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A review by murinius
The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft
4.0
I'm writing a story with my friend and brushing up on writers who had the skills to do what we want to do so we can learn how to do it. The language is really up to my taste, most of it sounds like a way someone would speak who never talked to another human being but only read books from a prior century. Not counting the parts where he tries to simulate a dialect. My friend said, "Thanks, I hate it" as I was copying it for them in bafflement. Love the mixture of references real and unreal, and the atmospheric writing is just what I needed, things happening unnervingly at every moment.
Do have to warn however for references to incest and eugenicist language. Read up on eugenics in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries and you will understand what is the context of its writing. Lovecraft was a racist and a eugenicist but not particularly so considering what were the policies of his government. Also read on how poor whites were regarded in the US and you will understand it even better; 18th century philosophers and travel writers were already talking about the "backwaters" in similar terms, referring to these poor whites as the refuse of England's shores and such. Lovecraft is an exceptional writer in many ways but by no means outstanding in this aspect.
Do have to warn however for references to incest and eugenicist language. Read up on eugenics in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries and you will understand what is the context of its writing. Lovecraft was a racist and a eugenicist but not particularly so considering what were the policies of his government. Also read on how poor whites were regarded in the US and you will understand it even better; 18th century philosophers and travel writers were already talking about the "backwaters" in similar terms, referring to these poor whites as the refuse of England's shores and such. Lovecraft is an exceptional writer in many ways but by no means outstanding in this aspect.