Story of the Eye

So, I can't remember how I came across this book but after reading the plot synopsis, I decided to get a hold of a copy. All I could say after I finished it was, "Wow! Alrighty then." I read it again a few days later and actually noticed stuff I hadn't before. It takes a couple reads but you'll really notice bizarre psychological and philosophical stuff and the actual story is only a little over sixty pages so it's not too difficult to read it twice. My only complaint is that it isn't nearly long enough to tell a full-on story and elaborate more on the characters.

This is the strangest book I have ever read. But I am learning now as a grown women that not every thing in a is about Monsters or happy endings. This is a dark and disturbing book that is very thought prevoking. I feel as though I am reading a secret diary and I love it. Makes me look at me and how society views sexuality. Yes, the main charactors are a little crazy but it is a erotic fantasy many of us would like to visit if only for an afternoon. PS What's up with the eggs???

Transgressive, disgusting tale of two teens searching for the ultimate turn-ons no matter who gets hurt. Psychology majors may grasp what Bataille is up to here, but I'm not educated enough to pick up on the metaphors. This wasn't titillating for me even though the sex is non stop, but I've definitely never read anything quite like it. It won't take up too much of your time at less than 100 pages, and you get to say you read Story Of The Eye and survived unscarred. Sex, death, liquid, orbs...I dunno guys, you tell me. It's a puzzler.

It is good reading.

I saw this book and remembered that I heard about it in a song a long time ago. I had no clue what it was about, I thought it would be something more interesting than sheer pornography all the way in the first two chapters. I stopped reading it.

This book is so small that it is definitely an easy one night treat for a seasoned reader. I enjoyed it and found it completely interesting and definitely before it's time. I had to keep reminding myself when it was written! It was sometimes hard to understand the language and context, but the further you read along, the more clear it became. There were a couple of pretty disturbing chapters and is not for the faint of heart. I am a die-hard Stephen King fan and found it delicious. It definitely has lots of shock value! ENJOY!!

This book was so good I’d buy again! So descriptive

Great book, very strange and dark. I absolutely loved the book, it was exactly what I was looking for and hope to find more like it. It is dark, graphic, fairly violent, full of forbidden and taboo fetishes... I wish the author would have spent more time telling the story, however, rather than 40% of the book being explanations and reasons for his fetishes and analogies. While it is kind of cool to see the psychology and reasoning behind his novel, he spent way too much time writing about his personal life and other things, and not enough time telling the story.

This book has trigger warnings for [rape, suicide, animal cruelty, death, body horror,]The Story of the Eye is a short modern classic translated from French that follows the protagonist looking back at his bizarre sexual experiences as a young man. Told in vignettes we see the narrator and his partner as these sexual exploits become more depraved, to the point of absurdity. This is not a book for the fainthearted. I started this as part of a book club, and it’s the main reason that I even finished the book. While there are attempts from the author to deliver something with depth but overall it feels self-gratuitous. There are moments where you think that the author is trying to make a deeper point about violence and desire, or about eyes and sight, but this is forgotten in favour of sexual depravity. It is this sense of self-gratuity that becomes the driving force of the book at the cost of everything else. Often, even when I have not personally enjoyed a book I can see that it bears some merit, but that is not the case here.

Better approached as a subversive prose poem than a story or novella. This is not for casual readers, nor indeed for the easily offended. It is grotesque but startling; pornographic but deeply artistic.The accompanying essays add a huge amount of value.That said, it is worth underlining that you'd need to be a seasoned (and open minded) reader to even get past the perception that this is all "mere smut" - it may be smut, but it is not mere.Approach with caution.

The first part reads like a Surrealist attempt at pornography; a sort of shock for shock's sake. It is only when the author enters into the 'autobiographical' Part 2 that some sense to the work appears.He gives us self-psychoanalysis via Freudian dream theory. The relevance of the obscene use of the eye and the fluids and the Oedipal role of Marcelle. So the first part isn't just the 'lewdest of meanings' rather they are 'deformed dreams'. And thus it is literature not just porn, I think.

The book includes a 30 page essay be Susan Sontag. What she says on pages 102 to 103 ("for the paradox to gain real significance..........") is one if the best things I have ever read. I immediately ordered two if Susan Sontag's books.

Enjoyed