Eros the Bittersweet

Eros the Bittersweet
AuthorAnne Carson
LanguageEnglish
Genre
  • Nonfiction
  • criticism
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Publication date
1986
Publication placeUnited States
AwardsModern Library: 100 Best Nonfiction Books (Reader's List)
ISBN9780608027401

Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay (1986) is the first book of criticism by the Canadian poet, essayist, translator, and classicist Anne Carson.

A reworking of her 1981 doctoral thesis Odi et Amo Ergo Sum ("I Hate and I Love, Therefore I Am"), Eros the Bittersweet "laid the groundwork for her subsequent publications, […] formulating the ideas on desire that would come to dominate her poetic output", and establishing her "style of patterning her writings after classical Greek literature".