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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 880.93543
EAN: 9781564781888
ISBN: 1564781887
Label: Dalkey Archive Press
Manufacturer: Dalkey Archive Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 189
Publication Date: 1998-03
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Studio: Dalkey Archive Press

A book about love as seen by the ancients, Eros is Anne Carson's exploration of the concept of "eros" in both classical philosophy and literature. Beginning with: "It was Sappho who first called eros 'bittersweet.' No one who has been in love disputes her. What does the word mean?", Carson examines her subject from numerous points of view and styles, transcending the constraints of the scholarly exercise for an evocative and lyrical meditation in the tradition of William Carlos William's Spring and All and William H. Gass's On Being Blue.

Epigrammatic, witty, ironic, and endlessly interesting, Eros is an utterly original book by an author whose acclaim has been steadily growing since the book was first published in 1986 by Johns Hopkins.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Life Changing Read
Review: Anna Carson is brilliant, the arguments set forth in her book are incredibly valid and reinforced with brilliant examples from ancient Greek poets one of which is Sappho. Very enlightening read, will change the way you view love, desire and want, it will change the way you view Eros forever. If you havent read it yet i suggest you do NOW.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Amazing
Review: This book applied to life. No only did the book put into words what can only be thought but it speaks to you. It starts out over most heads but then comes down to relate to all those in love.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Anne Carson's Best Book
Review: This is a delightful book that analyzes love [desire] through classical literature. It is an academic treatise, poetical prose, and philosophy all at the same time. Carson's close reading and her wit make Eros the Bittersweet a must read.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Carson is an inspired guide
Review: Carson is an inspired guide through the tangled and fragmentary corpus of Greek lyric love poetry. She has a whirlwind mind and a gift for pithy expression, though once in a while she slips into a kind of gauzy equivocating that weakens her arguments. Still, this idiosyncratic take on ancient eros has moments of great insight and deserves the attention of classical scholars and non-specialists who are interested in the topic.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: From the Classics
Review: The Greeks did not cover everything but they made a pretty good start. Anne Carson has always been the queen of fitting classical allusions to the evident. The book could be described as an extended exploration of `Odi et amo: quare id faciam, fortase requiris/ nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.'- Catullus. (I hate and I love/ Why do I, you ask ?/ I don't know, but it's happening/ and it hurts.)A splendid place to mine for obscure quotes: `We aren't shutting you out of the revel, but we aren't inviting you either/ For you're a pain when you're present, and beloved when you are away'- Theognis

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