Joachim Neugroschel bol oceneným prekladateľom, ktorý sa pustil do diela dvesto kníh. Jeho preklady zahŕňali nesmrteľné diela autorov ako Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust a Thomas Mann. Za svoju prácu získal tri prekladateľské ceny PEN a cenu French-American Foundation Translation Prize. Jeho rozsiahla práca v preklade sprístupnila kľúčové európske literárne hlasy širšiemu publiku.
As a young man in German-occupied France, Pierre Seel appeared on a list of accused homosexuals and was sent to an interment camp. He managed to survive the war, spending most of it as cannon fodder on the Russian front. Available for the first time in English, this account of Seel's experiences provides an invaluable contribution to the literature of the Holocaust.
Bataille's first novel, published under the pseudonym 'Lord Auch', is still his most notorious work. In this explicit pornographic fantasy, the young male narrator and his lovers Simone and Marcelle embark on a sexual quest involving sadism, torture, orgies, madness and defilement, culminating in a final act of transgression. Shocking and sacrilegious, Story of the Eye is the fullest expression of Bataille's obsession with the closeness of sex, violence and death. Yet it is also hallucinogenic in its power, and is one of the erotic classics of the twentieth century. This edition also includes Susan Sontag's superb study of pornography as art, 'The Pornographic Imagination', as well as Roland Barthes' essay 'The Metaphor of the Eye'.Georges Bataille (1897-1962), French essayist and novelist, was born in Billom, France. He converted to Catholicism, then later to Marxism, and was interested in psychoanalysis and mysticism, forming a secret society dedicated to glorifying human sacrifice. Leading a simple life as the curator of a municipal library, Bataille was involved on the fringes of Surrealism, founding the Surrealist magazine Documents in 1929, and editing the literary review Critique from 1946 until his death. Among his other works are the novels Blue of Noon (1957) and My Mother (1966), and the essays Eroticism (1957) and Literature and Evil (1957).
Erika Kohutová je profesorka klavíra na viedenskom konzervatóriu. Jej otec zomrel v psychiatrickej liečebni, čo je jeden z dôvodov, prečo žije osamelo so svojou dominantnou a konfliktnou matkou. Napriek neznesiteľným hádkam je od nej citovo závislá. Erika vedie dvojaký život – cez deň je prísna rezervovaná učiteľka a zasluhuje si rešpekt a priazeň svojich kolegov, po nociach sa oddáva perverzným a násilným túžbam. Jej zvyky naruší mladý študent Klemmer, ktorý by s ňou rád nadviazal hlbší vzťah. Erika ho spočiatku odmieta, no časom sa mu podvolí. Ich prvé intímne zblíženie však Klemmera nepríjemne zaskočí. Považuje ju za chorú a zvrátenú. Nedokáže si predstaviť, že by jej chúťkam vyhovel. Román Pianistka je šokujúcim portrétom ženy uväznenej medzi predstavou, ktorú má o žene civilizovaná meštiacka spoločnosť, a túžbami, ktoré vyvierajú z najtemnejších zákutí sexuality.