The Conservative

By H.P. Lovecraft

2013

First Published

3.61

Average Rating

218

Number of Pages

6H39M

Audio Length

The Conservative was a journal edited and self-published sporadically by H. P. Lovecraft between 1915 and 1923. Some of its pieces were written by Lovecraft himself, but many of them were written by others, and included not just political and social commentary on the issues of the day, but also poetry, short stories and literary criticism. In spite of its name, Lovecraft's style of conservatism bore little resemblance to what goes by that name in America today, and instead was first and foremost a call for a cultural revival - an appeal to a return to the deepest wellsprings that had inspired Western culture from its origins. The period covered by The Conservative coincided with some of the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century, including the First World War and the Russian Revolution. For Lovecraft and his fellow authors, however, the answer to navigating the chaos of their time was not crude nationalism or socioeconomic policies, but could only be understood in terms of race, culture and a strong sense of morality. An opponent of both democracy and liberalism, Lovecraft desired a return to the aristocratic values of earlier ages. Whether one reads these texts as a record of Lovecraft's own worldview, or as a window into the times in which they were written, The Conservative remains a fascinating document. This edition includes a special introduction placing it within the context of Lovecraft's life and career by Alex Kurtagic.

Avg Rating

3.61

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

33%

4 STARS

28%

3 STARS

17%

2 STARS

11%

1 STARS

11%

goodreads

Author

H.P. Lovecraft

Author · 368 books

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. — Wikipedia