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. Heliogabalus is Artaud’s greatest and most revolutionary masterpiece: an incendiary work that reveals both the divine cruelty of the Roman Emperor and that of Artaud himself. -- Stephen Barber

Antonin Artaud's novelized biography of the third-century Roman Emperor Heliogabalus is both his most accessible and his most extreme book. Written in 1933, when Artaud was preparing his legendary Theatre of Cruelty, Heliogabalus is a powerful concoction of sexual excess, self-deification, and terminal violence.</P>
Reflecting its author's preoccupation with the occult, magic, -Satan, and esoteric religions, the author assembles an entire world-view from the raw material of insanity, sexual obsession and anger. </P>

This is the first new English language anthology of Artaud's writing m nearly twenty years, and reflects an increased interest in his late work (a show of Artaud's visual art from this period was on view at MOMA throughout 19961). Clayton Eshleman's translations have won widespread acclaim, including a National Book Award. Now in its second printing.

A revolutionary figure in the literary avant-garde of his time, Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) is now seen to be central to the development of post-modernism. His writings comprise verse, prose poems, film scenarios, a historical novel, plays, essays on film, theater, art, and literature, and many letters. Susan Sontag's selection conveys the genius of this singular writer.

Voici le livre le plus violent de la littérature contemporaine, je veux dire dʼune violence belle et régénératrice.
Héliogabale, né sur un berceau de sperme, mort sur un oreiller de sang, est un noir héros de notre monde. Sa légende est faite de perversité et dʼexécration. El Gabal, “Celui de la Montagne” , est non seulement lʼempereur dépravé de la Rome pourrissante du Troisième Siècle, livré aux vices et à la folie, mais aussi le premier héros infernal de cette rencontre avec lʼOrient, dont Apollonius de Tyane fut lʼArchange. Incarnation du mythe hermaphrodite, adorateur du Soleil et de la pierre noire Élagabale, il a vécu jusquʼà lʼextrême le drame de lʼaffrontement entre le monde gréco-latin et la Barbarie. Il sʼagit bien ici dʼun texte initiatique : prêtre païen et empereur de Rome à lʼâge de quatorze ans, Héliogabale annonce à la fois le rite solaire des Tarahumaras, et le sacrifice de Van Gogh le Suicidé de la société, puis la descente aux Enfers dʼArtaud le Mômo. Héliogabale est lʼAnarchiste, avant dʼêtre lʼAlchimiste couronné.
Ce livre envoûtant, le plus construit et le plus documenté des écrits dʼAntonin Artaud, est aussi le plus imaginaire.
Qui nʼa pas lu Héliogabale nʼa pas touché le fond même de notre littérature sauvage.