Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come. ‘You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug – especially when it’s waving a razor-sharp hunting knife in your eyes’ Roaring down the desert highway, Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo are seeking out the dark side of the American Dream. Armed with a drug arsenal of stupendous proportions, they confront casino operators, police officers and assorted Middle Americans, in surreal, chemically enhanced encounters. Hilarious, hallucinogenic and subversive, Hunter S. Thompson’s semi-autobiographical novel is a cult classic and a masterpiece of gonzo journalism. ‘A scorching epochal sensation’ Tom Wolfe

‘A classic of our time’ Cormac McCarthy ‘Peers into the best and worst mysteries of the American heart’ Rolling Stone ‘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

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’.