Rating: 
Summary: Well-written pornography... Colorful, daring... A good read
Review: "The Story of the Eye" is a surprisingly well-written pornographic novella about the sexual awakening of three French teenagers and the extremes to which they go to explore and fulfill their fantasies. The central theme of the book is desire: how desire often manifests itself in eccentric and perverse ways, how desire for certain objects or acts have associational roots in childhood experiences that we cannot now recall and therefore remain unconscious, how desire is frequently repressed by society with sometimes tragic consequences. The book, as many here have noted, is at times shocking, but I would say a fairer characterization of it is as colorful and daring. Read it expecting to be startled or even upset by some of the events that take place, and it probably won't have any more harmful effect on you than, say, a Surrealist film by Salvador Dali such as "Un Chien Andalou" or a graphic sexual painting by Marcel Duchamps. Furthermore, the closing section of the book goes a long way toward putting the events that have been recounted in context and "bringing you down" back to reality after the horrifying, though highly stylized and symbolic, scene in the next-to-last chapter. Take the book with a grain of salt, and then dive in and try to enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: "Eye" an Eyeful
Review: "The Story of the Eye" is the finest book ever written about the idea that one can take pleasure from acts like sitting down in a puddle of milk, placing a plucked eyeball in one's most intimate anatomical area, and inserting a hard-boiled egg into one's rectum. Experimental, arrogant, and sexually insatiable, the novel's two young lovers embark on a carnal odyssey (involving, among other things, suicide and some blasphemous debauchery in a confessional) that is, simply put, not for the faint of heart.
Rating: 
Summary: On some levels it works
Review: Actually I would probably give it 2 1/2 stars but since it wasn't an option I rounded down. I can't deny that this is an interesting book on a few levels, the problem is that the interesting elements just don't make the story as a whole that interesting.Let me start with the "ick" factor. Yes there is one but i've read much worse so I could easily stomach this without a flinch. There's nothing that's horrifically violent, just really a few scenes. Mostly the ick comes from urination. And let me tell you, there's a lot of it! I don't think two pages go by where someone isn't urinating on themselves or another person. I don't really mind a few fetishes here or there in a book but this book takes it to the point where urinating becomes the most boring thing in the entire story. The second thing I want to mention is the plot. Yeah there really isn't one. The truth is that it doesn't really even start going anywhere until close to half-way through the book. The first half of the book is really just two teenagers "getting off" by urinating and playing with boiled eggs (no i'm not kidding). The second half you finally start going somewhere but by this time it's too late to actually get you to really care about the story or the characters. If it is one thing I wish this book would have given me is character development. We're given no reason or hints for why these two kids act the way the do or what motivates them. I would have liked just maybe a little psychology to help understand. But then maybe that would have taken away everything and if we really knew them then perhaps we would have been disgusted by them instead of just not caring. Ok so i've only talked about the bad points. I'll speak about the good points. The best thing this book has going for itself is the length, it's very short so you can easily finish it in one sitting. I'll give props to the author for not dragging on (with exception of the urination on every page almost) and getting to the point. The second thing it has going for itself is how weird it is. I don't believe many people can read this book and think "This really reminds me of..." because there really isn't anything else like it. And finally the third thing is that it does manage to have some humor in it. There is a particular scene with a priest that can make you chuckle for a second. I don't know whether I would say it wasn't worth the read. I do think perhaps it was but it just wasn't worth the buy. I can't ever see myself picking it up again and I wasn't very satisified by the short story that I thought I got my money's worth. I do think that Georges Bataille wanted to express some deep psychological meaning behind all of this but for the life of me I couldn't find it anywhere. If you can find some other way to read it without having to buy it then you should give it a try but otherwise I think you should save your money.
Rating: 
Summary: Roller coaster ride of emotions
Review: After reading a short biography on the musician Bjork where this book changed her life, I decided to purchase the book. I'm still not sure why it changed her life. Unless you've lived mostly sheltered or are easily shocked. No, this book didn't change my life. No, it didn't shock me. It is, I must say a roller coaster ride that, admittedly, took me through times of revolt later to be titillated. The short novel is written in the first person of which we never really learn a name. Perhaps it's the author, perhaps only a fictional 15 year old. However, you'll find the author says this tale is "partly imaginary" which I feel only adds to its luster. I was fascinated by the character of Simone who was almost otherworldly - a child in age and a child in her mind only with adult feelings and adult desires. Her inhibitions are suppressed by her extreme sexual desire. A novel in and of herself. If nothing else, Batille exposes dark corners in the human mind that you didn't know existed. It also points out how enough is never enough. For Simone and our unknown storyteller finding new ways of achieving that sexual high is a never-ending quest leading to extremes. Ultimately their own death may be their last way at satisfaction. Pornography? Perhaps. A better description would be "an inside look at an alternative lifestyle where some things are better left unsaid." Final note: You can read this book in the lesser part of one afternoon - cover to cover.
Rating:
Summary: an amazing piece of literature
Review: Although my own personality can best be described as one of near-Victorian prudery, I was awed by the literary skill displayed in this volume. It has been a full decade since my first encounter with this work; many re-readings later, I often recall with chaste laughter many of its finest lines... " 'No,' replied Sir Edmond, with a categorical intonation." "Each day I raped a likewise transformed Simone, ESPECIALLY TOWARDS NOON." [*laughing*] "Please protect me when the Cardinal returns." And many other such lines... Even if you detest as I do the seedy vermin-like undercurrents of life which many confuse with true eros, you will be dazzled by the beauty and humor of this miniature masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: Batille's "Story of the Eye" is a brilliantly distrubing tale of a twisted coming of age. a quick read, and a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Eggs?
Review: Eggs? Who would of thought? Georges Bataille is an awesome writer! The conclusion of the book will shed light on the "why's". Georges has a vivid imagination and a sick mind, which makes this a very recommend book! Enjoy with the world dark and the candles lit.
Rating:
Summary: Odd little gem of perversion and eros.
Review: Georges Bataille often falls between the cracks of literary identificaton because his work straddles so many uncomfortable realms. A sometime-Surrealist who had a falling out with Andre Breton, Bataille's books are often compared to the Marquis de Sade's. Reading "Story of the Eye" it's not hard to see why: two teenage lovers experiment with their bodies and with foreign objects; eventually their erotic adventures include madness, torture, murder and the death of a bullfighter. This is strange, heady stuff--fortunately the book is barely 100 pages long. This is underground literature at its finest, mocking the pretensions of culture, of decency, morality, and healthy sexuality. Bataille's style can be obtuse but can also illuminate dark, forbidden corners of humanity. If you're into de Sade, Wm. Burroughs, Surrealism, Clive Barker, the psychology of fetishism, or just want something to read that is light years from the crappy bestseller lists, read "The Story of the Eye" and introduce yourself to the unholy world of Georges Bataille.
Rating:
Summary: Bizzare + Beautiful
Review: Georges Bataille writes beautifully, and his simple, shameless telling of the story works swimmingly.
Rating:
Summary: Succeeds in Its Aims
Review: Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye (a novella that actually clocks in closer to a short story; you should be able to read it within a couple hours, at most) is thoroughly successful in realizing Bataille's goal--the creation of an intentionally disturbing mix of eroticism, insanity, wanton violence, surrealism, adventure, and even an occasional touch of comedy. The author's note that appears at the end of the City Lights Books edition, translated by Joachim Neugroschel (based on the original 1928 version of the book, by the way; in later editions, Bataille revised the text so that it "differs so thoroughly in all details that one can justifiably speak of two distinct books" per Neugroschel), states the psychological sources of the material in a fairly straightforward way. Bataille's father was blind and had "huge, ever gaping" eyes. He was also paralyzed and would frequently relieve himself in front of Georges, sometimes accidentally. As if that wasn't tragic enough, he also went mad towards the end of his life, shouting out obscenities that shocked the strictly-raised Bataille. Shortly after this, Bataille's mother had a temporary mental breakdown, as well. The incident at the "haunted castle" actually happened, in part, and so on. But although knowing the source material is informative, it's not necessary to enjoy the book, and Bataille extrapolates far beyond his experiences, strongly emphasizing the surrealist aspects (you can even interpret a fair amount of the book as a novelization of a handful of Dali paintings, imagined by a psychopath), and delivering the result in a beautifully terse prose--often bridging over to poetry--that owes as much to Steinbeck and Hemingway as it does to a more shocking Kafka. If you're easily offended, this book will more than do the trick. I'm not up on my banned book trivia at the moment, but Story of the Eye is undoubtedly on quite a few of those lists. Many have said that this book has no redeeming value, or indeed no artistic value. That's only true if you have a very narrow view of the scope of literature--one so narrow, that most important works of fiction from the twentieth century and beyond are probably unintelligible to you. Story of the Eye has had more than its share of influence, in everything from fiction to painting to film, and provides a gripping, if upsetting read.
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