Product Description

Thomas Ligotti is often cited as the most curious and remarkable figure in horror literature since H. P. Lovecraft. His work is noted by critics for its display of an exceptionally grotesque imagination and accomplished prose style. In his stories, Ligotti has followed a literary tradition that began with Edgar Allan Poe, portraying characters that are outside of anything that might be called normal life, depicting strange locales far off the beaten track, and rendering a grim vision of human existence as a perpetual nightmare.The stories collected in "Teatro Grottesco" feature tormented individuals who play out their doom in various odd little towns for which Ligotti is noted as well as in dark sectors frequented by sinister and often blackly comical eccentrics. The cycle of narratives that includes the title work of this collection, for instance, introduces readers to a freakish community of artists who encounter demonic perils that ultimately engulf their lives. These are selected examples of the forbidding array of persons and places that compose the fiction of Thomas Ligotti. As one critic has written, "Ligotti is wonderful and original; has a dark vision of a new and special kind, a vision that no one had before him."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28875 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From the Back Cover
Thomas Ligotti is one of the most original and remarkable figures in horror literature since H. P. Lovecraft. In Teatro Grottesco Ligotti follows the literary tradition that began with Edgar Allan Poe: portraying characters that are outside of anything that might be called normal life, depicting strange locales far off the beaten track, and rendering a grim vision of human existence as a perpetual nightmare. Just by entering his unique world where odd little towns and dark sectors are peopled with clowns, manikins and hideous puppets, and where tormented individuals and blackly comical eccentrics play out their doom, is to risk your own vision of the world.

'Quite unlike anything else being published … One of the most unique voices in the field … His imagery is breathtaking' – Science Fiction Chronicle

'(Ligotti uses) restrained, lyrical prose and subtly disturbing images that Poe himself might well have admired' – USA Today

About the Author
Thomas Ligotti's first collection of stories, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, was published in 1986, and he has since established a cult following. He is also the author of several other story collections. Ligotti is the recipient of several awards, including the Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker award for his omnibus collection The Nightmare Factory (1996) and short novel My Work Is Not Yet Done.

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Nightmares
If Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith & Will Self all met up at Eraserhead's flat & then condensed their woeful tales into a small, grey darkness then this perhaps would be the setting for Ligotti's wonderfully unique, bleak, sometimes wrongfully humorous & beautifully described nightmares.

The beauty of shadows
Ligotti writes some of the most beautiful prose you will read. Be warned though he does not write about ordinary people or happy endings - there is no saving grace in Ligotti's world. Yes, Ligotti's world view is bleak but the stories have a dark beauty to them that is quite intoxicating. Buy this if you love reading Poe, Lovecraft or Machen. Buy this if your idea of a great movie is the original Haunting or The Innocents.

Disappointing
Despite an eye catching title and good blurb this book was comprehensively disappointing - as a fan of short stories I would have been happy with one gem in the collection but unfortunately it left me feeling unsatisfied due to clumsy plots and less than inspiring use of language.