Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Story of the Eye
Book Review: Only the French Can Match Erotic Literature with Philosophy
Summary: 4 Stars
In "Story of the Eye", George Bataille combines the philosophy of the day (1928 France) - Surrealism - and weaves it into the tale of sexual depravity. This book has brings all of the forbidden sins to the table, including soft-boiled eggs! (You'll have to read it as I am not giving up the ghost on that one.)
I read this book fresh out of college while working a Generation X job in a bookstore; I found it on the shelf while shelving more mundane faire. It was stuck between two larger books and the gap caught my eye. Now, fifteen years later it is time for a new generation to discover this nifty AND disgusting psycho-sexual, philosophical novella.
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A Guide to my Book Rating System:
1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.
Book Review: Pointless to say the least
Summary: 1 Stars
My first major problem with this book is the plot; yea, there isn't one. Yes it contains a lot of lewd porn, but that might not have been so bad had there actually been a storyline to this novel. There was no character development (except for the minor character development concerning the character of Marcelle) and a lack of character analysis. My second problem with this book is the revolting scences. Pissing on others is not something most people find erotic and neither are many of the other scences. The author seems childish, immmature and very underdeveloped. Of course there is also the possiblity that I just dont understand what he is trying to prove or say.Book Review: Porn as art? Why not?
Summary: 4 Stars
If you take this book, open it to a random page and read a random paragraph, you'll get some sort of twisted sexual image every time (I actually did this with a group of friends for about half an hour, and it worked). Bataille is a good writer, and it's a kick to see a serious author write some disturbingly graphic pornographic prose. Taken alone, the porn in this book is really entertaining because it's so imaginative (I'd love to see a film version of this novel), and its shock value is high enough to get you to either throw the book away or seriously contemplate what's going on in Bataille's writing. I suggest the latter.
If aestheticism and nihilism had a baby, it would be Georges Bataille, at least when he writes novels like this. Does that sound infeasible? To quote from *The Deadman,* a more philosophical work by Bataille's:
"I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction."
Book Review: Provactively "Less Than"
Summary: 2 Stars
This is far more a short story than a novel, and while the start of the book explains there were many revisions and changes made by the author over the years that elicits no sympathy for the work.
The Story of the Eye is at best standard writing and at worst an attempt at shock value. While it is clear that the author is attempting to reveal the depths of perversity within a human being and in their sexual proclivities it rarely manages to bring any real illumination into the human sexual condition. A collection of small vignettes in the lives of the main characters it attempts to portray as normal their peculiar individual needs but ends up being trite. While there could be something moving in the way that the characters care for each other it all falls short.
Where Bataille exceeds is in his attempts to be vulgar. The almost instantaneous acceleration of the characters from the perverse to the violent is hardly believable though it well could have been. Make no mistake, this book is not without merits but it is no comparison to the works of the Marquise De Sade (as so many would like it to be) who delved more to the soul than Bataille who focused more on the pornographic.
Book Review: Roller coaster ride of emotions
Summary: 4 Stars
After reading a short biography on the musician Bjork where this book changed her life, I decided to purchase the book. I'm still not sure why it changed her life. Unless you've lived mostly sheltered or are easily shocked.No, this book didn't change my life. No, it didn't shock me. It is, I must say a roller coaster ride that, admittedly, took me through times of revolt later to be titillated.
The short novel is written in the first person of which we never really learn a name. Perhaps it's the author, perhaps only a fictional 15 year old. However, you'll find the author says this tale is "partly imaginary" which I feel only adds to its luster.
I was fascinated by the character of Simone who was almost otherworldly - a child in age and a child in her mind only with adult feelings and adult desires. Her inhibitions are suppressed by her extreme sexual desire. A novel in and of herself.
If nothing else, Batille exposes dark corners in the human mind that you didn't know existed. It also points out how enough is never enough. For Simone and our unknown storyteller finding new ways of achieving that sexual high is a never-ending quest leading to extremes. Ultimately their own death may be their last way at satisfaction.
Pornography? Perhaps. A better description would be "an inside look at an alternative lifestyle where some things are better left unsaid." Final note: You can read this book in the lesser part of one afternoon - cover to cover.