Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Harper Perennial Modern Classics [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Heralded as the "best book on the dope decade" by the New York Times Book Review, Hunter S. Thompson's documented drug orgy through Las Vegas would no doubt leave Nancy Reagan blushing and D.A.R.E. (US anti-drugs organisation) founders rethinking their motto. Under the pseudonym of Raoul Duke, Thompson travels with his Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo, in a souped-up convertible dubbed the "Great Red Shark." In its boot, they hide "two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicoloured uppers, downers, screamers, laughers ... A quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser [and] a pint of raw ether" which they manage to consume during their short tour.

On assignment from a sports magazine to cover "the fabulous Mint 400"--a free-for-all biker's race in the heart of the Nevada desert--the drug-a-delic duo stumbles through Vegas in hallucinatory hopes of finding the American dream (two truck-stop waitresses tell them it's nearby, but can't remember if it's on the right or the left). They of course never get the story, but they do commit the only sins in Vegas: "burning the locals, abusing the tourists, terrifying the help." For Thompson to remember and pen his experiences with such clarity and wit is nothing short of a miracle; an impressive feat no matter how one feels about the subject matter. A first- rate sensibility twinger, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a pop-culture classic, an icon of an era past and a nugget of pure comedic genius. --Rebekah Warren --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

‘There are only two adjectives writers care about…”brilliant” and “outrageous”. Hunter Thompson has a freehold on both of them. “Fear and Loathing” is a scorching epochal sensation.’ Tom Wolfe

‘What goes on in these pages makes Lenny Bruce seem angelic…the whole book boils down to a mad, corrosive prose poetry that picks up where Norman Mailer’s “An American Dream” left off and explores what Tom Wolfe left out.’ New York Times

‘We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like, “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive …”’

Hunter S. Thompson is roaring down the desert highway to Las Vegas with his attorney, the Samoan, to find the dark side of the American Dream. Armed with a drug arsenal of stupendous proportions, the duo engage in a surreal succession of chemically enhanced confrontations with casino operators, police officers and assorted Middle Americans.

This stylish reissue of Hunter S. Thompson’s iconic masterpiece, a controversial bestseller when it appeared in 1971, features the brilliant Ralph Steadman illustrations of the original. It brings to a new generation the hallucinatory humour and nightmare terror of Hunter S. Thompson’s musings on the collapse of the American Dream.

“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold… And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas…"

So begins 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', ace Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson's savage dissection of the American dream. As knights of old buckled on armour of supernatural power, so Hunter Thompson entered Las Vegas armed with a veritable arsenal of 'heinous chemicals'. His perilous, drug-enhanced confrontations with casino operators, bartenders, police officers and assorted representatives of the Silent Majority have an hallucinatory humour and nightmare terror never before seen on the printed page.

"'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' is a scorching epochal sensation. There are only two adjectives writers care about any more… 'brilliant' and 'outrageous'… and Hunter Thompson has a freehold on both of them."
TOM WOLFE

"What goes on in these pages makes Lenny Bruce seem angelic… the whole book boils down to a mad, corrosive prose poetry that picks up where Norman Mailer's 'An American Dream' left off and explores what Tom Wolfe left out."
NEW YORK TIMES

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Hunter S. Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1937 and died in Colorado in 2005. A full-time writer and journalist, he contributed regularly to a wide variety of publications, but is probably best known for his work as National Affairs correspondent for ‘Rolling Stone’, in which ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ and ‘Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ‘72’ originally appeared. ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ has been made into a major film, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Johnny Depp.

Ralph Steadman is one of Britain’s best-known cartoonists and illustrators. His books include ‘I, Leonardo’ and the bestselling illustrated ‘Animal Farm’.