<div>Born of a terrible insomnia--"a dizzying lucidity which would turn even <br>paradise into hell"--this book presents the youthful Cioran, a self-<br>described "Nietzsche still complete with his Zarathustra, his poses, his <br>mystical clown's tricks, a whole circus of the heights."<br><br><i>On the Heights of Despair</i> shows Cioran's first grappling with <br>themes he would return to in his mature works: despair and decay, <br>absurdity and alienation, futility and the irrationality of existence. <br>It also presents Cioran as a connoisseur of apocalypse, a theoretician <br>of despair, for whom writing and philosophy both share the "lyrical <br>virtues" that alone lead to a metaphysical revelation. <br><br>"No modern writer twists the knife with Cioran's dexterity. . . . His writing . . . is informed with the bitterness of genuine compassion."--Bill Marx, <i>Boston Phoenix</i><br><br>"The dark, existential despair of Romanian philosopher Cioran's short <br>meditations is paradoxically bracing and life-affirming. . . . Puts him in the company of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard."--<i>Publishers Weekly,</i> starred review<br><br>"This is self-pity as epigram, the sort of dyspeptic pronouncement that <br>gets most people kicked out of bed but that has kept Mr. Cioran going <br>for the rest of his life."--Judith Shulevitz, <i>New York Times Book </i><br><i>Review</i><br><br>Emil M. Cioran (1911-1995) is the author of numerous works, including <br><i>The Fall into Time, A Short History of Decay,</i> and <i>Tears and </i><br><i>Saints.</i>.<br><br></div>