Épouvante et surnaturel en littérature

by H.P. Lovecraft (Translator)

N du mystrieux besoin de "terreur cosmique" qui agite les esprits les plus disponibles, le rcit fantastique est vieux comme le monde. Ballades, lgendes et le folklore archaque regorge d'exemples de cette qute de l'ombre qui met en scne tout un crmonial magique, o les divinits sont invoques pour le meilleur ou pour le pire. En Occident, la force du surnaturel va s'imposer au Moyen-Age, l're mystique par excellence o messes noires et procs en sorcellerie vont bon train. Un "monstre" va le roman gothique du XVIIIe sicle la postrit majoritairement anglo-saxonne. Paysages dsols, chteaux hants et sorts inextricables rptition "possdent" le lecteur inlassablement. Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), matre du genre, passe en revue les chefs-d'oeuvre mais aussi les oeuvres moins connues, l'afft du moindre dtail extraordinaire. A croire que le pacte diabolique de Melmoth, l'homme errant - roman gnial de Charles Robert Maturin qui marqua jamais Balzac, Scott, Thackeray ou Baudelaire - s'est renouvel pour cent cinquante annes de plus grce aux illustres "contemporains" nomms Arthur Machen, Bram Stoker ou lord Dunsany.

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.

Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

— Wikipedia