Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Story of the Eye

by Georges Bataille, Joachim Neugroschel (Translator), Dovid Bergelson (Translation)

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 5,411 ratings · 486 reviews

Only Georges Bataille could write, of an eyeball removed from a corpse, that "the caress of the eye over the skin is so utterly, so extraordinarily gentle, and the sensation is so bizarre that it has something of a rooster's horrible crowing." Bataille has been called a "metaphysician of evil," specializing in blasphemy, profanation, and horror.

Story of the Eye, written in...more

Paperback, 103 pages

Published January 1st 2001 by City Lights Publishers (first published 1928)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Most Disturbing Book Ever Written

91st out of 936 books — 3,328 voters

Eye of the Beholder

21st out of 347 books — 216 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Nov 21, 2012 mark monday rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fucked-up, unstable-narratives, rain-man-reviews, navel-gazin-reviews

ADULTS ONLY! KIDS YOU STAY AWAY!

take the sex act and strip away the burden of reality and what do you have?

take two characters and make them fuck. you are the author and they are your puppets. they will do anything you want. does fucking equal life? can fucking be a form of transgression? so be it, make it so. add another character. a menage! subtract that character, the poor thing. have your characters fuck right next to her cold hanging corpse. they are fucking death! add another character,...more

63 likes · like · see review

Jun 22, 2009 Kasia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sex-and-erotica, je-ne-comprend-pas, 1001-done-with, neurotic-literary-snoot, bdsm, lovely-covers, modern-lit

Sick, disgusting and kinky but never boring. It certainly makes an impression. But if it were to be any longer I would start chucking off the stars. Lucky for Mr. Bataille that he kept the story short and writing up to standards. I'm sure if you try hard you could find some social commentary in there and a few metaphors, but it takes an effort to look beyond all the fetish and gore. Besides lewdness itself makes a point here.

18 likes · like · see review

Apr 30, 2008 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is obscene and fantastic. It's a very short read, and if you can divorce the pornographic content from the subject matter- you'll end up in a world of symbolism and psychological return from the likes of William Golding. If you're the kind of person who likes to take a book apart and analyze the text- this one's for you. But if you read for narrative pleasure you should run in the other direction.

The short of it is an unnamed narrator outlines his sexual exploits with his peers in th...more This book is obscene and fantastic. It's a very short read, and if you can divorce the pornographic content from the subject matter- you'll end up in a world of symbolism and psychological return from the likes of William Golding. If you're the kind of person who likes to take a book apart and analyze the text- this one's for you. But if you read for narrative pleasure you should run in the other direction.

The short of it is an unnamed narrator outlines his sexual exploits with his peers in their youth. He forms a bizarre relationship with a young exhibitionist (Simone) and a naive wreck of a girl (Marcelle). Their 'love' for each other is spoiled when Marcelle is taken away to a mental hospital, thus ending their exeedingly twisted sex fests. Gross things happen in the interim- with eggs, piss and more eggs. Marcelle is eventually sprung from her prison but without apropo medical care she hangs herself. The lovers are distraught- so naturally they get it on in full view of the corpse.

The plot moves along as the couple runs away and right into the arms of an older, more perverted version of themselves- Sir Edmund. He takes them to the bullfights and really, really gross things start to happen. They debauch a priest, murder him and pop out his eyeball. Really, really gross things happen with the eyeball. The story concludes more or less with their final escape.

You may be thinking- ew, gross, why would i read that? well if you're a bjork fan you may want to find out what inspired her music- story of the eye and its subtler themes appear again and again in her work. Besides that, Bataille's revelation at the end of the story (taken from other writings) speaks to the very haunting and disturbing stories of his youth. His obsession with fluids, debauchery and carnal perversion all originate with his family (freeeeaks).

the text is redeeming, but not in a transcendental way. the moral is that there is no moral- and as you'll read elsewhere- acts as a precursor to existentialism (minus the responsibility). My literary friend Kelsey recommends Emmannuelle by Emmannuelle Arsan as a starting point if not a follow-up to this type of reading. Here's to the dionysian! I'd recommend Caligula as well and then we can have a lecture on sexual disfunctions and decadence!(less)

16 likes · like · see review

Apr 19, 2012 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, sex, porno, philosophical, obscene

This may be a short read: a novella composed of only 103 pages of letters printed using big font. Definitely a short read. However, it is full-packed with explicit and sickening sex scenes so this is not for readers who are squeamish when it comes to sex. Also, this is not a book to titillate readers. The sex scenes are so disgusting I did not feel anything that made we want to have sex.

Rather, the internal stirring I had while reading this came due to George Bataille's (1897-1962) deep philoso...more This may be a short read: a novella composed of only 103 pages of letters printed using big font. Definitely a short read. However, it is full-packed with explicit and sickening sex scenes so this is not for readers who are squeamish when it comes to sex. Also, this is not a book to titillate readers. The sex scenes are so disgusting I did not feel anything that made we want to have sex.

Rather, the internal stirring I had while reading this came due to George Bataille's (1897-1962) deep philosophical musings and the effective use of symbols. I grew up in a family where sex was not discussed in the open. Ours was a devout Catholic in a way so we did not feel that our parents encouraged us to ask questions about sex. We learned sex in school, media or with our peers. In school, we were taught that masturbation can make us blind, it was immodest not to wear shorts inside the church, lip kissing in public was inappropriate and sex was only to be done in private and within the sanctity of marriage. I remember that I was scared whenever I had to please myself as a teenage boy with raging hormones because of this passage in the Bible (Matthew 5:30) saying that "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away." I remember that I felt guilty after each time I did it and I always looked at my hands and could not imagine parting with them only to stop what I could not stop doing.

This book has lots of disgusting sex scenes and they are desensitizing and in a way, liberating. First, Bataille showed sex as nothing different from our other usual daily activities. Then the narrator and his lover Simone do the act in the presence of Simone's mother. Then they do it with eggs and get stimulated with body fluids, then they do it with their friends, then they do it in the presence of their friend's corpse, then they do it at a bullfight stadium, then they do it with a Catholic priest, they just do it without care. They just pleasure themselves in total abandon and without any inhibitions.

For me, this is mind-boggling but it sends a clear message contrary to what I grew up with, that sex should be done in private because it is shameful almost like saying that sex is dirty. Here, sex is a primal need and this book seems like a broom that sweeps away the strewn around inhibitions that accumulated on the floor of my conservative childhood. It does not show that sex is beautiful and a religious act. Rather, it shows that sex is pleasurable as it unabashedly denounces hypocrisy. That scene with the priest is the zenith of this denouncement. It shocked me as I still saw it sacrilegious. However, it was like the final straw that had to break the remaining bondage of wrong images that permeated my mind when it comes to the nature of sex. Bataille seemed to have it as the ultimatum to strongly send his message across and he, who denounced Catholicism at the age of 20, used the Catholic religion as a sacrificial lamb.

At the end of the book, George Bataille's (1897-1962) explained the symbolism he used: his paralyzed blind father who could not stand to go to the toilet so he had to do it while in an armchair. Whenever he urinated, his pupils very frequently pointed up into space, shifting under the lids. This became the inspiration for the use of the "eye" in the story and the presence of urine, along with other body fluids, in many of the scenes in the story. Since his father was invalid, the mother was suspected to having an affair with Bataille's doctor and thus became the inspiration for Marcelle's character.

Again, this is not book to everyone. I thought I would give this a 5-star rating due to Bataille's strong and compelling message and adept handling of the sensitive theme. However, I would not want my conservative friends to get an impression that I am peddling a pornographic book. This can be pornography to others and I would not blame them if they think so. It's just that I saw this before in Marquis de Sade's 100 Years of Sodom when I gave it a 1 star (I didn't like it!) only to realize later that I made a bad judgement of that classic book by totally missing its message.

I know better now.(less)

23 likes · like · see review

Oct 01, 2007 Baiocco rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone Who Thinks A Girl Sitting In A Saucer of Milk Is A Deeply Erotic Image

Shelves: fiction

Every once in a while I have to read something dirty, lusty and depraved--I don't know what it is about me, but it's necessary. And I don't really mind. And I don't feel dirty afterwards, but rather refreshed actually. So there.

George Bataille, besides beind the lliterary executor to Walter Benjamin's controversial (he was a Jew facing persecution from Nazis during World War II) manuscript for his lifelong masterpiece The Arcades Project, was a total degenerate, sensualist scumbag and The Story ...more Every once in a while I have to read something dirty, lusty and depraved--I don't know what it is about me, but it's necessary. And I don't really mind. And I don't feel dirty afterwards, but rather refreshed actually. So there.

George Bataille, besides beind the lliterary executor to Walter Benjamin's controversial (he was a Jew facing persecution from Nazis during World War II) manuscript for his lifelong masterpiece The Arcades Project, was a total degenerate, sensualist scumbag and The Story of the Eye is basically french pornography, featuring a young couple who are faithfully acting out erotic fantasies to it's ultimate, necrophiliac conclusion. I read this on the elliptical machine at the gym was a disorienting headfuck in and of itself because I couldn't keep the damn book steady on the little computer/control thigamajiggy. Being that every other paragraph is a graphic description of this couple either jerking off, jerking each other off, or coming in some sort of weird ultimate ectasy, I was surprised I never galloped off the fucking treadmill and plunged head first into any of the MILF Barbie blonds' pumping rears on the row of stairmasters in front of me. Thanks be to SuperEgo.

Here are some images from The Story of the Eye that impressed me:

1) Egg yolks in half egg shells floating in a bedet. Looked like eyeballs

2) girl balances egg in crack of her assholee while feet are up over her head and she is on her back. Boy jerks off in front of her and when he comes on the egg she simultaneously cracks it with the strength of her butt cheeks.

3) Girl fingering herself in a confessional while confessing what she is doing in French to a preist who only speaks Spanish. That one was pretty wicked!

4) Boy de-virginizes Girl beside a corpse of innocent girl who went mad after a menage-a-trois

5) The most impressive image was a complex layering of fantasies, to Batailles literary credit, resulting in the girl eating a raw bull testicle while shoving another in her cunt (quote from the boy early on in the novel: "The favorite of all the words for the female organ") while at a bullfight watching another bull gauge a Matador's eye out. (less)

12 likes · like · see review

Sep 15, 2007 John Kupper rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of Showgirls, Plan 9 from Outer Space

Shelves: fiction

This book is sort of like the Showgirls of literature: it's so terrible in almost every way, and so poorly written that you simply can't look away.

And don't get me wrong, I don't mean terrible as "offensive" or "obscene." I've read worse. This book is just plain bad.

Bataille somehow manages the most boring descriptions of incredibly kinky sex. Which brings me back to my first point. This book is so bad it's hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing the whole way through--at, not with.

5 likes · like · see review

Dec 06, 2008 Patrick rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: perverts. idiots.

This book was unabashedly, humiliatingly retarded. It's the kind of book that's so famous and then you read it and wonder if someone is pulling a practical joke on you.

I've read better fanfic porn.

11 likes · like · see review

Jul 06, 2012 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the brave

This book is filthy, and not in the fun way. This is the most disturbing book I've ever read. It is as offensive as you can get, save for maybe incest, but even that wouldn't be too out of place in this book. It is 85 pages of fornication, masturbation, urinating, and something gross involving eggs and eyes. It's anything BUT erotic.

However, I couldn't put this book down, as much as I may have wanted to. It's the second half of the book that gets the most disturbing, but it also makes the most s...more

4 likes · like · see review

May 18, 2007 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fic-lit

Many have claimed that this is the most atrocious perverse thing they've ever experienced or conversely the most illuminating, mind-expanding thing they've every experienced, so of course I had to check it out. I found it to be neither. Indeed, the book was pretty fucking weird and perverse. And that coming from me is saying something. However, it wasn't anywhere near my "too out there" benchmarks set by other books and/or films. Anyway, the book is Bataille's take on the human condition which a...more

3 likes · like · see review

Apr 21, 2012 Mirvan Ereon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: unique, favorites, excellent-ideas, beloved

This book is unforgettable. I cannot help but rave about it to anyone who cares to listen. This is very eloquently done and the violence and gore in this is strangely erotic and well-written. This may not be for all people but the strange pull of this book to me and to anyone who cares to read it will surely make you weirdly disgusted at yourself for actually liking or even falling in love with this work.

One of the best novels I have read in a while. I would love to read more of this great auth...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jan 30, 2012 MJ Nicholls rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to MJ by: Jasmine

Shelves: pernod-and-gauloises, novellas, penguin-classics

The last orgy I attended was in Dundee. I turned up two minutes late, improperly dressed (my gimp mask hadn’t been drycleaned in time), and offended the host by complimenting him on his lovely breasts, and even more cracking vagina. I was told to gently lube the testicles of a history teacher for the first romp—clearly the host was furious with me, as the history teacher was my own father—then invited over for a little frottage against the pelvis of a divorced Cher impersonator. She sang ‘Gypsie...more

18 likes · like · see review

May 24, 2012 Maria Ella rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: something-weird, 2012-reading-challenge

The eye left me feeling creepier, weirder, and more insane than the moment I opened its e-book. I shall make a comprehensive / comparative review with the Paulo Coehlo's 11 minutes and EL James' 50 Shades of Grey

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 10, 2009 Jasmine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: french

Karen hates this book. That is a lie, but she doesn't like it so much.

apparently all the things that people do are insipid, which is exactly why Bataille feels no need for anyone to have sex for much of this book. On the other hand, they do lots of other crap that is far creepier. Which is to say that he made the point.

The book like all french erotica books is not actually about sex. from what I can tell it is about obsession. An obsession with Marcelle. There is also something about he connec...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jun 25, 2012 Xandra rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-1900-1949, thriller-mystery-horror, sexuality, transgressive, french, crap, reviewed

I don’t mind bizarre lewdness or surreal disgusting situations. Nonchalant mentions of a rape or a crime, in the same manner one would mention their coffee was a bit too cold in the morning don’t shock me as much as they probably should. Crack however many eggs you want between your buttocks and urinate on various surfaces in any number of positions. I’ll remain impassible. Piss down your leg, on your mother, in a priest’s nostrils, on your clothes, on mannequins, on any surface imaginable. If y...more

4 likes · like · see review

Feb 04, 2010 Evan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: deliciously-nasty, 2009-reads, fucked-up-women, sexuality, french-euro-erotica, transgressive

Page 2, and already this is what we get, funniness and dirtiness:

"Now in the corner of the hallway there was a saucer of milk for the cat. 'Milk is for the pussy, isn't it?' said Simone. 'Do you dare me to sit in the saucer?'"

Ooooooo-kaaaayyy...!

Well, after some diversion, I'm back into this one and have barely started and Bataille, in the first dozen pages, wastes no time giving us two teens masturbating then hooking up with another girl on the beach and doing this and that to one another. Thi...more

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 09, 2008 Chris rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book can be read in about 30 minutes. Sadly, I imagine it must have taken slightly longer to write. The same things happen over and over, which you’d imagine wouldn’t be such a bother since the previous book I read was ‘Replay’ by Ken Grimwood, except in Story of the Eye the scenes aren’t particularly moving, interesting, or even necessary. Come to think of it, Story of the Eye pretty much sucked.

I got this based on some online recommendations; some dude on Amazon had a ‘Listmania’ entry...more This book can be read in about 30 minutes. Sadly, I imagine it must have taken slightly longer to write. The same things happen over and over, which you’d imagine wouldn’t be such a bother since the previous book I read was ‘Replay’ by Ken Grimwood, except in Story of the Eye the scenes aren’t particularly moving, interesting, or even necessary. Come to think of it, Story of the Eye pretty much sucked.

I got this based on some online recommendations; some dude on Amazon had a ‘Listmania’ entry which contained several books I enjoy, and I figured this guy’s taste couldn’t be that bad. Then again, I have been fooled before.

There are very few things actually going on in Story of the Eye, and they are: masturbation (occurs on every page, male and female), rape (transpiring once per five-page chapter), urination or defecation (accompanying each masturbatory incident), and eggs, eyeballs, and corpses (almost always being pissed on or used as a crude implement to reach a self-induced climax). That’s about it. I’m not passing judgment on the time-honored rite of extracting an eye from a cadaver and pissing on it after frigging oneself, but let’s face it, that gets pretty boring. Someone sticking an egg in their ass and smashing it by contracting the buttocks is only entertaining so many times. Might as well write a story about a guy priming his pud while surfing Goodreads for all the literary merit involved.

I’m sure there will be a handful of people that unwaveringly claim this story is a great achievement in surrealistic prose, and maybe I’m missing the point, but when something as brief as Story of the Eye fails to captivate and hold my attention, that’s problematic. Occasionally something within struck me as remotely funny or absurd, but on the whole, this book just didn’t manage to entertain.

On a side note, publisher City Lights apparently continues to hopelessly churn out anything which might be seen as ‘offensive’, if only for the sake of cheap shock value. Also, it seems as though the ability to use the word c*nt three times per page is about the only measuring stick they have to gauge a writer's ability over at City Lights.
(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Nov 27, 2010 DoctorM rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: hot-reads-and-erotica

Okay, yes. The opening lines of "Story of te Eye" rank right up there with the openings of "Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Gravity's Rainbow". Trust me: you'll never quite look at eggs the same way again. And there is a 2004 film version of this--- a seldom-seen film that I'm hunting down. (Damn it--- who played Simone?)

Having said that...

"Story of the Eye" is hilarious, appalling, disgusting, disturbing, deft, wicked, clever, and farther over the top than you ever thought of being. Imagine......more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 10, 2011 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ah, Bataille puts Freud to shame in the myriad ways he explores the connections between sex and death in man's mind...Some people have complained that the characters are underdeveloped - if one reads the postscript about Bataille's father, you begin to see that it is intentional. Characters are symbols, symbols are characters, and the whole story is a kaleidoscope of psychological 'isms, and has less to do with sex (if you're looking for good porn, look elsewhere) than to do with having the read...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jan 15, 2008 Doug added it

"In pornographic novels, action has to be limited to the copulation of clichés. Style, structure, imagery should never distract the reader from his tepid lust. The novel must consist of an alternation of sexual scenes. The passages in between must be reduced to sutures of sense, logical bridges of the simplest design, brief expositions and explanations, which the reader will probably skip but must know they exist in order not to feel cheated...Moreover, the sexual scenes in the book must follow...more

3 likes · like · see review

Dec 20, 2007 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: erotica, fiction

This is a book that I sat down and read in one sitting, I was so engrossed. That being said, this book is not for the squeamish, and if you're looking for steamy erotic scenes, again, not for you. However, if you're interested in the study of psychosexuality and Freudian psychoanalysis, then I would take a gander at Bataille's fantasy on the constellation of sex and violence. The imagery is both wonderful and disturbing--perhaps more frequently the latter--but in all cases vivid, which makes Bat...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 20, 2012 marc rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, erotica, literary, horror

it was interesting to read a piece of great erotica. this edition included essays by susan sontag and roland barthes. although the barthes piece was a little too technical for me to be bothered carefully understanding (i think i can postpone linguistics for just now) this is such an awesome formula and if penguin modern classics editions always had a couple of excellent essays from brilliant scholars appended i would probably buy them exclusively. anyway i think they were necessary in this case,...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 03, 2007 Nico rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read those first few pages standing in the doorway of City Lights bookshop when I was nineteen before heading across to Specs for a whiskey. The memory of the milk and the cupboard has never left me. R and I used to read it to each other in drunken revelry walking down Columbus Avenue, delirious to be alive, ecstatic that someone was going—or rather had gone—much further than we ever thought possible. Kundera writes that a work of art does not necessarily "progress" like sciece does, but inste...more

9 likes · like · see review

Dec 19, 2010 Jaga rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: spicy

intellectual filth?
OUI!
intellectual filth à la Bataille
No, merci!!

It reads like a dishwasher manual and I understand that was the point (perhaps overdone). I saw soon enough through all the symbolism and half way through this little piece of porn jewel I can say I have learnt everything that was to learn about Monsieur B.'s prose. It's not that terrible but I do have better things to read... I should have finished it in one sitting but after two days I don't feel like finishing, not interested...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 21, 2008 Beverly rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: To readers/writers stuck in a rut.

Recommended to Beverly by: Faith Wilding

Bataille's masterpiece, a genius of eloquent pornographic imagery, so that one's disgust is coupled with desire. I never read anything so appalling and enthralling at the same time. A literary work that parallels Bosch's paintings where vivid color draws the eye into close range with the unspeakable horror of forms. Bataille accomplishes the same with words in this book. So intense are the references that I guarantee you will never see an egg in the same way again, nor will you write anything in...more

5 likes · like · see review

Oct 06, 2008 Mr. rated it 5 of 5 stars

George Bataille's brief Sade-esque novella is a mordantly brilliant dip into the post-Nietzschen world modernity. The Story of the Eye is a pornographic disintegration of the Western ethical code. It is both magnificent and foul; a more daring and original work than his later philosophy/anthropology. A seminal piece of 20th century literature; although it was published well before the cultural abominations of our current nihilism, we are still not ready for this bleak and punkish work of literar...more

6 likes · like · see review

Jan 07, 2013 Daniel Bridgefarmer rated it 2 of 5 stars

So, my first review is to be of a sordid French philosopher? pornographer? eye fetish haver? Any way you look at it (pun unfortunately intended) this book makes an impression. I'd love to say I immediately understood what Bataille was aiming for with this masterpiece of shock and awe but other than his obvious natural ability to adorn the basest sentiments with a coy philosophy and an indelibly straightforward prose I can't seem to find the deeper point of this book. Excusing the natural procliv...more So, my first review is to be of a sordid French philosopher? pornographer? eye fetish haver? Any way you look at it (pun unfortunately intended) this book makes an impression. I'd love to say I immediately understood what Bataille was aiming for with this masterpiece of shock and awe but other than his obvious natural ability to adorn the basest sentiments with a coy philosophy and an indelibly straightforward prose I can't seem to find the deeper point of this book. Excusing the natural proclivity of the mind's eye to arrest itself to disaster (once again, sorry) and you have a story of fringe lunacy that the heart can only hold in it's arms and caress gently until the medicine takes. I read Sartre's "No Exit" years ago and can see how the susurrus of these characters' debate might be overheard in an adjacent room of that play's setting but his portrayal of existential torment is one I can willingly admit is much preferred to unquenchable sadistic pleasures that yoke these miscreants from one taboo to the ever increasingly outrageous next. At any rate I suppose any serious acolyte of psychiatry should read this if only to hold a candle up to their own depravity and see just how far into the caverns of the mind one is willing to wander before said candle blows out. If the eye is indeed the window of the soul, and your soul is a pristine room with an ocean view, then I would seriously consider draping them from this work of relished chaos. If not, then happy spelunking. I might add that the only reason I give this book a two star review is to prevent any tightly associated recommendations that Goodreads might conjure up from its database. Otherwise the bullfighting scene alone is worth at least four. Just imagine Hemingway's exegesis of the toreador's exhibition paralleled through the phantasmagoric lens of Chuck Palahniuk and you'll get the idea. Whatever compulsion led me to open this book (the fact that it was left behind by a good friend I haven't seen in some time? that it reminded me of a Pixies album cover?) I can only hope has been rendered inert permanently, but in the words of the Borg: "Resistance is futile". (less)

like · see review

Dec 23, 2012 Yuri Zbitnoff rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: disturbing, surreal, lots-of-sex

This is one of those "controversial" and "transgressive" books.

Lots of sex. Most of it depraved. A lot of bodily fluids. There's an Englishman. And a priest. A bullfight and some weird ass connection between eyes and testicles and eggs. Fuck if I know what all of it means.

There is one scene in which the narrator and his girlfriend are taking in bullfight and the air is putrid with the stench of equine and human piss. So what do they do? Steal away to the shithouse to get it on of course!

There's...more

like · see review

Nov 17, 2012 Osie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-fiction

I think the biggest mistake people make, in regards to this book, is expecting it to be about sex. That would be too boring; is it erotica? Not really, unless you consider eggs, eyes and bull testicles to be erotic. It is, however, extremely perverse and depraved; I think it may be the logical conclusion of French Decadence literature. Existential sleaze might be an appropriate categorization.

The first half of the novella I found to be droll and perhaps even somewhat insipid. The second half is...more

like · see review

Oct 20, 2012 Sade's Valet rated it 3 of 5 stars

It has been said that great writing needs no justification: it is its own defence. Well, if that be the case let’s just start with the book’s synopsis: Story of the Eye concerns the sexual prowess of an ...unnamed narrator and his accomplice in licentiousness, Simone. Together they coerce the mentally unstable Marcelle into their world and are soon pushing boundaries of decency under the watchful and encouraging gaze of an aristocratic voluptuary named Lord Edmund. Over the course of this novell...more It has been said that great writing needs no justification: it is its own defence. Well, if that be the case let’s just start with the book’s synopsis: Story of the Eye concerns the sexual prowess of an ...unnamed narrator and his accomplice in licentiousness, Simone. Together they coerce the mentally unstable Marcelle into their world and are soon pushing boundaries of decency under the watchful and encouraging gaze of an aristocratic voluptuary named Lord Edmund. Over the course of this novella, there is vaginal and anal stimulation achieved through the use of boiled eggs, orgies that involve bloodletting, the fellating of a Catholic priest, and Marcelle’s mental breakdown and suicide – an outcome that spurs on perverse sexual urges in the narrator and Simone who decide to have sex next to Marcelle’s corpse.

Great writing? Well, yes, but it does need some justification. This book’s exploration into the sort of madness that saw the Marquis de Sade run afoul, can’t be left open to a world in which a lack of cultivation and Puritan morality often triumphs. It would also be a disservice to the incomparable achievements of its author. So, on that note, let’s start with some info on the author, Georges Bataille. Bataille was a French intellectual and literary figure, working in anthropology, philosophy, and sociology. He was heavily influenced by the likes of de Sade and Nietzsche. He was also interested in human sacrifice and founded a secret society called Acéphale (Greek for “headless”) and published a number of eight-page pamphlets that were concerned with the works of such renegades as Sade, Freud, and Mauss. And, as you may have surmised already, such interests are bound up in the eroticism and transgression of Story of the Eye. Bataille’s interest in surrealism doesn’t go unchecked either with the book featuring lengthy dream-like sequences, whilst much of the writing is filled with metaphor.

The author’s own life also plays a part in the story with Bataille stating in the post script that the character of Marcelle may have been partially inspired by his own mother, who suffered from bipolar disorder, while the narrator's father is also a transcription of his own unhappy paternal relationship. All of this is wrapped up in a fascinating book that goes beyond the realms of erotica. Although no doubt, for some, the singularity of the characters’ sexual persuasion will see the book dismissed as mere pornography with its elucidating undertones left untouched.(less)

like · see review

Jul 05, 2012 Lauren rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books, 1305

WTF?

I mean SERIOUSLY WTF?

I had NO idea what I was getting myself into with this one. One of my GR friends had just read this and I somehow missed her review but did see her comment about where she had been able to get this book for free online. It being one of the books on the 1001 books list I decided that I should go ahead and read it. AND WTF?

I am trying so hard to understand why this story is on the 1001 Books List. Here is my theory as discussed between several editors:

1: I am not sure th...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (30)

More editions...

Genres

Adult Fiction > Erotica

62 users

Cultural > France

48 users

Literature

37 users

Classics > Cult Classics

32 users

Thriller

27 users

Horror

27 users

European Literature > French Literature

26 users

Classics

23 users

Novels

23 users

Philosophy

17 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Georges Bataille

French essayist, philosophical theorist and novelist, often called the "metaphysician of evil." Bataille was interested in sex, death, degradation, and the power and potential of the obscene. He rejected traditional literature and considered that the ultimate aim of all intellectual, artistic, or religious activity should be the annihilation of the rational individual in a violent, transcendental...more

More about Georges Bataille...

Books by Georges Bataille

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Story of the Eye

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Story of the Eye

“To others, the universe seems decent because decent people have gelded eyes. That is why they fear lewdness. They are never frightened by the crowing of a rooster or when strolling under a starry heaven. In general, people savor the "pleasures of the flesh" only on condition that they be insipid.
But as of then, no doubt existed for me: I did not care for what is known as "pleasures of the flesh" because they really are insipid; I cared only for what is classified as "dirty." On the other hand, I was not even satisfied with the usual debauchery, because the only thing it dirties is debauchery itself, while, in some way or other, anything sublime and perfectly pure is left intact by it. My kind of debauchery soils not only my body and my thoughts, but also anything I may conceive in its course, that is to say, the vast starry universe, which merely serves as a backdrop.” — 21 people liked it

“We did not lack modesty—on the contrary—but something urgently drove us to defy modesty together as immodestly as possible.” — 10 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Story of the Eye
avg rating	preview: Story of the Eye Goodreads rating: 3.78 (5411 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/436806.Story_of_the_Eye?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327978075l/436806.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/436806.Story_of_the_Eye?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille[/url]

Story of the Eye

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website