AN EPIC VOYAGE THROUGH THE WORLD OF THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE

In this daring and scintillating work, one of America's most renowned critics
and scholars traces the arc of Western literature and culture, exploring the
notion of forbidden knowledge - from the origins of sacredness to its modern
corruption, from the sexual innocence of Adam and Eve to the sexual excesses
of the Marquis de Sade, and beyond.

Forbidden Knowledge not only examines the meaning of moral responsibility in
literature and in our everyday lives, but suggests that we live in a violated
world that dismisses taboos and fails to heed the wisdom of that which
is sacred.

Mr. Shattuck's dire portrait of human presumption - in setting aside all
limits in the quest for knowledge and experience - is matched only by his faith
that we can understand our grievous loss of innocence by reexamining our greatest
myths and stories of the last 2,000 years.

He deftly traces our demise through such stories as Prometheus, who stole
Zeus's fire, Milton's Paradise Lost, Melville's Billy Budd, the poetry of Emily
Dickinson and the Marquis de Sade's pornographic writings. Forbidden Knowledge
is the culminating work of Roger Shattuck's career as one of America's most
gifted and original thinkers.

Download File Size:43.61 MB

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