Literature and the Gods

International Acclaim for Roberto Calasso’s Literature and the Gods

“Immensely rewarding.” —National Review

“Masterful … challenging. … Erudite. … Surprisingly rich. … It is Calasso’s own prose — elliptical, brimming with metaphor — that makes the volume worth reading. It’s an example of the divinely inspired work for which he clearly yearns.”

— Time Out New York

“Brilliant. … The seriousness and erudition of Literature and the Gods demand a serious and erudite … response. Such books are infrequent. All the more reason to welcome, and read, this one.”

— The Boston Phoenix

“Calasso is a formidably learned man. … [Readers] will find deep delight in his insights, his seemingly reckless leaps of faith, his prose that hews closely to the rhythms of oratory.”

— The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)

Calasso knows a lot about the gods. … In his attentiveness to the divine flame still burning behind the mundane realities of a fallen world, he is a direct descendant of Hölderlin and Nietzsche, of Baudelaire and Mallarmé, of Yeats and Nabokov. … In a meanly mealy-mouthed time, Calasso speaks out strongly from an unfashionably high-intellectual position. What he is urging on us is nothing less than our duty to recall the gods from banishment through the medium of literature.”

— John Banville, Irish Times