420 pages
English language
Published Nov. 8, 1999 by Penguin Books.
A definitive collection of stories from the unrivaled master of twentieth-century horror.
"I think it is beyond doubt that H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale." - Stephen King.
Frequently imitated and widely influential, Howard Philips Lovecraft reinvented the horror genre in the 1920s, discarding ghosts and witches and instead envisioning mankind as a tiny outpost of dwindling sanity in a chaotic and malevolent universe. S. T. Joshi, Lovecraft's preeminent interpreter, presents a selection of the master's fiction, from the early tales of nightmares and madness such as "The Outsider" to the overpowering cosmic terror of "The Call of Cthulhu." More than just a collection of terrifying tales, this volume reveals the development of Lovecraft's mesmerizing narrative style and establishes him as a canonical- and visionary-American writer.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher …
A definitive collection of stories from the unrivaled master of twentieth-century horror.
"I think it is beyond doubt that H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale." - Stephen King.
Frequently imitated and widely influential, Howard Philips Lovecraft reinvented the horror genre in the 1920s, discarding ghosts and witches and instead envisioning mankind as a tiny outpost of dwindling sanity in a chaotic and malevolent universe. S. T. Joshi, Lovecraft's preeminent interpreter, presents a selection of the master's fiction, from the early tales of nightmares and madness such as "The Outsider" to the overpowering cosmic terror of "The Call of Cthulhu." More than just a collection of terrifying tales, this volume reveals the development of Lovecraft's mesmerizing narrative style and establishes him as a canonical- and visionary-American writer.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
H. P. Lovecraft was born in 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island, where he lived most of his life. Frequent illnesses in his youth disrupted his schooling, but Lovecraft gained a wide knowledge of many subjects through independent reading and study. He wrote many essays and poems early in his career, but gradually focused on the writing of horror stories, after the advent in 1923 of the pulp magazine Weird Tales, to which he contributed most of his fiction. His relatively small corpus of fiction—three short novels and about sixty short stories—has nevertheless exercised a wide influence on subsequent work in the field, and he is regarded as the leading twentieth-century American author of supernatural fiction. H. P. Lovecraft died in Providence in 1937.
S. T. Joshi is a freelance writer and editor. He has edited Penguin Classics editions of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (1999), and The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories (2001), as well as Algernon Blackwood’s Ancient Sorceries and Other Strange Stories (2002). Among his critical and biographical studies are The Weird Tale (1990), Lord Dunsany: Master of the Anglo-Irish Imagination (1995), H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (1996), and The Modern Weird Tale (2001). He has also edited works by Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Machen, and H. L. Mencken, and is compiling a three-volume Encyclopedia of Supernatural Literature. He lives with his wife in Seattle, Washington.
The Call of Cthulu is chilling still - the story builds gently but keeps a creepy eeriness throughout. Impressed by this little world that Lovecraft built.
1) ''Whilst they strove to strip from life its embroidered robes of myth, and to shew in naked ugliness the foul thing that is reality, Kuranes sought for beauty alone. When truth and experience failed to reveal it, he sought it in fancy and illusion, and found it on his very doorstep, amid the nebulous memories of childhood tales and dreams.''
2) ''They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died. This was that cult, and the prisoners said it had always existed and always would exist, hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over …
1) ''Whilst they strove to strip from life its embroidered robes of myth, and to shew in naked ugliness the foul thing that is reality, Kuranes sought for beauty alone. When truth and experience failed to reveal it, he sought it in fancy and illusion, and found it on his very doorstep, amid the nebulous memories of childhood tales and dreams.''
2) ''They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died. This was that cult, and the prisoners said it had always existed and always would exist, hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway. Some day he would call, when the stars were ready, and the secret cult would always be waiting to liberate him.''
3) ''My train reached Greenfield seven minutes late, but the northbound connecting express had been held. Transferring in haste, I felt a curious breathlessness as the cars rumbled on through the early afternoon sunlight into territories I had always read of but had never before visited. I knew I was entering into an altogether older-fashioned and more primitive New England than the mechanised, urbanised coastal and southern areas where all my life had been spent; an unspoiled, ancestral New England without the foreigners and factory-smoke, billboards and concrete roads, of the sections which modernity has touched. There would be odd survivals of that continuous native life whose deep roots make it the one authentic outgrowth of the landscape---the continuous native life which keeps alive strange ancient memories, and fertilises the soil for shadowy, marvellous, and seldom-mentioned beliefs.''
Dagon: Excellent, but way too short. The Sci-Fi Channel movie "Dagon" was NOT based on this story.
The Statement of Randolph Carter: Also excellent. HP can create more terror in 7 pages than most people in 700 pages.
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family: Very good. I expected the ending to incorporate the Dagon/Cthulhu mythos (it didn't) but I was still pleasantly surprised.
Celephais: Okay. His "dream"-type stories aren't the best. I'm wondering if the galley in the story is the same from "The White Ship".
Nyarlathotep: Sucked. Uh, did anything even happen in this story?
The Picture in the House:Awesome story. Like all of his best, it builds and builds until you're totally freaked out at the end.
The Outsider: Thought I had read this before and I was correct. Very good, even if predictable at the end.
Herbert …
Dagon: Excellent, but way too short. The Sci-Fi Channel movie "Dagon" was NOT based on this story.
The Statement of Randolph Carter: Also excellent. HP can create more terror in 7 pages than most people in 700 pages.
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family: Very good. I expected the ending to incorporate the Dagon/Cthulhu mythos (it didn't) but I was still pleasantly surprised.
Celephais: Okay. His "dream"-type stories aren't the best. I'm wondering if the galley in the story is the same from "The White Ship".
Nyarlathotep: Sucked. Uh, did anything even happen in this story?
The Picture in the House:Awesome story. Like all of his best, it builds and builds until you're totally freaked out at the end.
The Outsider: Thought I had read this before and I was correct. Very good, even if predictable at the end.
Herbert West - Reanimator: Awesome, even if reading the series together tends to get repetitive.
The Hound: Hm. I put in another HP review that I didn't care for The Hound. But upon re-reading it, I do find it quite enjoyable. Not his best, but not one of his clunkers either.
The Rats in the Walls: Excellent! Very creepy, even though you can figure out what's coming. Tough to read in this day and age cause of the cat's name.
The Festival: Had read this before, but reread it and it was still awesome. You feel as unsettled as the narrator as things progress.
He:
Cool Air: One of my favorite Lovecraft stories. Creepy and terrifying set up with an awesome/gross payoff.
The Call of Cthulhu: What can I say? THE ultimate Lovecraft story of all time. With the most awesomest, bad-assed creature ever. Everyone must read this once.
The Colour out of Space: A tad longish. Could have used some editing. But overall, VERY creepy and the ending payoff hits perfectly.
The Whisperer in Darkness: At 60+ pages, probably the longest Lovecraft story that I have made it through, although it DID slow in pace and get boring in the middle there. He could have cut down on the correspondence section between the 2 main characters a bit. But good overall, and part (kind of) of the Cthulhu mythos. I would recommend reading it, and not skipping over it.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth: Spoke too quickly about Whisperer there. Innsmouth is also 60+ pages and this is the second time that I've read this terribly awesome story. Ranks up there with Cthulhu as a must-read for Lovecraft fans. Fantastic!
The Haunter of the Dark: Very creepy! Fits perfectly with the tone of the other works. And a nice way to end an EXCELLENT collection of Lovecraft stories.
Best Lovecraft collection that I've read so far.
