Tales of Love and Death
Gabrielle D'Aunnunzio
Northwestern University Press, 1988
Nocturne and Five Tales of Love and Death is a book of prose by Gabrielle D’Annunzio translated from Italian to English by Raymond Rosenthal.
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