Emil Cioran

Tears and Saints focuses not on martyrs or heroes but on the mystics - primarily female - famous for their keening spirituality and intimate knowledge of God. Their Christianity was anti-theological, anti-institutional, and based on intuition and sentiment. Many, such as Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and Saint John of the Cross, have produced classic works of mystical literature; but Cioran celebrates many more minor and unusual figures as well. Following Nietzsche, Cioran brings to light the political element hidden in saints' lives. In his hands, their charitable deeds are much less interesting than their thirst for pain and their equally powerful capacity to endure it. What Cioran calls the "voluptuousness of suffering" is epitomized by Margaret Mary Alacoque's classic statement: "None of my sufferings has been equal to that of not having suffered enough." Behind this suffering and their uncanny ability to renounce everything through ascetic practices, Cioran detects a fanatical will to power.

"All Gall Is Divided, which reads like the writings of Zarathustra's brother, reveals the conflicts, paradoxes, and rejoicings of existence as understood by a man frequently compared to Samuel Beckett. E. M. Cioran's book of aphorisms focuses on themes such as philosophy, language, death, mystery, melancholy, religion, and love. Laying bare his suspicion that madness ribbons the fringes of a supposedly ordered world, Cioran, as in previous writings, lures us into his realm of painful lucidity and dreamlike precision."--BOOK JACKET.