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The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993 |  | Author: Charles Bukowski
Publisher: Ecco
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $9.82
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Rating:  16 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 576
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0061228443
Dewey Decimal Number: 811
EAN: 9780061228445
Publication Date: December 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780061228445 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
To his legions of fans, Charles Bukowski was—and remains—the quintessential counterculture icon. A hard-drinking wild man of literature and a stubborn outsider to the poetry world, he wrote unflinchingly about booze, work, and women, in raw, street-tough poems whose truth has struck a chord with generations of readers. Edited by John Martin, the legendary publisher of Black Sparrow Press and a close friend of Bukowski's, The Pleasures of the Damned is a selection of the best works from Bukowski's long poetic career, including the last of his never-before-collected poems. Celebrating the full range of the poet's extra-ordinary and surprising sensibility, and his uncompromising linguistic brilliance, these poems cover a rich lifetime of experiences and speak to Bukowski's "immense intelligence, the caring heart that saw through the sham of our pretenses and had pity on our human condition" (The New York Quarterly). The Pleasures of the Damned is an astonishing poetic treasure trove, essential reading for both longtime fans and those just discovering this unique and legendary American voice.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
 Great Book and a must have for poetry fans August 18, 2010
Sarah Love
Great book, a good start to Bukoswki, gets you wanting to read more of him.
 This is Not The Best of the Best of Bukowski July 3, 2010
George Anderson (Wollongong)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
You have to admire Bukowski for his tenacity to prove himself as an original artist and for his enormous body of work. I'm not too sure what Buk would make of his revamped, posthumous career, but he is becoming increasingly famous and this is the 14th major publication of his creative work since his death in 1994. The large blurb on the back cover of this new UK release claims: THE BEST OF THE BEST OF BUKOWSKI. As pointed out by Zachary T. Ciulla, about half of the poems collected in this volume were not published until after Bukowski's death. It is difficult to imagine Bukowski allowing a lot of this material to be published, but I suppose it is of sufficient interest to appeal to a Bukowski fanatic or scholar.
There are some astounding poems in this collection, such as `The Genius of the Crowd', `Dinosauria, we' and `the bluebird' but there is also a lot of second or third-rate filler. You can sometimes read 100 poems in a stretch and not find one worthy of detailed future consideration. I get the impression that Bukowski's long term venerable editor John Martin slapped this one together, tossing in the mix, dozens of uncollected or newly published poems to give the volume a fresh, previously unread feel, even amongst Buk's most ardent followers. The book is certainly worth reading, but overall, a vast majority of the poems did not challenge me or extend my understanding of the Bukowski canon.
If you are a novice reader of Bukowski, rather than waste your hard earned bucks on 'Pleasures of the Damned' check out some of his finer earlier work- he actually agreed to have published during his lifetime. You can't go wrong with LOVE IS A DOG FROM HELL (1977), BURNING IN WATER DROWNING IN FLAME (1978) or WAR ALL THE TIME (1984).
A must read! June 15, 2010
Dylan R. Cramer (North Vancouver, B.C. Canada)
This is an incredible collection of Bukowski - his insight into life is beautifully illuminated in this book.
What a great talent and man - we are all the better for having read him.
The Definitive Bukowski Collection March 15, 2010
w.s.
Charles Bukowski was not your conventional poet. He didn't write in the traditional style that most poets write, with stanzas and syllable counts and rhyming patterns. I've actually one read one Bukowski poem that ever rhymed , and he ironically acknowledged that in the poem. He instead opted for a conversational free verse style of writing. He didn't typically write flowery statements about life and romance. His poems tend to be raw, blunt, and sometimes raunchy, taking the most mundane, offensive, and/or bizarre events and turning them into his own brand of poetry. His earthiness and lack of pretense has made him appealing to the "common man", so to speak, but hasn't particularly endeared him to most scholarly types. Bukowski's poetry has sometimes been criticized as "too simple" or "mediocre", but his simplicity is what has endeared him to millions of fans. His writing makes you feel as if you're having a conversation with an eccentric yet wise and perceptive sage. Throughout "The Pleasures of the Damned", a massive collection of Bukowski's poems, I felt like I was sitting down with the writer himself, in his living room, listening to his entertaining stories. That's one of the reasons why Charles Bukowski is so appealing. He makes the reader feel as if he's getting to know him. He tells his stories with wit, that's often ironic or sardonic, insight, and sometimes even surprising poignancy. "The Pleasures of the Damned" isn't a perfect collection, however. John Martin, the editor, could've trimmed a little of the fat and given us Bukowski's best work, instead of all of his poems. It also wouldn't have hurt to have an introduction of some sort, especially since Martin was so close to Bukowski. However, to the Bukowski fans, this is as close to a definitive collection of his work that we'll get and it's a great one at that.
excellent read February 7, 2010
Betty Reetz
This is an excellent collection which leads to an excellent read. I find myself going to the work each night just before calling it quits for the day. It offers comfort and inspiration. As an aspiring writer Bukowski cheers one on to find the materials in everyday life and times to write about the here and now. In Bukowski's verse we find a poet grounded in the everyday circumstances of living in the now. Pleasures of the damned maybe fleeting but somehow they seem so much more real then the promises of an eternal life with streets paved with gold and moments of eternal bliss.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
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