The Ruin Of Kasch
by Roberto Calasso /
2018 / English / EPUB
1.1 MB Download
A brilliant new translation of a classic work on violence and
revolution as seen through mythology and art
A brilliant new translation of a classic work on violence and
revolution as seen through mythology and artThe Ruin of Kasch
The Ruin of Kasch takes up two subjects―“the first is
Talleyrand, and the second is everything else,” wrote Italo
Calvino when the book first appeared in 1983. Hailed as one of
those rare books that persuade us to see our entire civilization
in a new light, its guide is the French statesman Charles-Maurice
de Talleyrand, who knew the secrets of the
takes up two subjects―“the first is
Talleyrand, and the second is everything else,” wrote Italo
Calvino when the book first appeared in 1983. Hailed as one of
those rare books that persuade us to see our entire civilization
in a new light, its guide is the French statesman Charles-Maurice
de Talleyrand, who knew the secrets of theancien régime
ancien régime
and all that came after, and was able to adapt the notion of
“legitimacy” to the modern age. Roberto Calasso follows him
through a vast gallery of scenes set immediately before and after
the French Revolution, making occasional forays backward and
forward in time, from Vedic India to the porticoes of the
Palais-Royal and to the killing fields of Pol Pot, with
appearances by Goethe and Marie Antoinette, Napoleon and Marx,
Walter Benjamin and Chateaubriand. At the center stands the story
of the ruin of Kasch, a legendary kingdom based on the ritual
killing of the king and emblematic of the ruin of ancient and
modern regimes.
and all that came after, and was able to adapt the notion of
“legitimacy” to the modern age. Roberto Calasso follows him
through a vast gallery of scenes set immediately before and after
the French Revolution, making occasional forays backward and
forward in time, from Vedic India to the porticoes of the
Palais-Royal and to the killing fields of Pol Pot, with
appearances by Goethe and Marie Antoinette, Napoleon and Marx,
Walter Benjamin and Chateaubriand. At the center stands the story
of the ruin of Kasch, a legendary kingdom based on the ritual
killing of the king and emblematic of the ruin of ancient and
modern regimes.
Offered here in a new translation by Richard Dixon,
Offered here in a new translation by Richard Dixon,The Ruin
of Kasch
The Ruin
of Kasch is, as John Banville wrote, “a great fat jewel-box
of a book, gleaming with obscure treasures.”
is, as John Banville wrote, “a great fat jewel-box
of a book, gleaming with obscure treasures.”