The Savage God

An intelligent and sympathetic analysis of one of the true taboos of modern life.



Using the untimely death of the poet and friend, Sylvia Plath, as a point of departure, Al Alvarez confronts the controversial and often taboo area of human behaviour: 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 leading from Dante, through Donne, Chatterton and the Romantic Agony, to Dada and Pavese.



Entwined within this sensitive study is the author's deeply personal account of his own unsuccessful suicide attempt, and together they form the most fascinating and compelling meditation on the Savage God at the heart of human existence.

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'A beautifully written book, full of poetic truths ... It adds a new dimension to the perspective of suicide.' New Society



'Widely admired ... Alvarez does what Levi says: he writes what the politeness and prevarications of speech might have defeated.' Guardian



'To write about suicide ... to transform the subject into something beautiful - this is the forbidding task that Alvarez has set for himself ... he has succeeded.' New York Times