Pierre Klossowski

'The greatest book of philosophy I have ever read, on a par with Nietzsche himself.' Michel Foucault Pierre Klossowski (1905-) is the author of numerous philosophical works, as well as several novels. He published many translations of German poets and philosophers, including Nietzsche himself. Recognised as a masterpiece of Nietzsche scholarship, Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle emphasises and explores the notion of Eternal Return - central to an understanding of Nietzsche's self-denial, self-refutation and self-consumption. Translated by Daniel W. Smith>

EPZ Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle

Pierre Klossowski's debut novel, The Suspended Vocation, fictionalizes and satirizes the great erotic artist, philosopher, and iconoclast's brief, wartime flirtation with the priesthood, portraying the Church as a haven for conspiracy, idolatry, perversion, and even atheism. Written in the form of a disapproving monograph on an anonymous, confessional novel (itself titled The Suspended Vocation), it is the story of the hapless Jérôme, whose lust for holiness leads him astray in a cloistered world full of ideological and physical temptations. Sometimes a knowing critique of "religious fiction," sometimes a wicked self-parody of Klossowski's own lifelong obsessions, and sometimes a sacerdotal spy novel, The Suspended Vocation is one of the strangest and most audacious debuts in twentieth-century literature, and is here made available in English for the very first time.

The Suspended Vocation

Enlightenment ideals of a society rooted in liberationist reason and morality were trampled in the wake of the savagery of the Second World War. That era's union of cold technology and ancient hatreds gave rise to a dark, alternative reason--an ethic that was value-free and indifferent with regard to virtue and vice, freedom, and slavery. In a world where "the unthinkable" had become reality, it is small wonder that theorists would turn to the writings of a man whose eighteenth-century imagination preceded twentieth-century history in its unbridled exploration of viciousness, perversion, and monstrosity: the Marquis de Sade. Klossowski was one of the first philosophers in postwar Europe to ask whether Sade's reason, although aberrant and perverted to evil passions, could be taken seriously. Klossowski's seminal work inspired virtually all subsequent study of Sadean thought, including that of de Beauvoir, Deleuze, Derrida, Bataille, Blanchot, Paulhan, and Lacan.

Sade My Neighbor

In this erotic, metaphysical, and theological novel, the spirits of medieval Templar monks gather on the anniversary of their Grand Master's torment and execution. Together they commit the sexual perfidies and blasphemous acts of which they had been forced to accuse one another before a tribunal.

The Baphomet

'I should have written you after my first reading of The Living Currency; it was already breath-taking and I should have responded. After reading it a few more times, I know it is the best book of our times.' Letter to Pierre Klossowski from Michel Foucault, winter 1970. Living Currency is the first English translation of Klossowski's La monnaie vivante. It offers an analysis of economic production as a mechanism of psychic production of desires and is a key work from this often overlooked but wonderfully creative French thinker.

Living Currency

Like the works of Georges Bataille, and those of the Marquis de Sade before him, Klossowski's erotic fiction explores the connections between the mind and body. This pair of short novels merges the sexual misadventures of Octave, his striking young wife Roberte, and their nephew Antoine, with Klossowski's philosophical and theological concerns. Roberte Ce Soir is a dramatic enactment of Octave's ritual of hospitality in which Roberte offers herself to any guest who desires her, and The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes relates Roberte's predicament when she is forced to censor this same play. The resulting text represents one of the most provocative intellectual and sexual discourses of our time.

And, The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

Roberte Ce Soir

Recognized as a masterpiece of Nietzsche scholarship, NIETZSCHE AND THE VICIOUS CIRCLE is available here for the first time in English. Author Pierre Klossowski suggests that Nietzsche's ideas and beliefs did not stem from his personal pathology, but rather were applied in a pathological manner. Thereby Nietzsche's beliefs resonated dynamically and intellectually with his alternating lucidity and delirium.

Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle

These two essays explore sexual tropes, rituals, and mores of Roman antiquity from a thoroughly modern perspective. While attentive to the historical interpretations of the mythical meeting of Diana and Actaeon, and the sexual rituals of ancient Rome, Klossowski's studies bring to the reader the affinity the author has for his subject matter.

Diana at Her Bath ; The Women of Rome

Pedro Tamen

Origens cultuais e míticas de um certo comportamento das damas romanas: ensaio

Pierre Klossowski ISBN 3-7757-1792-7 / 978-3-7757-1792-2 Hardcover, 9 x 11 in. / 208 pgs / 75 color. / U.S. $55.00 CDN $66.00 November / Art

Provocative essays on language, literature, and the aesthetics of embodiment.

Such a Deathly Desire

And The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

Les derniers travaux de Gulliver suivi de Sade et Fourier

Together, these two novels comprise one of the most fascinating, obsessive, and erotic works of contemporary fiction. Both feature Octave, an elderly cleric, his striking, austere, yet sensual young wife, Roberte and their nephew, Antoine. In Roberte Ce Soir, the heroine engages in a ritual of hospitality, designed by Octave, whereby she offers herself to any guest who shows desire for her. This device becomes a circular game of realizing one's own identity through the reaction to a third person since, Klossowski asserts, the body is the envelope of the soul and its every expression is a permissible condition of spiritual progress. In The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes the scholastic aspect of Roberte Ce Soir gives way to a more complex story composed of situations that throw a strange light on human behaviour. Roberte is now a socially and politically well-situated member of the official council for censorship. Dissatisfied by marital legitimacy, she discovers the world of sexual perversion and imposes on herself the duty of exploring it — the ultimate goal of her scandalous yet farcical task is the achievement of complete freedom.

Roberte Ce Soir and The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

"Valentine de Saint-Vit, dame de Palençay, dont les terres avoisinaient celles de la Commanderie du Temple, jetait depuis longtemps un œil de convoitise sur ce domaine prospère.Son grand-oncle paternel Jean, accomplissant un vœu au retour de la dernière croisade, avait fait don des deux tiers de ses terres à l’Ordre du Temple, ce d’autant plus aisément qu’il n’avait point de descendant direct. Comme les clauses de sa donation chargeaient les Frères chevaliers d’assurer la défense du manoir de Saint-Vit, légué à ses nièces, et pour lors dit de Palençay, depuis plus d’un siècle que les Templiers occupaient le fief dominant, cultivé, agrandi, fortifié de leurs mains, toutes les terres attenantes au manoir voisin étaient passées sous la juridiction du Commandeur. Or, le sire de Palençay — pas plus que son beau-père — ne s’étant point soucié de contester ce droit au nom du sien pour n’avoir jamais résidé dans ce domaine dotal —, quand, après la mort de son époux, elle-même y revint, Madame de Palençay s’impatienta comme d’une servitude de cette protection, à ses yeux abusive, que le Temple étendait sur ses terres."

Le Baphomet

Long recognized as a masterpiece of Nietzsche scholarship, Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle is made available here for the first time in English. Taking a structuralist approach to the relation between Nietzsche's thought and his life, Klossowski emphasizes the centrality of the notion of Eternal Return (a cyclical notion of time and history) for understanding Nietzsche's propensities for self-denial, self-reputation, and self-consumption. Nietzsche's ideas did not stem from personal pathology, according to Klossowski. Rather, he made a pathological use of his best ideas, anchoring them in his own fluctuating bodily and mental conditions. Thus Nietzsche's belief that questions of truth and morality are at base questions of power and fitness resonates dynamically and intellectually with his alternating lucidity and delirium.

Pierre Klossowski

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