The story of the eye offers to both camps: those that want to have a quick mesmerising read and those who are interested in understanding a modern continental perspective on a philosophy of art.


Definately worth a read   January 9, 2006
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

Story of the Eye is not so much an erotic text, as an exploration on what it is that drives every human- desire. Desire to live, breath eat, make love, our lives revolve around it, and if there was no desire we would not be alive.It is a mistake to have Batailles novella down as an erotic fiction- it is so much more than that. He exorcises his demons through eroticism at its highest level, in order to find a release, or death, of that wanting, which can never be resolved. It is an important read, and whatever it is you take away from it, it will be something important.


Your hard-earned money doesn't deserve to be spent on this   May 19, 2003
 7 out of 17 found this review helpful

'Story of the Eye' is, summarily, wholly disappointing, more so when read under the mantle of "greatest erotic masterpiece of the century". This is an especially ludicrous claim given the book's modest length, and the absurdly disjointed plot which Bataille lazily attempts to cram into it. The characters are shallow and forgettable, seemingly ill-disguised personifications of Bataille's own childish and under-developed fantasies.

The book reads like a hasty and excited first draft, with proportionally huge passages coming across as sparse, drivelling babble. The erotica, while undoubtedly imaginative and original for its time (at least in terms of being published), is cold, uncaptivating and largely rather boring. What little of it that shows potential is either completely smothered in immaturity by the tone of the writing, or left horribly isolated by the sloppy plot, leaving genuinely erotic moments few and far between.

If you plan to buy this book as a lover of literature, you are likely to take nothing more from it than profound embarrassment and a lesson in how not to write fiction, erotic or otherwise. If you plan to buy it as a lover of erotica, you'll be left disappointed, cold and ultimately confused as to why it has drawn such critical acclaim.


Fascinating and disgusting about naive sexuality   March 5, 2002
 18 out of 37 found this review helpful

George Bataille's novel describes, in its good parts, the naive and cruel nature of sexuality. In its less well composed parts, it's an orgie of disgust. If it hadn't been for the utterly precise and fine choice of words, you might have mistaken parts of the book for some teenage scribbling only produced to shock. The book has its fascinating, readworthy chapters, but the composition is less fullended than in, for instance, "The Story of O" by Pauline Reage. If you haven't read that one, I'd urge you leave Bataille and buy Reage first.. (or, of course, buying both is also a good option!)