Research Catalog

Title

The savage god : a study of suicide / by A. Alvarez.

Author

Alvarez, A. (Alfred), 1929-2019.

Publication

• New York : Random House, ©1972.
• ©1972

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Dedalus Foundation, donor NN

Description

xviii, 299 pages; 22 cm

Summary

This book explores suicide as it has never been described before. It is a deep compassionate insight into the realm of self-destruction from a personal, literary, and existential point of view. The author dispels the preconception that suicide is either a terrifying aberration or something to be ignored altogether. He documents and explores historically man's changing attitudes toward suicide: from the various primitive societies, the Greek and Roman cultures, to the development of the suicidal martyrdom of the early Christian church, the later concept of suicide as a mortal sin to be savagely punished, and the counterrevolutionary attitude of the late nineteenth century which shifted the responsibility of suicide from the individual to society. He continues with a discussion of the theories which have been developed about suicide. From there, he explores the minds and emotional states of Dante, Cowper, Donne, Chatterton, and others, explaining the death trend in their works. He sees revealed in literature the voyage of the suicide in past centuries and today. He returns to a personal view of suicide at the close of the book as he chronicles his attempt on his own life. He brings the reader through a journey where one sees the act of suicide as the end of a long experience, an emptiness so isolated and violent--making life into such a paper-thin reality--that it surrenders.--

Alternative Title

Study of suicide

Subject

• Suicide
• Suicide in literature

Note

• Originally published: London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson, ©1971.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-294) and index.

Source (note)

• of the Dedalus Foundation;

Contents

Prologue : Sylvia Plath -- Part 2. The background -- Part 3. The closed world of suicide : fallacies -- Theories -- Feelings -- Part 4. Suicide and literature : Dante and the Middle Ages -- John Donne and the Renaissance -- William Cowper, Thomas Chatterton and the age of reason -- The romantic agony -- Tomorrow's zero : the transition to the twentieth century -- Dada : suicide as an art -- The savage God -- Part 5. Letting go.

Call Number

ReCAP 24-4976

ISBN

• 9780394474519
• 0394474511

LCCN

70117703

OCLC

308499

Author

Alvarez, A. (Alfred), 1929-2019.

Title

The savage god : a study of suicide / by A. Alvarez.

Publisher

New York : Random House, ©1972.

Copyright Date

©1972

Edition

First American edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-294) and index.

Local Note

Copy in ReCAP 24-4976 inscribed.

Source

Gift; of the Dedalus Foundation; 2024. NN

Added Author

Dedalus Foundation, donor NN

Other Form:

Online version: Alvarez, A. (Alfred), 1929-2019. Savage god. [1st American ed.]. New York, Random House [1972] (OCoLC)652339791

Research Call Number

ReCAP 24-4976

JLD 73-1884