From the internationally acclaimed author of The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony and Ka: a brilliant study of the gods in literature that restores reading to an exalted position.In charting the history of classical divinities in literature -- from their banishment during the Age of Reason to their place in the literature of our own time -- Roberto Calasso maps a history of literary inspiration and carves out a sacred space for literature as the exclusive domain of the gods. His inquiry into the nature of "absolute literature" transports us to the sublime realms of Dionysus and Orpheus, Baudelaire and Mallarme, and provokes an impassioned defense of poetic form. Lyrical and penetrating, enchanting and assured, Literature and the Gods is a deeply engaging work of literary affirmation that deserves to be read alongside the masterpieces it celebrates.