The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, published in the United States as The War of Dreams, is a 1972 novel by Angela Carter.

The novel features Desiderio, a government minister in a city which is currently under attack by Doctor Hoffman's reality-distorting machines, in an unspecified Latin American country.

The novel presents the story from the perspective of Desiderio, a bureau member in the main city currently under the attack of Doctor Hoffman's desire machines.

Unlike Desiderio, many people go crazy in response to the apparitions, and the city, severed from communication with the outside world, becomes a place of rampant insanity and crime, thereby prompting a state of emergency.

Under the command of the Minister of Determination, Desiderio embarks on an undercover journey to find and assassinate Doctor Hoffman.

On his way to the first stop on his journey, Desiderio encounters Doctor Hoffman's former physics professor who now works as blind peep-show proprietor.

During the story, Desiderio visits the sexualised exhibits of the peep show a number of times to find that they bear uncanny resemblance to the events that occur within his own life.

From there on, Desiderio finds himself involved in a number of wild adventures in which the novel features many graphic scenes of eroticism that include sexual taboos.

While Desiderio loves Albertina, he ultimately chooses reality over the fulfilment of desire when he kills both Doctor Hoffman and his daughter.

The Minister – Works with Desiderio and essentially rules the city until Dr. Hoffman starts his campaign against human reason.

To restore society, he creates reality testing labs to discover Doctor Hoffman's secret methods.

"Rather than desexualize and subsequently dehumanize her female characters, Carter creates women who are sexual even when their desires are seemingly undesirable from feminist perspectives.

Doctor Hoffman's illusion inducing machines create the same effect as today's newspapers, magazines, websites, and television broadcasts.

[3] Jeff VanderMeer has described The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman as "the finest surrealist novel of the past 30 years.

[4] In The New York Times, William Hjortsberg recommended Carter's novel, noting its attention to detail and maintaining that while reading "We soon forget that the terrain she observes with such care is the interior of her own imagination, for the world she describes becomes as real as any naturalist's report.