A Short History of Decay

By: E. M. Cioran

Narrated by: Rick Adamson

E. M. Cioran confronts the place of today's world in the context of human history—focusing on such major issues of the twentieth century as human progress, fanaticism, and science—in this nihilistic and witty collection of aphoristic essays concerning the nature of civilization in mid-twentieth-century Europe. Table of Contents:

Foreword

Directions for Decomposition

The Second-Hand Thinker

Faces of Decadence

Sanctity and the Grimaces of the Absolute

The Décor of Knowledge

Abdications

Touching upon Man's need to worship, the feebleness of God, the downfall of the Ancient Greeks and the melancholy baseness of all existence, Cioran's pieces are pessimistic in the extreme, but also display a beautiful certainty that renders them delicate, vivid, and memorable. Illuminating and brutally honest.

©1975 Seaver Books (P)2022 Skyhorse Publishing

One of the Most Dangerous Books Ever Written

Dangerous to all of our ridiculous delusions about life, ourselves, our species and the universe. Don’t pass up your chance to blow up everything you thought important. Cioran is the Dante for your tour of Hell on Earth and how to be indifferent to everything and everyone, including ourselves. Adam son’s reading is perfect.

An experience worth having

I don’t know what “truth” is, but the words in this book feel like what I would imagine it to be. To see my worst fears laid bare with such elegance is a gift. Because if the worst is true, and it can be expressed with such power and magnificence, maybe I can stare into the abyss with impassivity and strength. If Sartre is right and “the dreadful has already happened” Cioran has found words that make proposition one I can accept.

Depressingly Inspiring

Found Cioran quotes on YouTube, but wanted more. Finally another human expresses what I could not regarding the frailty of mankind and its seemingly futile attempts to make sense of life. If churches and universities would make this required reading, their congregations and graduates wouldn’t believe the fantasy of “everything happens for a reason” or “God’s got a wonderful plan for your life”.

Love Cioran

I’ve always loved Cioran, and for fans of pessimism, nihilism, philosophy or a passing interest in the three, this is a must have.

A Ramble

I have to admit that I did drift in and out of this book. While the narrator did a good job, the actual content was sometimes, to me, just word salad. Still there were certainly turns of phrase and cogent ideas that would emerge from the fog, and make me think or even chuckle.
Anyway I had high expectations that were not met, but even so, give it a try.

Relentless Ennui - Not worth the time

Cioran’s A Short History of Decay sets out to immerse you in the bleakness of existence, showing how life and human endeavors decay into meaninglessness through a series of poetic, aphoristic reflections. It explores the futility of existence, the collapse of cultural and spiritual values, and the burden of consciousness, often suggesting that a God, if one exists, has failed us by creating such a flawed world.

I came across Cioran on a podcast and decided to dive into his work, hoping to find something thought-provoking.However, I found the book’s 8.5-hour audiobook format frustrating. Cioran hammers on the same themes—life’s emptiness, the absurdity of hope, the decay of everything—across fragmented sections, which felt repetitive and drawn out. While I can see that this repetition might be intentional, mirroring the monotony of existence he describes, it made the experience feel tedious. I expected more structured philosophical depth, but instead, the book leans heavily on poetic lamentations about life’s lack of meaning, which didn’t resonate with me as a compelling argument. For me, the book lacked the systematic rigor I prefer in philosophy.

I found Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation far more engaging because it builds a cohesive system to explain life’s suffering, whereas Cioran’s fragmented style felt more like an emotional outpouring than a substantive exploration.

In fact, I enjoyed reading about Cioran’s ideas—like his view of ennui as a cosmic awareness of time’s futility—more than experiencing them firsthand in this book.The most striking part of my experience was how the book’s length and repetitive nature made me feel the very ennui Cioran describes: a paralyzing boredom and disconnection that he calls “the echo in us of time tearing itself apart.” I felt that the core ideas could have been conveyed in under an hour, and the remaining 7.5 hours seemed to embody that existential malaise.

While this might be Cioran’s point, to embody that existential malaise, it didn’t make the reading experience enjoyable for me. If you prefer a more structured philosophical approach, like Schopenhauer’s or even Zapffe’s clearer frameworks in The Last Messiah, shorter essays about the subject might leave you wanting more.

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, is an overview of all things Nihilistic. It's a warped, but great read, same length as this book here.