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  • Sexual Personae

  • Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson
  • By: Camille Paglia
  • Narrated by: Emily Durante
  • Length: 35 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (11 ratings)

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Sexual Personae cover art

Sexual Personae

By: Camille Paglia
Narrated by: Emily Durante
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Publisher's Summary

In this brilliantly original book, Camille Paglia identifies some of the major patterns that have endured in western culture from ancient Egypt and Greece to the present. According to Paglia, one source of continuity is paganism, which, undefeated by Judeo-Christianity, continues to flourish in art, eroticism, astrology, and pop culture. Others, she says, are androgyny, sadism, and the aggressive western eye, which has created our art and cinema.

Paglia follows these and other themes, from Nefertiti and the Venus of Willendorf to Apollo and Dionysus, from Botticelli and Michaelangelo to Shakespeare and Blake and finally to Emily Dickinson, who, along with other major 19th-century authors, becomes a remarkable example of Romanticism turned into Decadence.

©1990 Yale University (P)2017 Tantor
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: Erotica

Critic Reviews

"'Pagan' in its own pictorialism, sprawl, and unstopped prose, [Paglia's] unusual book creates its brilliant effect from an explosive fusing of scholarship and theater." ( Kirkus)

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Pure genius unleashed

A masterwork. Paglia bends her voracious intellect to the canvas and furiously paints for us a staggering mural, encompassing the very totality of art, literature, history and the inner life of mankind. The result is a truly inspired work that weaves a tapestry connecting image, myth, language and ritual back to the very dim dawn of humanity. True to form, Paglia is at times brazen, at times lovingly delicate, and yet always seductive and playful, beckoning the reader with a knowing wink to come and see through her piercing eye to the heart of the human experience. Breathtaking in its scope and intricate in its nuance, this book is a celebration of our inner truths that could heal the world if understood correctly. As for the performance, Emily Durante perfectly captures the bright, smiling confidence and cheeky whit of Paglias voice, all while keeping the pace below the blistering speed for which the author is famous, allowing mere mortals to keep up. I have listened many times, and will listen many times again. A wonderous work, a perfect performance. Thank you for this gift.

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Stunningly insightful

A very complex and multilayered book, an amazing read. This book has completely shifted the way I see culture unfold around me, and expanded my ability to understand theology and history in a way I could not comprehend during my early twenties.

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outstanding

The narrator was outstanding. It felt as if I was listening to the author herself.

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