By Michel Houellebecq
Translated from the French by Dorna Khazeni
With an Introduction by Stephen King

From the Inside Flap

H.P. Lovecraft, the radical, misanthropic master of the horror genre, now has an impassioned advocate in Michel Houellebecq, Europe’s most controversial modern novelist. In his illuminating and passionate appraisal of Lovecraft’s life and work, Houellebecq reveals a surprising debt to the master of “weird fiction.” Anyone who’s read Houellebecq’s Platform or The Elementary Particles will be quick to recognize, unlikely as it might seem at first, the intersection of Houellebecq’s deeply cynical worldview with H.P. Lovecraft’s incisive and delirious writings. With a new introduction by Stephen King, this translation, the second volume in the Believer Books series, is the first appearance of Houellebecq’s book in English. Also included in this volume are two brilliant, seminal, and representative stories by H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu” and “The Whisperer in Darkness.”

Michel Houellebecq’s books include Whatever, The Elementary Particles, Lanzarote, and Platform, among others. He is the winner of the Prix Novembre in France and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His novel La Tentation d’une île will be published in France by Fayard in August 2005. He lives in Ireland.

Stephen King was born in 1947. He has written more than thirty books, of which there are over 300 million copies in print. In 2003, the National Book Foundation honored King with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dorna Khazeni is a translator and an interpreter of French and Farsi. She also works as a writer and film programmer. She lives in Los Angeles.

Contents

• “Lovecraft’s Pillow”, an Introduction by Stephen King
• Chronology
• H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life by Michel Houellebecq
  • Preface
  • Part One: Another Universe
  • Part Two: Technical Assault
  • Part Three: Holocaust
• Two Short Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
  • “The Call of Cthulhu”
  • “The Whisperer in Darkness”
• Bibliography of H.P. Lovecraft Literature Available in French by Michel Houellebecq
• Translator’s Notes

Bibliographic Information

H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life. By Michel Houellebecq, translated from the French by Dorna Khazeni, with an introduction by Stephen King. San Francisco, CA: Believer Books; 1 May 2005; ISBN 1932416188 (softcover); 247 pages.

Purchasing This Book

This book may be purchased in softcover from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble or directly from the publisher, Believer Books.