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The Ruin of Kasch

By Roberto Calasso

The Ruin of Kasch Social Sciences

The Ruin of Kasch

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Description
A sparkling new translation of the classic work on violence and revolution as seen through mythology and art The Ruin of Kasch takes up two subjects: "the first is Talleyrand, and the second is everything else," wrote Italo Calvino when the book first appeared in 1983. Hailed as one of those rare books that persuade us to see our entire civilization in a new light, its guide is the French statesman Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, who knew the secrets of the ancien régime and all that came after, and was able to adapt the notion of "legitimacy" to the modern age. Roberto Calasso follows him through a vast gallery of scenes set immediately before and after the French Revolution, making occasional forays backward and forward in time, from Vedic India to the porticoes of the Palais-Royal and to the killing fields of Pol Pot, with appearances by Goethe and Marie Antoinette, Napoleon and Marx, Walter Benjamin and Chateaubriand. At the centre stands the story of the ruin of Kasch, a legendary kingdom based on the ritual killing of the king and emblematic of the ruin of ancient and modern regimes. 'Startling, puzzling, profound . . . a work charged with intelligence and literary seduction' The New York Times 'Unique, idiosyncratic and vaultingly ambitious... essential reading' Independent 'A great fat jewel-box of a book, gleaming with obscure treasures' John Banville
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Edition:
1
Number of Pages:
432
Release Date:
2018-01-25
Publication Date:
2018-01-25
Publisher:
Penguin Books Ltd
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
0141397012
ISBN13:
9780141397016
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
[email protected]
Weight:
316 g
Height:
128 cm
Width:
198 cm
Thickness:
30 cm
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