Originally published in 1927 in a small-circulation
amateur magazine, spanning the period from antiquity
until the 1930s, and covering both the Anglo-American
world and Continental Europe, Lovecraft s essay remains
unparallelled as a survey of horror literature in our
hemisphere. Said literature's emergence as a genre
coincided with the institutional establishment of
liberalism, which represents a diametrically opposed
worldview. This would suggest that horror literature,
even if inadvertently or subconsciously, represents an
attempt at escaping the limitations of the secular,
materialist, rationalist Weltanschauung of liberal
modernity, as well as a desire for meaning in a world
rendered meaningless through liberation from
hierarchies, folk traditions, the occult, and the
supernatural. Also of interest is the fact that the
aesthetics of Gothic horror are invariably and
luxuriantly beautiful (if in a dark way), whereas the
logical extreme of rationality (utilitarianism,
standardisation) is inherently anti-aesthetic. Would
this not indicate, then, that the Age of Reason marked
the beginning of a process that concluded in late
modernity with the wholesale destruction of beauty,
except where it, or the counterfeiting of it, was
dictated by economic necessity? If so, we may view
Lovecraft's essay not merely as a resource for those
seeking entertainment within a genre of literature, but
also a map for those seeking to escape, and begin to
transcend, the despair engendered by a worldview that
pronounced itself dead when someone spoke of 'the end of
history'. This annotated edition comes extensively
footnoted, with the text in a big readable font, plus a
comprehensive index, a bibliography of all the works
cited by Lovecraft, and attractive cover artwork and
design.
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