Fred Botting and Scott Wilson both teach in the Department of English at Lancaster University. They are co-editors of George Bataille: A Critical Reader (1997). Fred Bottings publications include Gothic (1996). Scott Wilson is the author of Cultural Materialism: Theory and Practice (Blackwell Publishers, 1995).

• Acknowledgements. Introduction: From Experience to Economy.Part I: Inner Experience: .1. Chance.2. Guilt.3. Laughter.4. The Torment.5. Christ.6. Love.7. Life.8. Poetry.9. Autobiographical Note.Part II: Heterology:.10. Program (Relative to Acéphale).11. The Psychological Structure of Fascism.12. The Use-Value of D. A. F. de Sade.13. Base Materialism and Gnosticism.Part III: General Economy:.14. The Notion of Expenditure.15. The Meaning of General Economy.16. Laws of General Economy.17. The Gift of Rivalry.18. Sacrifice, the Festival and the Principles of the Sacred World.Part IV: Eroticism:.19. Mme Edwarda.20. Preface to the History of Eroticism.21. Death.22. The Festival, or the Transgression of Prohibitions.23. The Phaedra Complex.24. Desire Horrified at Losing and at Losing Oneself.25. The Object of Desire and the Totality of the Real.26. Epilogue to the History of Eroticism.Part V: Sovereignty:.27. To Whom.28. Hegel, Death and Sacrifice.29. Letter to X.30. Knowledge of Sovereignty.31. The Schema of Sovereignty.32. Un-knowing and its Consequences.33. Un-knowing and Rebellion.34. On Nietzsche: The Will to Chance.Bibliography.Index.

"Bataille: A Critical Reader is a careful selection of some of the best and most interesting critical work on this elusive and often obscure thinker." University of Sussex