Reading Order
Histoire de l'œil Reading Order
Histoire de l'œil (Story of the Eye, 1928) by Georges Bataille is the foundational text of the literary transgression movement — a short, violent, erotic novel published pseudonymously under the name 'Lord Auch' that Bataille later acknowledged; it is the most extreme and most formally perfect expression of his theory of transgression, excess, and the sacred. The novel follows an unnamed narrator and his companion Simone through a series of increasingly violent erotic encounters — the narrative is almost impossible to summarize because the events are less important than the symbolic system they constitute: eggs, eyes, the sun, bull testicles appear and reappear in a chain of substitution that Bataille later analyzed in an essay ('Coincidences') appended to some editions. Histoire de l'œil is Surrealism's dark twin — written at the same moment as Breton's Manifesto and sharing its roots in automatic writing and the unconscious, but refusing all of Surrealism's optimism about liberation; for Bataille, the encounter with the unconscious leads not to marvelous freedom but to catastrophe. The Penguin translation by Joachim Neugroschel (1987) is the standard English version.
Where to start
Read Histoire de l'œil complete in a single sitting (it is very short — under 100 pages) — reading it in fragments or over several sessions dissipates the cumulative effect. Read 'Coincidences,' Bataille's retrospective analysis of the symbolic system, immediately after — it transforms the novel. Then read Madame Edwarda (1937) for Bataille's later development of the same themes, followed by L'Érotisme (1957) for the full theoretical account.
Complete Histoire de l'œil Book List
- 1Buy
Histoire de l'œil
Georges Bataille·1928·Start here — read it complete in one sitting; the cumulative effect is central - 2Buy
Coincidences
Georges Bataille·1928·Bataille's own analysis of the novel's symbolic system — appended to some editions; essential immediately after - 3Buy
Madame Edwarda
Georges Bataille·1937·The theological sequel — the encounter with God as prostitute; the most extreme development of the transgression theory - 4Buy
L'Érotisme
Georges Bataille·1957·The full theoretical account of transgression, taboo, and the erotic as sacred experience - 5Buy
Les Larmes d'Éros
Georges Bataille·1961·The culminating work — images of erotic violence from art history, the final synthesis; Bataille's last book
Histoire de l'œil — Frequently Asked Questions
What is the symbolic system in Histoire de l'œil?
Bataille's own retrospective analysis ('Coincidences') identifies a chain of substitution running through the novel: eggs, eyes, the sun, and bull testicles are all variations of the same spherical, liquid, vulnerable object, each appearing in increasingly transgressive contexts. The chain begins with an egg and ends with a human eye — the progression is a revelation of the identity of seemingly unrelated objects through the logic of the unconscious rather than conscious thought. The novel does not explain this system; the 'Coincidences' essay, appended to later editions, makes it explicit.
How does Bataille differ from the Surrealists?
Bataille and Breton were explicit antagonists. Breton expelled Bataille from the Surrealist circle, partly because Bataille's materialism refused Surrealism's idealist tendency (Breton believed in the marvelous and in liberation; Bataille believed in catastrophe and sovereignty). For Bataille, the encounter with the unconscious leads not to freedom but to annihilation — his concept of sovereignty is a state beyond utility, beyond self, achieved through extreme transgression rather than automatic writing. Both drew on Freud, but drew opposite conclusions.
What is Bataille's theory of transgression?
For Bataille, transgression is not the simple violation of a rule but the productive encounter between the rule and its violation — transgression requires the taboo; without prohibition, there is nothing to transgress and no experience of intensity. The taboo exists to be transgressed; transgression confirms the taboo. The erotic, the sacred, and violence are all forms of transgression in this sense — all involve the dissolution of the bounded self, the experience of continuity (what Bataille also calls 'death') as opposed to the discontinuous individual existence of everyday life. L'Érotisme is the fullest theoretical account.
Is Histoire de l'œil pornography?
Bataille himself resisted the label — he distinguished between pornography (which aims at arousal and nothing else) and erotic literature (which uses the transgressive encounter as a vehicle for philosophical or religious experience). Whether the distinction holds for Histoire de l'œil is a genuinely contested question: the novel was published clandestinely and has been treated both as pornography (legally) and as one of the major French literary texts of the century (critically). The most honest answer is that it is both, and that the tension between the two readings is part of what makes it important.
What translations of Bataille are available in English?
The Joachim Neugroschel translation (Penguin/City Lights, 1987) is the standard English text of Histoire de l'œil. Madame Edwarda and The Dead Man appear in City Lights editions. The Bataille reader edited by Fred Botting and Scott Wilson (Blackwell, 1997) provides the key theoretical texts. The Complete Works in French have not been fully translated into English, so some secondary texts — including much of the wartime journal — remain inaccessible without French.
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