Essay
On the Heights of Despair
Pe culmile disperării
Emil Cioran · 1934
Synopsis
The author's first book, made up of sixty-six short titled texts, each one to three pages long. They deal with the darkest states, death, insomnia, madness, sadness, melancholy and agony, and set the rights of inspiration and lyricism against the effort of reason. According to its American publisher, the book arose from a severe insomnia that gave a painful lucidity; he sees in it brief meditations, almost epigrams, on despair, the absurd and the vanity of existence.
Context
The book appeared in 1934 and received the young writers' prize of the Royal Foundations. The author, who said he had barely slept for seven years, judged this depression necessary to his writing; the Romanian reception of these early writings was very unfavourable, and his works were banned under Ceaușescu. It was the first of his Romanian books; he published in French from 1949. André Vornic translated it for L'Herne in 1990, and Ilinca Zarifopol-Johnston gave an English version in Chicago.
Who it is for
Short texts, to be read in fragments rather than at a single sitting; in Romanian, readable in French and in English.
Prizes and reception
Its American publisher cites Publishers Weekly, which places the author alongside Nietzsche and Kierkegaard.