In this article, Geordie Cheetham looks at Houellebecq’s first published work, a biography of the American author H. P. Lovecraft. How does disgust with the modern world become a fitting object of literary study, when Houellebecq approvingly cites Lovecraft’s disdain for all forms of realism? And what does a corpse surrounded by shopping trolleys Nouvelles Galeries have to do with it?

In this intriguing column, CLC Columnist Geordie Cheetham expertly explores the man behind some of France’s most popular tales of anomie and despair: Michel Houellebecq.