Touponce examines each of his subjects' body of work as a critique of scientific, capitalistic modernity. He takes a broadly Marxist approach but draws on an eclectic mix of literary theorists, including Northrop Frye, Walter Benjamin, and Mikhail Bakhtin. Touponce associates the aesthetics of Dunsany, Lovecraft, and Bradbury with three different 'moods' of modernity identified by Benjamin: beauty, shock, and nostalgia, respectively. His explications of Dunsany's and Lovecraft's artistic rejections of modernity are particularly persuasive and perceptive. This book is one of the best critical works on Lovecraft in particular that this reviewer has encountered. . . .The discussion of Bradbury's corpus is briefer than discussions of the other two writers, but equally interesting and sensitive. This fascinating book has much to teach about the power of fantastic fiction to express the shocks and horrors of modernity. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.