内容简介：
"This is a frightening and beautiful book. It is hugely learned, encompassing (in both its references and its style) the high and popular literatures and philosophical texts of the eighteenth century through the present day, as well as texts and themes in classical thought, ethics, and politics. It is razor sharp in its analytic moves; nothing loose or speculative about its presentation, no argument by metaphor, juxtaposition, implication, or innuendo. Because its mastery is so sustained and impersonal -- in a sense, so disinterested -- we submit to it in an access of textual pleasure, or jouissance. Sometimes, the scholarly exposition is so deadpan, so perfect in its observation of convention, as to make you suspect that Mann is having you on: John Cleese doing genealogy of morals.