{"title":"Roberto Calasso Books","description":"\u003cp\u003eBrowse the books by Roberto Calasso we have in stock, second-hand, in paperback and hardback. Mostly non-fiction and literary criticism. Every book ships from our own UK warehouse. Free UK delivery on orders of £10 or more.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-book-of-all-books","title":"The Book of All Books","description":"\u003cp\u003eA man named Saul is sent to search for some lost donkeys and on the way is named king of his people. The queen of a remote African realm travels for three years with her entourage to meet the king of Jerusalem and pose him a few riddles. A man named Abraham hears a divine voice speaking words that reverberate throughout the Bible- 'Go away from your land, from your kindred and from the house of your father toward the land that I will show you'.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eThe Book of All Books\u003c\/i\u003e, Roberto Calasso weaves together stories of promise and separation from one of the founding texts of Western civilization. These tales of grace and guilt, of the chosen and the damned, cast many Biblical figures and indeed the whole book in a light as astonishing as it is disquieting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/roberto-calasso-books\"\u003eRoberto Calasso\u003c\/a\u003e (all their books in stock)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Hardback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 464\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Penguin Books, Limited\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780241446720\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books, Limited","offers":[{"title":"Standard Secondhand — £13.52","offer_id":47900540928177,"sku":"SB-0241446724-C3","price":13.52,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/0241446724.jpg?v=1789671394"},{"product_id":"the-ruin-of-kasch-ouke","title":"The Ruin of Kasch (Ouke)","description":"\u003cp\u003eTaking as his focus the periods immediately before and after the French Revolution but making occasional sallies backward and forward in time - from Vedic India to the porticoes of the Palais-Royal and to the killing fields of Pol Pot - Calasso recounts, elucidates, and interprets the downfall of what Baudelaire was already calling \"the Modern.\" This downfall came as a sequel to an earlier and opposite collapse: that of the archaic societies which were regulated by the movements of the stars and the rituals of sacrifice. At the center of the work stands the story of the ruin of Kasch, a legendary African kingdom whose annihilation becomes emblematic of the ruin of the ancient and modern worlds. The genius of Calasso's book is that, in its illuminating blend of literature and ideas, it establishes a genre all its own. Its form is a rich blend of anecdotes, quotations, analysis, digressions, aphorisms, dialogues, historical discussion, and straightforward storytelling that beautifully mirrors its subject matter and evokes the protean spirit of Modernism. It is a sumptuous literary feast. Calasso brings to his stage a vast gallery of characters, including Laclos and Marx, Benjamin and Chateaubriand, Sainte-Beuve and Levi-Strauss, Max Stirner and Joseph de Maistre. And presiding over them all is the French statesman Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, who knew the secrets of both the Old and New regimes and who was able to adjust the perplexing and cruel notion of \"legitimacy\" to the modern age. Cynical Talleyrand - who showed that success in the new era depends on agility, fluidity, and a consummate sense of style - serves, fittingly, as the master of ceremonies throughout the book, which is at once a meditation on the origins and nature of power and a breathtaking synthesis of Western cultural history. It is an extraordinary reading experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/roberto-calasso-books\"\u003eRoberto Calasso\u003c\/a\u003e (all their books in stock)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Hardback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1994\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 385\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Harvard University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780674780262\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Harvard University Press","offers":[{"title":"Poor Condition — £12.68","offer_id":47900814344369,"sku":"SB-0674780264-C4","price":12.68,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/0674780264.jpg?v=1789672150"},{"product_id":"k","title":"K","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat are Kafka's stories about? Are they dreams? Allegories? Symbols? Things that happen every day? But where and when? Countless answers have been offered, but the question still arouses feelings of acute uncertainty. Many solutions have been proposed, but the essential mystery remains intact. In this remarkable book, Roberto Calasso sets out not to dispel the mystery but to let it be illuminated by its own light. To that end, with his unique vision, imagination, and intellectual acumen, Calasso attempts to enter the flow, the tortuous movement, the physiology of the stories to discover what they are meant to signify and to delve into the most basic question along the way- Who is K.'The culmination of the author's lifelong fascination with Kafka, K. is a book of significant literary importance, the fourth part in a work in progress of which the previous volumes are THE RUIN OF KASCH, THE MARRIAGE OF CADMUS AND HARMONY, and KA.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/roberto-calasso-books\"\u003eRoberto Calasso\u003c\/a\u003e (all their books in stock)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2006\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 327\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Vintage\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780099464488\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Poor Condition — £754.80","offer_id":47909027709105,"sku":"SB-0099464489-C4","price":754.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/0099464489.jpg?v=1789815987"},{"product_id":"the-forty-nine-steps","title":"The Forty-Nine Steps","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn books lauded as brilliant, exhilarating and profound, Roberto Calasso has revealed the unexpected intersections of ancient and modern through topics ranging from Greek and Indian mythology to what a legendary African kingdom can tell us about the French Revolution. In this first translation of his most important essays, Calasso brings his powerful intellect and elegant prose style to bear on the essential thinkers of our time, providing a sweeping analysis of the current state of Western culture.Forty-nine steps refers to the Talmudic doctrine that there are forty-nine steps to meaning in every passage of the Torah. Employing this interpretative approach, Calasso offers a 'secret history' of European literature and philosophy in the wake of Nietzsche, Marx and Freud, Calasso analyses how figures ranging from Gustav Flaubert, Gottfried Benn, Karl Kraus and Martin Heidegger to Walter Benjamin, Franz Kafka, Bertolt Brecht and Theodor Adorno have contributed to, or been emblematic of, the current state of Western thought. This book's theme, writ large, is the power of the fable -specifically, its persistence in art and literature despite its exclusion from orthodox philosophy,In its breadth and the nature of its concerns, The Forty-nine Steps is a philosophical and literary twin to the widely praised Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. Combining erudition with engaging prose and original insights, Calasso contributes a daring new interpretation of some of the most challenging writers of the past 150 years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/roberto-calasso-books\"\u003eRoberto Calasso\u003c\/a\u003e (all their books in stock)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2002\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 290\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Pimlico\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780712697408\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Pimlico","offers":[{"title":"Poor Condition — £48.42","offer_id":47913014591665,"sku":"SB-0712697403-C4","price":48.42,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/0712697403.jpg?v=1789282359"}],"url":"https:\/\/sellbooks.co.uk\/collections\/roberto-calasso-books.oembed","provider":"Sell Books .co.uk","version":"1.0","type":"link"}