Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #145011 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 189 pages

From Library Journal
This slim volume consists of numerous brief chapters on various aspects of the Greek concept of Eros, particularly as propounded in lyric poetry (especially that of Sappho) and in Plato's Phaedrus. If the essay has a theme, it is that many Greeks saw Eros as a sense of lack that fruitfully combined both pain and pleasure. This thesis is not new, but the author's style is, combining subtle interpretation with a sometimes startling poetic sensitivity. The result leaves one wondering about the intended audience. The general public may find its textual emphasis and frequently elusive tone an obstacle, while specialists may question the validity of various exegesesor of this theory of Eros, which is only one of many. But overall there is a fine beauty to the work, and it deserves a reading. Thomas M. Robinson, Classics Dept., Univ. of Toronto
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Anne Carson is a rare talentbrilliant and full of wit, passionate and also deeply moving." -- Michael Ondaatje

"Highly recommended." -- Choice 12-86

"There is a fine beauty to the work, and it deserves reading." -- Library Journal 11-15-86

Anne Carson is a rare talent, brilliant and full of wit, passionate and also deeply moving.
(Michael Ondaatje )

Highly recommended.
(Choice )

There is a fine beauty to the work, and it deserves reading.
(Library Journal )

Customer Reviews

A fascinating, exciting exploration of the nature of desire
Eros contains a series of short essays on the ancient Greek notion of desire. Using Sappho's poetry as a touchstone, Carson explores Sappho's term "glukupikron"(literally, "sweetbitter"). She touches upon a myriad of ancient texts; the second half of the book draws largely from Plato's Phaedrus. Most exciting for me was her explanation of the similarities between the edges of erotic desire and the edges of the alphabet. This culminates in a wonderful series of chapters in which she relates erotic desire with the desire for knowledge. It was exhilarating!! What's more, I found the book extremely accessible. A must read!

Carson is an inspired guide
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.

Amazing
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.