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akmay17's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
duriangray's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
anthonysimon99's review against another edition
4.0
The Horror at Red Hook - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Call of Cthulhu - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Colour out of Space - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Dunwich Horror - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Whisperer in the Darkness - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
At the Mountains of Madness - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Dreams in the Witch-House - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Shadow over Innsmouth - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Shadow out of Time - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Call of Cthulhu - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Colour out of Space - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Dunwich Horror - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Whisperer in the Darkness - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
At the Mountains of Madness - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Dreams in the Witch-House - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Shadow over Innsmouth - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Shadow out of Time - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
fictionfan's review against another edition
4.0
Beneath the bloated, fungoid moon…
"As the ghastly light shone hideously down from the bloated, fungoid moon, the alien and unnameable thing from another aeon revealed itself as so loathsome, blasphemous and hellish that it would drive me to the uttermost edge of madness if I were to describe it..."
OK, I made that sentence up, but I bet anybody who's read HP Lovecraft was fooled for a moment. ;-)
This book brings together some of HPL's stories published from about 1926 onwards. Each story is extensively and interestingly annotated to tell when it was written, where published and how it fits in not just to HPL's own "Cthulhu Mythos" but also the wider landscape of "weird tales". There is also an excellent introductory essay by Roger Luckhurst which tells us about HPL's life and puts his work into the context of the period in which he was writing. Luckhurst's argument in part is that, love him or hate him, HPL has remained an influence on writers of weird fiction up to the present day. He credits HPL with being one of the main writers who moved horror away from the human-centric gothic tale, with its vampires, crucifixes and garlic, to a universe where man is an insignificant and helpless part of a greater whole.
I admit it - I thought the stories ranged from loathsomely mediocre to hellishly poor myself, (even though I've always been partial to mushrooms). Luckhurst quotes Edmund Wilson on the subject of HPL's tendency never to use one overblown adjective when four would do..."Surely one of the primary rules for writing an effective tale of horror is never to use any of these words - especially if you are going, at the end, to produce an invisible whistling octopus." My feelings precisely!
However, whether a fan of HPL's style or not, the introductory essay and annotations provide interesting insights into a genre that has had considerable influence over the years and those alone make the book a worthwhile read, hence my four star rating.
"As the ghastly light shone hideously down from the bloated, fungoid moon, the alien and unnameable thing from another aeon revealed itself as so loathsome, blasphemous and hellish that it would drive me to the uttermost edge of madness if I were to describe it..."
OK, I made that sentence up, but I bet anybody who's read HP Lovecraft was fooled for a moment. ;-)
This book brings together some of HPL's stories published from about 1926 onwards. Each story is extensively and interestingly annotated to tell when it was written, where published and how it fits in not just to HPL's own "Cthulhu Mythos" but also the wider landscape of "weird tales". There is also an excellent introductory essay by Roger Luckhurst which tells us about HPL's life and puts his work into the context of the period in which he was writing. Luckhurst's argument in part is that, love him or hate him, HPL has remained an influence on writers of weird fiction up to the present day. He credits HPL with being one of the main writers who moved horror away from the human-centric gothic tale, with its vampires, crucifixes and garlic, to a universe where man is an insignificant and helpless part of a greater whole.
I admit it - I thought the stories ranged from loathsomely mediocre to hellishly poor myself, (even though I've always been partial to mushrooms). Luckhurst quotes Edmund Wilson on the subject of HPL's tendency never to use one overblown adjective when four would do..."Surely one of the primary rules for writing an effective tale of horror is never to use any of these words - especially if you are going, at the end, to produce an invisible whistling octopus." My feelings precisely!
However, whether a fan of HPL's style or not, the introductory essay and annotations provide interesting insights into a genre that has had considerable influence over the years and those alone make the book a worthwhile read, hence my four star rating.
remmerich1's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I was unsure what rating to give this. On the one hand, it was a real slog. Lovecraft's images and imagination are stellar, and the reason for his influence is clear, but there were times when the prose was so dense it was hard to keep track of what was actually happening. I've never read a book with so many half page sentences.
This collection starts with his early work and moves through to his more famous works, published towards the end of his life, and as an overview of his writings I found it very good. You feel him growing into his own style, and see how the themes run throughout and grow more prominent as you read. His personal flaws are addressed in the foreword and appendices, which I was grateful for.
I end up on four stars because I find myself thinking about the stories a lot. More than most books this has stayed with me, so rather like a hike up a mountain I end up feeling the view upon completion is worth the sore feet on the way up.
This collection starts with his early work and moves through to his more famous works, published towards the end of his life, and as an overview of his writings I found it very good. You feel him growing into his own style, and see how the themes run throughout and grow more prominent as you read. His personal flaws are addressed in the foreword and appendices, which I was grateful for.
I end up on four stars because I find myself thinking about the stories a lot. More than most books this has stayed with me, so rather like a hike up a mountain I end up feeling the view upon completion is worth the sore feet on the way up.
snowlilly's review against another edition
3.0
While I will not being singing the praises of Lovecraft ' s writing I understand the large impact he has had one some of my favorite things. So thank you for that Mr. Lovercraft. Does this revoke my nerd card!?
jarslberg's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs
Minor: Antisemitism and Xenophobia
anobrega85's review against another edition
4.0
Another book from NetGalley, this one because I had never read H.P. Lovecraft. I had thought about it, of course, after reading works influenced by him (it's almost impossible not to) and a collection of his most relevant stories seemed like a great way to finally do it. I've previously mentioned here that I'm not a great fan of horror literature, but I must say that Lovecraft surprised me with stories more close to what we call weird than actual horror, which made this that much more interesting to me.
This collection starts with an excellent introduction by Roger Luckhurst that gives the reader some contextual information without spoiling too much and ends with some more explanatory notes. Luckhurst's contribution in one of the details that distinguish this from other Lovecraftian collections, giving it an almost academical component without ever being boring or over-thought. There is a real intention to help the reader understand the text as it was written. Towards that - another distinguishing detail - the works were reproduced as faithfully to the original writing as possible without the alterations made by the different editors that published them in the first place.
The book collects the following stories: The Horror at Red Hook, The Call of Cthulhu, The Colour out of Space, The Dunwich Horror, The Whisperer in Darkness, At the Mountains of Madness, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Shadow over Innsmouth and The Shadow out of Time. The is also an excerpt from his essay, Supernatural Horror in Literature.
If when it comes to cultural interest, this was one of the most important books I've read recently, my thoughts on the stories themselves aren't always as positive. On on hand, I recognize that Lovecraft is, to my knowledge, probably the most effective author generating an ambience of weirdness and feelings of intrusion and unpredictability. On the other hand, the amount of adjectives and their repetition - specially in different stories - become overwhelming and tiresome. I feel his style works best in short stories and probably read separately, as they were published. Given all I've just said, it's easy to see why the one I enjoyed less was At the Mountains of Madness, which in spite of being one of his best known works is also one of the biggest and ended up boring me.
H.P.Lovecraft focuses on a kind of fear that differs from the usual in the more traditional, religiously biased stories or in the contemporary ones, that focus on feelings of entrapment and enemies hidden in plain sight. The fear in Lovecraft isn't associated with any punishment or guilt or even anything necessarily human. It comes from the outside, from space, from other dimensions, it's external to our comprehension. The terrifying beings in his works have a near incredible description, such is the weirdness of their organisms. There is an association between these creatures (with whom he created a whole interconnecting structure that came to be called the Cthulhu Mythos) and cults or witchcraft contributing to the plausibility of the stories. The creatures have incomprehensible behaviour, live through ages which gives them a different concept of existence and have abilities far beyond ours. Common to every one of their appearances is the feeling of weirdness they cause to the narrator, as if his world was being invaded by something he can't understand and that, perhaps precisely because of that, terrifies him immediately. Lovecraft transmits, more that fear, this feeling of near insanity, through a mix of doubt and expectation associated with blurred and over-adjectivized information that gets the reader almost to nausea.
These are stories that assume we've left behind those fears associated with religious morality, with guilt, seducing or punishing devils, saved pious or doomed non-believers and because of that are dedicated to the exploration of the fears of those who question alien life, outer-dimensional life, time travel or who consider the possibility of there being other creatures with abilities similar or superior to ours and whose intentions are unintelligible even when we come across them. There is, on the other hand, an obvious preoccupation with racial and cultural purity which shows, to those who are alert, a prejudice that Lovecraft was openly supportive of - something that can spoil the experience of reading his work.
As it is, I recommend this collection to those who haven't read H.P. Lovecraft and have any interest in speculative fiction and horror or weird in particular, but also to those who have read one or other isolated work and wishes to read the original and more memorable ones. It will also be useful to those who wish to understand the author's context, a man who came to influence so much of what has been written ever since, and not just in horror literature.
This review was originally published in Portuguese and English on my blog.
This collection starts with an excellent introduction by Roger Luckhurst that gives the reader some contextual information without spoiling too much and ends with some more explanatory notes. Luckhurst's contribution in one of the details that distinguish this from other Lovecraftian collections, giving it an almost academical component without ever being boring or over-thought. There is a real intention to help the reader understand the text as it was written. Towards that - another distinguishing detail - the works were reproduced as faithfully to the original writing as possible without the alterations made by the different editors that published them in the first place.
The book collects the following stories: The Horror at Red Hook, The Call of Cthulhu, The Colour out of Space, The Dunwich Horror, The Whisperer in Darkness, At the Mountains of Madness, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Shadow over Innsmouth and The Shadow out of Time. The is also an excerpt from his essay, Supernatural Horror in Literature.
If when it comes to cultural interest, this was one of the most important books I've read recently, my thoughts on the stories themselves aren't always as positive. On on hand, I recognize that Lovecraft is, to my knowledge, probably the most effective author generating an ambience of weirdness and feelings of intrusion and unpredictability. On the other hand, the amount of adjectives and their repetition - specially in different stories - become overwhelming and tiresome. I feel his style works best in short stories and probably read separately, as they were published. Given all I've just said, it's easy to see why the one I enjoyed less was At the Mountains of Madness, which in spite of being one of his best known works is also one of the biggest and ended up boring me.
H.P.Lovecraft focuses on a kind of fear that differs from the usual in the more traditional, religiously biased stories or in the contemporary ones, that focus on feelings of entrapment and enemies hidden in plain sight. The fear in Lovecraft isn't associated with any punishment or guilt or even anything necessarily human. It comes from the outside, from space, from other dimensions, it's external to our comprehension. The terrifying beings in his works have a near incredible description, such is the weirdness of their organisms. There is an association between these creatures (with whom he created a whole interconnecting structure that came to be called the Cthulhu Mythos) and cults or witchcraft contributing to the plausibility of the stories. The creatures have incomprehensible behaviour, live through ages which gives them a different concept of existence and have abilities far beyond ours. Common to every one of their appearances is the feeling of weirdness they cause to the narrator, as if his world was being invaded by something he can't understand and that, perhaps precisely because of that, terrifies him immediately. Lovecraft transmits, more that fear, this feeling of near insanity, through a mix of doubt and expectation associated with blurred and over-adjectivized information that gets the reader almost to nausea.
These are stories that assume we've left behind those fears associated with religious morality, with guilt, seducing or punishing devils, saved pious or doomed non-believers and because of that are dedicated to the exploration of the fears of those who question alien life, outer-dimensional life, time travel or who consider the possibility of there being other creatures with abilities similar or superior to ours and whose intentions are unintelligible even when we come across them. There is, on the other hand, an obvious preoccupation with racial and cultural purity which shows, to those who are alert, a prejudice that Lovecraft was openly supportive of - something that can spoil the experience of reading his work.
As it is, I recommend this collection to those who haven't read H.P. Lovecraft and have any interest in speculative fiction and horror or weird in particular, but also to those who have read one or other isolated work and wishes to read the original and more memorable ones. It will also be useful to those who wish to understand the author's context, a man who came to influence so much of what has been written ever since, and not just in horror literature.
This review was originally published in Portuguese and English on my blog.
cryptoid1283's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
risky_oak's review against another edition
THE oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
H.P. Lovecraft Introduction from 'Supernatural Horror in Literature'
Lovecraft was the subject of the first book by the leading contemporary French Novelist [a:Michel Houellebecq|32878|Michel Houellebecq|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1405511632p2/32878.jpg]. [...] The novels of [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg] are unthinkable without Lovecraft as are the films of the Alien series [...] Particularly the Swiss artist H. R. Giger's designs for the [first] film [in the Alien series]. [In the same vein] is [a:Guillermo del Toro|167605|Guillermo del Toro|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1244751075p2/167605.jpg]'s fantasy cinema. [...] All this is not bad for a [reclusive] man of fragile health who only circulated his stories to close friends in handwritten form, or published them in tiny networks of amateur journals.
[a:Roger Luckhurst|39598|Roger Luckhurst|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] Introduction of this book.
My first contact with Lovecraft was in 2013 when a Facebook friend sent me a pdf format of Lovecraft's complete fiction, but since I loathe reading in an electronic form I haven't read it, not even a paragraph. In 2014 when I was in Manchester, UK a flatmate gave me her [b:The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories|33490|The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories|H.P. Lovecraft|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397406382s/33490.jpg|6750943] but the elaborate descriptions and elaborate use of adjectives and adverbs by Lovecraft made me abandoned (dnf) the book. Now 3 years later I seized him for good.
Note:
I read 83% of this book in 2016, so it makes it a 2016 book and I put it in 2016 reading challenge since I want to start 2017 with a new book.
THE TALES
▶ 1 The Horror at Red Hook
Lovecraft himself said that "The Horror at Red Hook" "[was] rather long and rambling, and I don't think it is very good.
I agree with him.
❇ ❇ ❇
▶ 2 The Call of Cthulhu
Most emblematic and well known story by Lovecraft. So I was expecting something longer than the 29 pages I read. And it felt like a journalistic piece of writing; a bit fragmented, with good elements of horror. It didn't move me though, the characters and narrative felt a bit flat and dry despite the slimy oozing atmosphere it had. Next time maybe
❇ ❇ ❇
▶ 3 The Colour out of Space
Finally a decent horror story. A meteorite falls nearby a farm and in a year everything is infested: vegetation, animals and the family that owns the farm. Madness, Disappearances, Disfigurements, Emissions of an alien vapour in indescribable colour.
What I was looking for in a collection of horror stories by H.P. Lovecraft.
❇ ❇ ❇ ❇,4
▶ 4 The Dunwich Horror
Something is (pretty) rotten in the state of Dunwich. Something not of this world. Something abominable and dangerous. A child the result of an albino woman and an unknown [possibly] non-human father.
All these and more surround this story that feels like a B-horror movie but certainly the story is not B rated.
❇ ❇ ❇ ❇
▶ 5 The Whisperer in Darkness
I felt a few shivers while reading this story especially during the last 30 pages. Extraterrestrial or to be more precise extracosmic beings are present in this story.
Our narrator has a correspondence with a Vermont folklorist who believes non-human evil creatures pester him at his farmhouse. Then out of the blue he invites the narrator to visit him as if nothing happened. I felt that something was wrong; & it was.
❇ ❇ ❇ ❇
▶ 6 At the Mountains of Madness
Longest story so far (103p.) Even though it was a really interesting story and had many references to Poe and other authors, even though it reminded me of Indiana Jones, Alien vs Predator, Dan Brown's, Deception Point, and other Science Fiction/Horror stories it had elements I don't really enjoy in a story. Elaborate descriptions; that slow down the pace of the story. Architectural descriptions that go on and on and description of how a beast or person looks and what he wears. . . Oh bother!
❇ ❇ ❇,5
▶ 7 The Dreams in the Witch-House
Probably the best story so far.
A university student rents an attic in an old house that's rumoured to be cursed since a witch that disappeared during the Salem trials was once living there. Nightmares are becoming one with reality. In his dreams he repeatedly encounters the witch, a negro (Lovecraft can't avoid racism) & a rat that has a human face (Brown Jenkin).
❇ ❇ ❇ ❇,5
▶ 8 The Shadow over Innsmouth
A scary story indeed. I felt goosebumps towards the end, see keyholes and abandoned hotel. The ending wasn't very bright for the narrator or for the reader. It depends on how you see it.
❇ ❇ ❇ ❇,5
▶ 9 The Shadow Out of Time
A VERY interesting story, BUT at the end it was all:
That horror which I saw. I'll tell you in a moment. The horror oh! the horror it's coming. The horror was there, I saw it you know what it was? A horror. . . No answers, a lot of confusion, felt a bit turn of the screw-ish so its initial enjoyment evaporated like a f
❇ ❇ ❇
Even though I find Lovecraft a repulsive racist and his race and eugenics views inexcusable even for his times, he was indeed a great storyteller and I will certainly look for more stories by him.
3.7 stars
H.P. Lovecraft Introduction from 'Supernatural Horror in Literature'
Lovecraft was the subject of the first book by the leading contemporary French Novelist [a:Michel Houellebecq|32878|Michel Houellebecq|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1405511632p2/32878.jpg]. [...] The novels of [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg] are unthinkable without Lovecraft as are the films of the Alien series [...] Particularly the Swiss artist H. R. Giger's designs for the [first] film [in the Alien series]. [In the same vein] is [a:Guillermo del Toro|167605|Guillermo del Toro|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1244751075p2/167605.jpg]'s fantasy cinema. [...] All this is not bad for a [reclusive] man of fragile health who only circulated his stories to close friends in handwritten form, or published them in tiny networks of amateur journals.
[a:Roger Luckhurst|39598|Roger Luckhurst|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] Introduction of this book.
My first contact with Lovecraft was in 2013 when a Facebook friend sent me a pdf format of Lovecraft's complete fiction, but since I loathe reading in an electronic form I haven't read it, not even a paragraph. In 2014 when I was in Manchester, UK a flatmate gave me her [b:The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories|33490|The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories|H.P. Lovecraft|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397406382s/33490.jpg|6750943] but the elaborate descriptions and elaborate use of adjectives and adverbs by Lovecraft made me abandoned (dnf) the book. Now 3 years later I seized him for good.
Note:
I read 83% of this book in 2016, so it makes it a 2016 book and I put it in 2016 reading challenge since I want to start 2017 with a new book.
THE TALES
▶ 1 The Horror at Red Hook
Lovecraft himself said that "The Horror at Red Hook" "[was] rather long and rambling, and I don't think it is very good.
I agree with him.
❇ ❇ ❇
▶ 2 The Call of Cthulhu
Most emblematic and well known story by Lovecraft. So I was expecting something longer than the 29 pages I read. And it felt like a journalistic piece of writing; a bit fragmented, with good elements of horror. It didn't move me though, the characters and narrative felt a bit flat and dry despite the slimy oozing atmosphere it had. Next time maybe
❇ ❇ ❇
▶ 3 The Colour out of Space
Finally a decent horror story. A meteorite falls nearby a farm and in a year everything is infested: vegetation, animals and the family that owns the farm. Madness, Disappearances, Disfigurements, Emissions of an alien vapour in indescribable colour.
What I was looking for in a collection of horror stories by H.P. Lovecraft.
❇ ❇ ❇ ❇,4
▶ 4 The Dunwich Horror
Something is (pretty) rotten in the state of Dunwich. Something not of this world. Something abominable and dangerous. A child the result of an albino woman and an unknown [possibly] non-human father.
All these and more surround this story that feels like a B-horror movie but certainly the story is not B rated.
❇ ❇ ❇ ❇
▶ 5 The Whisperer in Darkness
I felt a few shivers while reading this story especially during the last 30 pages. Extraterrestrial or to be more precise extracosmic beings are present in this story.
Our narrator has a correspondence with a Vermont folklorist who believes non-human evil creatures pester him at his farmhouse. Then out of the blue he invites the narrator to visit him as if nothing happened. I felt that something was wrong; & it was.
❇ ❇ ❇ ❇
▶ 6 At the Mountains of Madness
Longest story so far (103p.) Even though it was a really interesting story and had many references to Poe and other authors, even though it reminded me of Indiana Jones, Alien vs Predator, Dan Brown's, Deception Point, and other Science Fiction/Horror stories it had elements I don't really enjoy in a story. Elaborate descriptions; that slow down the pace of the story. Architectural descriptions that go on and on and description of how a beast or person looks and what he wears. . . Oh bother!
❇ ❇ ❇,5
▶ 7 The Dreams in the Witch-House
Probably the best story so far.
A university student rents an attic in an old house that's rumoured to be cursed since a witch that disappeared during the Salem trials was once living there. Nightmares are becoming one with reality. In his dreams he repeatedly encounters the witch, a negro (Lovecraft can't avoid racism) & a rat that has a human face (Brown Jenkin).
❇ ❇ ❇ ❇,5
▶ 8 The Shadow over Innsmouth
A scary story indeed. I felt goosebumps towards the end, see keyholes and abandoned hotel. The ending wasn't very bright for the narrator or for the reader. It depends on how you see it.
❇ ❇ ❇ ❇,5
▶ 9 The Shadow Out of Time
A VERY interesting story, BUT at the end it was all:
That horror which I saw. I'll tell you in a moment. The horror oh! the horror it's coming. The horror was there, I saw it you know what it was? A horror. . . No answers, a lot of confusion, felt a bit turn of the screw-ish so its initial enjoyment evaporated like a f
❇ ❇ ❇
Even though I find Lovecraft a repulsive racist and his race and eugenics views inexcusable even for his times, he was indeed a great storyteller and I will certainly look for more stories by him.
3.7 stars