Work · Life & Existential Philosophy
On the Heights of Despair
Cioran’s first book, written during years of insomnia: lyrical fragments on suffering, death and the impossibility of a reconciled life.
Introduction
Cioran wrote “On the Heights of Despair” in his early twenties, during years of chronic insomnia, and published it in Bucharest in 1934; it received a prize of the Royal Foundations for young unpublished writers. The book consists of short, lyrical chapters on suffering, illness, death, solitude, ecstasy and the futility of knowledge, presented as experiences that philosophy cannot make sense of. Its tone is that of an outburst rather than an argument; Cioran later said that writing it kept him from suicide. The influence of Nietzsche and of German Lebensphilosophie is evident. Its themes – insomnia, lucidity, the rejection of consolation – recur throughout his later work. It was translated into French in 1990 and into English in 1992.
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