A Short History of Decay (Penguin Modern Classics)

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His mother has Alzheimer's, his father has recently had a stroke, and his girlfriend has recently broken up with him. An introduction from an academic familiar with Cioran would be of much value in helping readers get to grips with what Cioran is trying to achieve with this book.

For Cioran it was a time of intense poverty; not only was it difficult to make ends meet, but he experienced both a cultural and linguistic self-exile, writing in a language not his own, in a style composed entirely of fragments, during the long nights of insomnia that he would struggle with his entire life. It is enough for me to hear someone talk sincerely about ideals, about the future, about philosophy, to hear him say “we” with a certain inflection of assurance, to hear him invoke “others” and regard himself as their interpreter—-for me to consider him my enemy.The truly solitary being is not the man who is abandoned by men, but the man who suffers in their midst.

Whereas the fanatic is incorruptible: if he kills for an idea, he can just as well get himself killed for one; in either case, tyrant or martyr, he is a monster.Nathan Knapp of the Times Literary Supplement spoke positively of the sense of dread Cioran depicted within the book, and writing in 2019, said that "he is exactly the kind of thinker our present moment most richly deserves.