"In this erudite volume, scholars Toscano and Noys collect the critical works of French thinker and novelist Georges Bataille (1897–1962), touching on topics including philosophy, literature, religion, geopolitics, art, and psychoanalysis."

Publishers Weekly

"Sixty years after his death, Georges Bataille remains a vexing figure in French literature and philosophy. A creator or member of endless literary and philosophical movements, from the short-lived Acéphale to surrealism, he belonged fully to none of them, not even his own, and his apparent will to destruction often risks carrying over to those who enter into dialogue with him, even today. . . . These essays invite the reader in, in a way that many of Bataille’s works do not; they also give us a glimpse of a thinker working out his position. . ."

Times Literary Supplement

"[Bataille's] reflections on fascism and the moralities of violence and mistruth are especially relevant today. This volume and the two to follow promise to be of great value to scholars in the fields of literary history, politics, and the history of ideas. . . . Highly recommended."

Choice

"For a long time, nonspecialists or English-only readers have come to know [Bataille] either through early, idiosyncratic texts in which excess and eroticism predominate both thematically and stylistically. . . Or, they have approached Bataille through his postwar monographs, which do not abandon previous themes but pursue them with measured restraint. . . . With the arrival of Critical Essays 1, Bataille’s English readers can see. . . the scope of his influence on France’s artistic and intellectual scenes; his somewhat ambiguous and easily misunderstood political stances in a time of dramatic geopolitical change; his unsteady but ongoing relationship with surrealism and growing antagonism toward existentialism; and perhaps above all, how his intellectual and moral intensity is not only sustained but in some ways elevated
by its refinement in the role of a public-facing critic."

Cultural Critique