Book Against Death

The Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti all his life declared himself a mortal enemy of deathand here, in English at last, is his landmark book on the subjectThe Book Against Deathis the work of a lifetime: a collection of Elias Canettis powerful, disarming, and often bleakly comic observations, diatribes, musings, and commentaries on and against death. Evoking despair, melancholy, and fury, Canetti examines the inevitable demise of all beingsfrom the ant, the fish, and the worm to an executioner, a court painter, and a Greek godwhile fiercely protesting the mass deaths incurred during war and the willingness of the despot to wield death as power. Interspersed with material from philosophers and writers such as Goethe, Walter Benjamin, and Robert Walser, The Book Against Deathis ultimately a moving affirmation of the value of life itself.Canetti famously refused to die before hed read all his obituaries and corrected them.I accept no death.Elias Canetti (19051994)