Roberto Calasso

A singular journey through the visionary world of Kafka and its captivating mysteries, now in Penguin Modern Classics. What are Kafka's stories about? Are they dreams? Allegories? Symbols? Things that happen every day? But where and when? In this remarkable book, Roberto Calasso sets out not to dispel the mystery but to let it be illuminated by its own light....

A remarkable retelling of Hindu mythology, from one of Europe's greatest literary figures. In Ka, Roberto Calasso delves into the corpus of classical Sanskrit literature, recreating and re-imagining the enchanting world of ancient India. Beginning with the Rig-Veda, Ka weaves together myths from the Upanishad, the Mahabharata, and the stories of the Buddha, all of which pose questions that have...

A brilliant new translation of a classic work on violence and revolution as seen through mythology and art. The Ruin of Kasch takes up two subjects—"the first is Talleyrand, and the second is everything else," wrote Italo Calvino when the book first appeared in 1983. Hailed as one of those rare books that persuade us to see our entire civilization...

New to Penguin Classics, the international bestseller by one of Europe's pre-eminent literary figures. The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony is a masterful retelling of the ancient myths and fables we may only think we know. From the tale of Europa and the bull to the fall of Troy, Roberto Calasso weaves his way through the entire world of Greek...

New to Penguin Modern Classics, a captivating exploration of the work of one of Italy's most influential - and least understood - painters. Throughout his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time, Proust repeatedly refers to colours as Tiepolo Pink or Tiepolo Red. Who exactly was the artist that he so memorably transformed into colour? The eighteenth-century Venetian painter Giambattista Tiepolo...

An extraordinary tale of transformation from the renowned Italian writer, thinker and publisher. The Celestial Hunter begins with: 'When hunting began, it was not a man who chased an animal. It was a being that chased another being. No one could say with certainty who each of them were.' Connecting Greek and Egyptian myth, the stories of poets, shamans and...

An immersive and mesmerizing narrative that reimagines the Mesopotamian myth of the Great Flood. A long time ago, the gods grew tired of humans and decided to send a flood to destroy them. But Ea, the god of fresh underground water, didn't agree. He advised one of his devotees, Utnapishtim, to build a quadrangular boat to house humans and animals,...

A captivating and highly original retelling of key stories from the Bible—the culmination of a lifetime's literary work. A man named Saul is sent to search for some lost donkeys and on the way is named king of his people. The queen of a remote African realm travels for three years with her entourage to meet the king of Jerusalem...

A concise, yet wide-ranging inquiry into the roots of modernity and the turmoil of the present day. Tourists, terrorists, secularists, hackers, fundamentalists, transhumanists, algorithmicians—in this book, Roberto Calasso considers the tribes that inhabit and inform the world today. A world that feels more elusive than ever before. Yet once contrasted with the period between 1933 and 1945, when the world...