On the Heights of Despair
by E. M. Cioran
translated by Ilinca Zarifopol-Johnston
University of Chicago Press, 1992
Cloth: 978-0-226-10670-0 | Paper: 978-0-226-10671-7 | eISBN: 978-0-226-24508-9 (all)
Library of Congress Classification B99.R652C5613 1990
Dewey Decimal Classification 194
ABOUT THIS BOOK
A classic work of philosophical reflection on despair, decay, and the futility of existence that Publishers Weekly said “puts Cioran in the company of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard”
Born of a terrible insomnia—"a dizzying lucidity which would turn even paradise into hell"—this book presents the potent, self-lacerating insights of the youthful E. M. Cioran, a self-described "Nietzsche still complete with his Zarathustra, his poses, his mystical clown's tricks, a whole circus of the heights."
On the Heights of Despair shows Cioran's first grappling with themes he would return to in his later, mature works: despair and decay, absurdity and alienation, futility and the irrationality of existence. It also presents Cioran as a connoisseur of apocalypse, a theoretician of despair, for whom writing and philosophy both share the "lyrical virtues" that alone lead to a metaphysical revelation.
On the Heights of Despair shows Cioran's first grappling with themes he would return to in his later, mature works: despair and decay, absurdity and alienation, futility and the irrationality of existence. It also presents Cioran as a connoisseur of apocalypse, a theoretician of despair, for whom writing and philosophy both share the "lyrical virtues" that alone lead to a metaphysical revelation.
A book to keep at your bedside, as epigrammatic as it is insightful, On the Heights of Despair offers not consolation, but engaging, thought-provoking companionship.
See other books on: Cioran, E. M. | Despair | Heights | Individual Philosophers | Zarifopol-Johnston, Ilinca
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