Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #591724 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

The Book that Reade Cioran's Reputation
Cioran became a famous young writer in Romania, but left Romania for France in 1937 and made Paris his home. This was the first book he published in French, under the title PRECIS DE DECOMPOSITION. It won the Prix de Rivarol for the best French book by a non-French author, and for decades it was the book that overshadowed everything else he published. If a reader wants to know Cioran, this book cannot be ignored. It introduces almost all of the themes he would make his own--suicide, insomnia, solitude, the importance of sickness, repugnance for professional philosophy--and is the longest book he ever published in French. Richard Howard, the notable translator of many great French authors, has devoted his talents to translating all of Cioran's French books, and has done his typically splendid job. The translation is complete, utterly reliable, and catches all the sneer and boil of Cioran's own style.

This is not a history. It is a series of very short essays, a few paragraphs each, on associated topics, most of which deal with his deep skepticism about God and man. Cioran spent years writing and rewriting the book and in later years complained that it was overwritten. I think the elder Cioran was correct in his assessment of the younger Cioran. Even so, it is a book worth careful reading because the young Cioran pushed himself so hard, both in his thinking and in his attention to style.

I love this kind of sadness
if you want to have a new vision of history and of mankind, this is the best book in order to open your eyes