Fascinating ... Allen shows throughout that a profound and rigorous engagement with Blanchot's enigmatic work can be as lucid as it is respectful of this work's density and difficulty.

The French Review

In earlier books on Hölderlin and Heidegger, Adorno and Blanchot, and, more recently, the Marquis de Sade, William Allen has shown himself to be an exceptionally tough-minded, scrupulous, and resourceful commentator, given to elucidating some unusually challenging material with probing independence of view. This absorbing and thought-provoking new book is no different. Building on the arguments set out in Allen's previous volumes, it deploys a lucid and incisive intelligence in attending to the distinctive qualities of Blanchot's fictional and philosophical writings. It is a work all readers of modern philosophy and literature will ponder at length.

Leslie Hill, Emeritus Professor of French Studies, University of Warwick, UK