Autobiography, Volume 2
1937-1960, Exile's Odyssey
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- $40.99
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- $40.99
Publisher Description
“Here finally are Eliade’s memoirs of the first thirty years of his life in Mac Linscott Rickett’s crisp and lucid English translation. They present a fascinating account of the early development of a Renaissance talent, expressed in everything from daily and periodical journalism, realistic and fantastic fiction, and general nonfiction works to distinguished contributions to the history of religions. Autobiography follows an apparently amazingly candid report of this remarkable man’s progression from a mischievous street urchin and literary prodigy, through his various love affairs, a decisive and traumatic Indian sojourn, and active, brilliant participation in pre-World War II Romanian cultural life.”—Seymour Cain, Religious Studies Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Huddled in an air-raid shelter during the London Blitz, Eliade mulls over ``the mystery of collective death.'' His first meeting with his wife Christinel prompts thoughts about ``manifestations of the sacred'' in daily life. In this memoir, the distinguished Romanian-born historian of myth and religion, who died in 1986, displays an annoying tendency to turn his life into the stuff of myth. We don't get much self-revelation in an externalized self-portrait studded with scholarly conferences and writing projects. There are glimpses of Jung and Ionesco plus observations on Buddhist logic, shamanism, the Portuguese (``a sad people''), our thirst for the sacred. Eliade relives his imprisonment in a Romanian concentration camp, his subsequent flight to Paris and then to Chicago. We also see him struggling as a novelist and short-story writer, a little-known side of his career.
