Essential reading for those who've ever used an alphabet or fallen in love. This is literary criticism for the impassioned, who are seized by the need to write romantic notes, songs, and poems, but are also curious to understand why they're doing so. The answers are traceable to the very birth of writing.
— Matt
This book made academic greek translations hot as all hell. Carson + Sappho is always a perfect combo, yet this book also goes on to describe eros in general, where it lives within the text, and why we need it to survive.
— RyanSelected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time
A book about romantic love, Eros the Bittersweet is Anne Carson's exploration of the concept of eros in both classical philosophy and literature. Beginning with, It was Sappho who first called eros 'bittersweet.' No one who has been in love disputes her, Carson examines her subject from numerous points of view, creating a lyrical meditation in the tradition of William Carlos Williams's Spring and All and William H. Gass's On Being Blue.
Epigrammatic, witty, ironic, and endlessly entertaining, Eros is an utterly original book.