En 1959 est publié à Paris Le Festin nu, qui révèle le talent scandaleux de William Burroughs. À l'origine, le manuscrit s'intitulait Interzone. Le Festin nu était le résultat d'un choix parmi le millier de pages d'un matériau que Burroughs répartit ensuite entre La Machine molle, Le ticket qui explosa et Nova Express. Restaient les 175 pages du manuscrit original qui n'ont été retrouvées qu'en 1984. Celles-ci nous permettent de reconstituer la genèse d'un des chefs-d'oeuvre de la littérature du XXe siècle. Ces fragments narratifs, ces lettres inachevées où l'écrivain américain dévoile à son ami Allen Ginsberg les progrès de son cheminement labyrinthique, ces « routines » où domine la figure grise et énigmatique de son double, William Lee, représentent la manifestation la plus pure de l'esprit de Burroughs et sa volonté de faire de l'écriture un moyen d'exploration transgressif des régions mentales encore inexplorées et dangereuses.
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Nightmarish and fiercely funny, William Burroughs' virtuoso, taboo-breaking masterpiece Naked Lunch follows Bill Lee through Interzone: a surreal, orgiastic wasteland of drugs, depravity, political plots, paranoia, sadistic medical experiments and endless, gnawing addiction. One of the most shocking novels ever written, Naked Lunch is a cultural landmark, now in a restored edition incorporating Burroughs' notes on the text, alternate drafts and outtakes from the original. 'A masterpiece. A cry from hell, a brutal, terrifying, and savagely funny book that swings between uncontrolled hallucination and fierce, exact satire' Newsweek ' Naked Lunch is a banquet you will never forget' J. G. Ballard

A stunning clothbound edition of William S. Burroughs's cult classic, designed by the acclaimed Coralie-Bickford Smith. Nightmarish and fiercely funny, William Burroughs' virtuoso, taboo-breaking masterpiece Naked Lunch follows Bill Lee through Interzone: a surreal, orgiastic wasteland of drugs, depravity, political plots, paranoia, sadistic medical experiments and endless, gnawing addiction. One of the most shocking novels ever written, Naked Lunch is a cultural landmark, now in a restored edition incorporating Burroughs' notes on the text, alternate drafts and outtakes from the original. 'A masterpiece. A cry from hell, a brutal, terrifying, and savagely funny book that swings between uncontrolled hallucination and fierce, exact satire' Newsweek ' Naked Lunch is a banquet you will never forget' J. G. Ballard
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An outrageous hybrid of pulp science fiction, obscene experimental poetry, and manifesto for revolution, this book is a last chance antidote to the virus of lies spread by the ad men and con men of the Nova Mob, a call to arms against those driving our planet toward the point of destruction.

Draws the reader into an unmappable textual space, where nothing is true and everything is permitted, to make a total assault on the colonising powers of planet earth that have turned us all into machines.

A man, dispirited by ageing, endeavours to steal a younger mans face; a doctor yearns for a virus that might eliminate his discomfort by turning everyone else into doubles of himself; a Colonel lays out the precepts of the life of DE (Do Easy); conspirators posthumously succeed in blowing up a train full of nerve gas; a mandrill known as the Purple Better One runs for the presidency with brutal results; and the world drifts towards apocalypses of violence, climate and plague. The hallucinatory landscape of William Burroughs compellingly bizarre, fragmented novel is constantly shifting, something sinister always just beneath the surface.>

Modern fiction

A mix of travel writing, satire, psychedelia and epistolary novel.

Both heartwarming and meditative, The Cat Inside explores not only the personal relationship between Burroughs and cats, but the deeper relationship of cats with mankind, which Burroughs traces back to the Egyptians. This book of moving and witty discourse is for both Burroughs fans and cat lovers alike.>

Fires the reader into a textual outer space to show us our burning planet and to reveal the operations of the Nova Mob in all their ugliness. This book reveals how Nova Express was cut from a wealth of typescripts to create startling new forms of poetic possibility.

Science fiction

Presents the author's incisive, paranoiac, maddened and maddening worldview in interviews interspersed with stories and other writing.