H.P. Lovecraft

Against the World, Against Life

By: Michel Houellebecq, Stephen King (Introduction by)

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Paperback | 1 October 2006 | Edition Number 1

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"Those who love life do not read. Nor do they go to the movies, actually. No matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world." In this prescient work-now with an introduction by Stephen King-Michel Houellebecq, the author of the novels Platform and Atomised, focuses his considerable analytical skills on H.P. Lovecraft, the seminal, enigmatic horror writer of the early 20th century. Houellebecq's insights into the craft of writing illuminate both Lovecraft and Houellebecq's own work. The two are kindred spirits, sharing a uniquely dark worldview. But even as he outlines Lovecraft's rejection of this loathsome world, it is Houellebecq's adulation for the author that drives this work and makes it a love song, infusing the writing with an energy and passion that characterises Houellebecq's new novel. Indispensable reading for anyone interested in Lovecraft, Houellebecq, or the past and future of horror.

Industry Reviews

Houellebecq's superb discussion of Lovecraft offers deep insights into what drives his own writing - THE OBSERVER - Phil Baker

His [HP Lovecraft's] ''consuming interior force'' was fear - an absolute fear of life that is analysed in Houellebecq's serious and empathic critical essay. - THE TIMES - Iain Finlayson

Who would have thought that Houellebecq owed such a debt to an American horror writer? Perhaps it is not so surprising. Both have turned their hostility to the world into an art form. - LITERARY REVIEW

Houellebecq's essay is... a strikingly precise equivalent for our day of Baudelaire's notorious adulation of an earlier American writer of weird fiction, Edgar Poe. - SUNDAY TIMES - Kevin Jackson

his essay is both a formidable literary performance in itself, a work of real imaginative sympathy, and a consistently engrossing intellectural workout. - THE DAILY TELEGRAPH - Sam Leith

fascinating polemic. - THE EVENING STANDARD - Richard Godwin

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