In this classic work, first published in 1971, well-known novelist,
reviewer and poetry critic Al Alvarez takes a sensitive and
perceptive look at the nature of suicide, arguing that there must
be a way to get to grips with this 'shabby, confused, agonised
crisis' other than by examining statistics. Examining 'literature
and suicide', he suggests that the artist is more aware of his or
her motivation and better able to provide a clear description of
the act than sociologists or psychiatrists. His analysis is
sandwiched between two detailed case studies, of the poet Sylvia
Plath and of his own attempted suicide. A personal friend of Plath,
Alvarez looks at the events leading up to her death and suggests
that her poetry left her no way out since she salvaged most of it
'from the edge of some kind of personal abyss'. He is convinced she
did not mean to die but had been crying for help in a last heroic
attempt to beat her demons. In the same week, there would have been
some 99 other suicides in the UK. Why do these deaths happen? How
can the waste be explained? Alvarez traces the trajectory of
suicide from the early Christians to the present day and then
tracks back through the artistic endeavours of each century. John
Donne confessed a perennial temptation to commit suicide but his
Christian training proved stronger than his despair. William Cowper
made several dogged and quite unintentionally humorous suicide
attempts in 1763. Walpole thought it was 'very provoking' that
people should always be hanging or drowning themselves. Changes in
attitude came about slowly, beginning to establish themselves with
Durkheim's classic study in 1897. The 20th century brought clinical
investigation, statistical analysis and theories as well as a
sudden sharp rise in the rates of artists committing suicide, among
them Virginia Woolf, Dylan Thomas, Malcolm Lowry, Jackson Pollock
and Ernest Hemingway. The better the artist, Alvarez suggests, the
more vulnerable he or she seems to be. Thought-provoking and
astute, this book leads the reader safely through the dark
labyrinth of despair that compels thousands each year to
self-destruction. (Kirkus UK)
Using the untimely death of the poet and friend, Sylvia Plath, as a point of departure, Al Alvarez confonts the controversial and often taboo area of suicide.
The Savage God explores the cultural attitudes, theories, truths and fallacies surrounding suicide and refracts them through the windows of philosophy, art and literature: following the black thread from Dante through Donne, Chatterton and the Romantic Agony, to Dada and Pavese. This bestselling book is a classic text, a timeless and compelling meditation on the Savage God at the heart of human existence.
Al Alvarez is a distinguished poet, critic and journalist. To find out more, visit
www.bloomsbury.com/alalvarez
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