The Ruin of Kasch by Roberto Calasso
In the African kingdom of Kasch the king should be sacrificed when the stars come into a particular alignment. One day a stranger arrives who tells such good yarns the priests forget to watch the skies. The king survives. Sacrifice is abolished, but the kingdom begins to decline. Using this Bedouin legend Roberto Calasso questions the legitimacy of power, tyranny and sacrifice. Talleyrand is the master of ceremonies and guides the reader into real and symbolic places. We are accompanied by Marie-Antoinette, Bentham, Goethe, Baudelaire, Marx, Chateaubriand, three gruesome assassins and assorted other folk. They all contribute to Calasso's vision of history which encompasses both narrative and reflection and reveals how ideas and actual events impinge upon one another.Roberto Calasso, publisher of Adelphi in Milan, is the author of many books, among them The Ruin of Kasch, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, Ka, K., and Tiepolo Pink, all parts of a work in progress of which La Folie Baudelaire is the sixth panel.
Alastair McEwen has translated almost ninety books of fiction and nonfiction and seven feature film scripts, as well as radio play adaptations, operative librettos, and many hundreds of articles for various magazines and newspapers. He has also translated some of Italy's finest writers (Calasso, Eco, Tabucchi, and many others). He lives and works in Milan.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780856357138 |
| ISBN 10 | 0856357138 |
| Title | The Ruin of Kasch |
| Author | Roberto Calasso |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Carcanet Press Ltd |
| Year published | 1994-11-10 |
| Number of pages | 320 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |