Eros the Bittersweet

Eros the Bittersweet by Carson, Anne. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781564781888.

Epigrammatic, witty, ironic, and endlessly interesting, Eros is an utterly original book by an author whose acclaim has been steadily growing since the book was first published in 1986 by Johns Hopkins. A book about love as seen by the ancients, Eros is Anne Carsons 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. What does the word mean?", Carson examines her subject from numerous points of view and styles, transcending the constraints of the scholarly exercise for an evocative and lyrical meditation in the tradition of William Carlos Williams Spring and All and William H. Gasss On Being Blue.