«Howard Hendrix's 'The Ecstasy of Catastrophe' is one of the three or four serious attempts over the past quarter-century at confronting a theme that has always haunted Western culture. Hendrix proves that the fantasies of destruction and re-creation, of society as well as of the self, that most of us ascribe to Romanticism, in fact have much earlier and indelible roots. With his eloquent readings of some key works in the English narrative tradition, and with his provocative definition of apocalyptic literature, Hendrix maps a dizzying route that captures the spirit of his subject.» (John M. Ganim, University of California, Riverside) «Hendrix has much to offer that is innovative; he takes an interesting selection of works and derives a series of contrasts among their portraits of apocalyptic experience. He does so in an illuminating fashion.» (Daniel T. Lochman, The Sixteenth Century Journal).