{"product_id":"story-of-the-eye","title":"Story of the Eye","description":"\u003cp\u003eA masterpiece of transgressive, surrealist erotica, George Bataille's \u003ci\u003eStory of the Eye \u003c\/i\u003ewas the \u003ci\u003eFifty Shades of Grey\u003c\/i\u003e of its era. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is translated by Joachim Neugroschal, and published with essays by Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBataille's first novel, published under the pseudonym 'Lord Auch', is still his most notorious work. In this explicit pornographic fantasy, the young male narrator and his lovers Simone and Marcelle embark on a sexual quest involving sadism, torture, orgies, madness and defilement, culminating in a final act of transgression. Shocking and sacrilegious, \u003ci\u003eStory of the Eye\u003c\/i\u003e is the fullest expression of Bataille's obsession with the closeness of sex, violence and death. Yet it is also hallucinogenic in its power, and is one of the erotic classics of the twentieth century.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis edition also includes Susan Sontag's superb study of pornography as art, 'The Pornographic Imagination', as well as Roland Barthes' essay 'The Metaphor of the Eye'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGeorges Bataille (1897-1962), French essayist and novelist, was born in Billom, France. He converted to Catholicism, then later to Marxism, and was interested in psychoanalysis and mysticism, forming a secret society dedicated to glorifying human sacrifice. Leading a simple life as the curator of a municipal library, Bataille was involved on the fringes of Surrealism, founding the Surrealist magazine \u003ci\u003eDocuments\u003c\/i\u003e in 1929, and editing the literary review \u003ci\u003eCritique \u003c\/i\u003efrom 1946 until his death. Among his other works are the novels \u003ci\u003eBlue of Noon\u003c\/i\u003e (1957) and \u003ci\u003eMy Mother\u003c\/i\u003e (1966), and the essays \u003ci\u003eEroticism\u003c\/i\u003e (1957) and \u003ci\u003eLiterature and Evil \u003c\/i\u003e(1957).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you enjoyed \u003ci\u003eStory of the Eye\u003c\/i\u003e, you might like Anaïs Nin's \u003ci\u003eDelta of Venus\u003c\/i\u003e, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'His black masterpiece ... [a] brilliant, exquisitely fetishistic tale of sexual agitaion'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54220823888216,"sku":"9780141185385","price":16.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780141185385_92f03bb1-7811-47d6-8f1d-8ec0b6651bda.jpg?v=1767420933","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/story-of-the-eye","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}