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Reviews
A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful by Edmund Burke
mg2023's review against another edition
4.0
Some words that come to mind when describing this book are: eloquent, overwhelming, thought-provoking, confusing, and "what have I just read?" On face value, the author seems to be merely defining and distinguishing the words, beautiful and sublime. The title is pretty self-explanatory and the book does what one would anticipate from it. But well into the book, it becomes clear that there must be a larger plot. Edmund Burke lays out our role in society and the way our passions work as in a congruence with the divine insertion of the innate capacity to perceive beauty and to be drawn to the Sublime - which is defined as a terrifying, awe-inspiring notion. The sublime is an experience that is so beyond the experience of the mundane 'beautiful' that it carries us away from the world of images and clarities to the world of feelings and intense emotions. Burke shows that our pleasures for what is beautiful (worldly) cannot come near the "delight" felt by the sublime (unworldly), Godly experience... The book has made me contemplate the standards of my taste and made me question the nature of my relationship to the most sublime being, God.
johndamon's review against another edition
5.0
Burke does a fantastic job of clearly and attractively communicating our experience of true beauty and the sublime. Going to have to keep my eyes on this author, I feel like he has a promising future.
sarabrennan's review against another edition
3.0
Just a bit of light reading … Ko I actually would not have read this out of choice because I am not completely mental yet. Read it for Uni obvs and it was hard work I gotta say. When I read the prologue I was prepared for the rest of the book to be pure evil because what a slog. But once it got to the fast paced chapters it did definitely pick up so it was overall actually alright. He sure did have a lot to say! But by the end when he was going on about like sight or something idk I did get bored shitless again. I just know if Burke was alive today he’s post on his private story all the time.
jackieeejw's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.75
Some insightful pockets but could have been a 10 page treatise. Tries to be thorough and rigorous and is still mostly an incomplete slog. Will enjoy discussing these ideas in class much more than I enjoyed reading this as a work in of itself.
imagined245's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
2.25
He really just said the same thing in 6x more words than were necessary