*SOLD*
 
A stark look at the tragedy of consciousness 
 
Del Sentimiento Trágico de la Vida[The Tragic Sense of Life]
Miguel de Unamuno
Madrid, 1912
 
First edition.  I’ve not seen or been able to locate a copy as nice as this.  Two tiny chips at spine head, small split at lower front joint, very slight general wear to wrappers, otherwise Fine.  A stunningly nice copy of a fragile book.  All edges uncut.  One appearance in the sales records, and a couple in Spanish libraries.
 
After experiencing a crisis of religious faith and his son’s tragic battle with meningitis, the Basque writer and professor turned to the exploration of man’s inner strife.
 
‘”Consciousness,” wrote Unamuno, “is a disease." This thing called consciousness, we learn, is simply awareness of one’s own limitations.  In other words, it is consciousness of death.  And this is the tragic sense of life. 
 
Marcus Aurelius, St. Augustine, Pascal, Rousseau, Rene, Obermann, Thomson, Leopardi, Vigny, Lenau, Kleist, Amiel, Quental, Kierkegaard — these are just a few men of flesh and bone who had a bad case of the disease, wrote Unamuno, men “burdened with wisdom rather than with knowledge.”  These diseased men are Unamuno’s kindred spirits, men for whom the tragic was a constant companion.  They are individuals who chose to embrace the great horrible Doubt that lurks at the heart of modern existence rather than profess a cure.  “It is not enough,” wrote Unamuno, “to cure the plague; we must learn to weep for it.”
 
It all sounds a little morbid, Unamuno admitted.  But it is nearly always through disease that we pay attention to our health.  (And whoever proved, asked Unamuno, that man is either healthy or cheerful by nature?)  From the darkness of anguish we emerge into the light, just like when Dante came up from the depths of Hell to see the stars again.  It is precisely through the disease of consciousness, the conflict and tragedy of life, that Miguel de Unamuno was able to find his soul.’(Goldberg)