An elegant introduction to Bataille's major concepts and concerns, Bataille: A Critical Reader underlines the powerful impact his work has had, in different ways, on an entire generation of thinkers.

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