Austryn Wainhouse Books

Together these two novels comprise the most fascinating, obsessive, and erotic works of contemporary French fiction. Like the works of Georges Bataille, and those of the Marquis de Sade before him, Klossowski's fiction explores the connections between the mind and the body through a lens of sexuality. Both of these novels feature Octave, an elderly cleric; his striking young wife Roberte; and their nephew, Antoine in a series of sexual situations. But Klossowski's books are about theology as well, and this merging of the sexual with the religious makes this book one of the most painstakingly baroque and intellectual novels of our time.

The 120 Days of Sodom is the Marquis de Sade's masterpiece. A still unsurpassed catalogue of sexual perversions and the first systematic exploration of the psychopathology of sex, it was written during Sade's lengthy imprisonment for sexual deviancy and blasphemy and then lost after the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution in 1789. Later rediscovered, the manuscript remained unpublished until 1936 and is now introduced by Simone de Beauvoir's landmark essay, 'Must We Burn Sade?' Unique in its enduring capacity to shock and provoke, The 120 Days of Sodom must stand as one of the most controversial books ever written, and a fine example of the Libertine novel, a genre inspired by eroticism and anti-establishmentarianism, that effectively ended with the French Revolution.

This radical work by Nobel laureate Monod represents a significant intellectual milestone. It serves as a philosophical statement aimed at dismantling the animist view of humanity that has influenced Western thought from primitive cultures to dialectical materialism. Monod's argument is grounded in modern biology, which demonstrates that humans are the result of chance genetic mutations. Employing the rigorous logic of a scientist, he utilizes contemporary understanding of genetic structure to propose a new perspective on human existence. He asserts that objective scientific knowledge, regarded as the only reliable form of understanding, refutes the notions of destiny or evolutionary purpose found in traditional philosophies. Monod believes that the persistence of these ideas contributes to the growing schizophrenia of a world that embraces scientific advancements while ignoring their moral consequences. He critiques figures such as Plato, Hegel, Bergson, Teilhard de Chardin, Spencer, and Marx as "animist" thinkers and advocates for a new ethic that differentiates between objective knowledge and values. This ethic of knowledge, he argues, may help alleviate our profound spiritual malaise and avert the impending darkness he foresees.