Book excerpt: ;Literature is not innocent, ; Bataille declares in the preface to this unique collection of literary profiles. ;It is guilty and should admit itself so. ; The word, the flesh, and the devil are explored by this extraordinary intellect in the work of eight outstanding authors: Emily Bronte, Baudelaire, Blake, Michelet, Kafka, Proust, Genet and De Sade. Born in France in 1897, Georges Bataillewas a radical philosopher, novelist and critic whose writings continue to exert a vital influence on today's literature and thought.