Houellebecq became enthralled within minutes and hunted down the philosopher's major work, The World as Will and Representation.

Although a "disappointed enthusiast" for the positivism of Auguste Comte, it is in Schopenhauer's philosophy he finds consolation.

The critic argued that the book should be read only as a confrontation with Schopenhauer's philosophy, and as such manages to make it "both present and current".

[1] Joseph Hanimann of the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote that "Houellebecq's Schopenhauer commentaries offer an as thorough as original reading".

Hanimann was particularly fascinated by Houellebecq's defense of eroticism as a viable part of art, which is in conflict with Schopenhauer's view, and wrote that "it's just a pity that he doesn't go further into such paradoxes".