On the Heights of Despair

A classic work of philosophical reflection on despair, decay, and the futility of existence that Publishers Weekly said “puts Cioran in the company of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard”Born of a terrible insomnia—"a dizzying lucidity which would turn even paradise into hell"—this book presents the potent, self-lacerating insights of the youthful E. M. Cioran, a self-described "Nietzsche still complete with his Zarathustra, his poses, his mystical clown's tricks, a whole circus of the heights." On the Heights of Despair shows Cioran's first grappling with themes he would return to in his later, mature works: despair and decay, absurdity and alienation, futility and the irrationality of existence. It also presents Cioran as a connoisseur of apocalypse, a theoretician of despair, for whom writing and philosophy both share the "lyrical virtues" that alone lead to a metaphysical revelation. A book to keep at your bedside, as epigrammatic as it is insightful, On the Heights of Despair offers not consolation, but engaging, thought-provoking companionship. Read more