Heliogabalus; or, the Crowned Anarchist

Antonin Artaud, "Heliogabalus; or, the Crowned Anarchist"
English | 2003 | pages: 129 | ISBN: 1840681004, 0971457808 | PDF | 1,7 mb
Translated into English for the first time, this novelized biography of the 3rd-century Roman Emperor Heliogabalus is simultaneously Araud’s most accessible and his most extreme book. Written in 1933, at the time when Artaud was preparing to stage his legendary Theatre of Cruelty, Heliogabalus is a powerful concoction of sexual excess, self-deification and terminal violence. Reflecting its author’s preoccupations with the occult, magic, Satan, and a range of esoteric religions, this account of Heliogabalus’ reign invents incidents in the Emperor’s life in order to make the print of the author’s own passionate denunciations of modern existence.