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Tales (Library of America #155)

by H.P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub (Goodreads Author) (Editor)

4.37 of 5 stars 4.37 · rating details · 1,664 ratings · 136 reviews

This volume brings together 22 tales, the very best of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's fiction. Early stories such as "The Outsider," "The Music of Erich Zann," "Herbert West - Reanimator," and "The Lurking Fear" demonstrate Lovecraft's uncanny ability to blur the distinction between reality and nightmare, sanity and madness, the human and the non-human. "The Horror at Red Hoo...more

Hardcover, 838 pages

Published February 3rd 2005 by Library of America (first published 1935)

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Oct 09, 2008 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Let's first acknowledge that Lovecraft is a master of hooking the reader with the first sentence. A few of the best:

"I repeat to you, gentlemen, that your inquisition is fruitless."
- The Statement of Randolph Carter

"Of Herbert West, who was my friend in college and in after life, I can speak only with extreme terror."
- Herbert West - Reanimator

"I am forced into speech because men of science have refused to follow my advice without knowing why."
- At the Mountains of Madness

"It is true that I h...more

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Apr 30, 2007 Sam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: shortfiction

Lovecraft! Burdened by poor word choice, clumsy with narrative, and hampered by psycho-sexual and racial issues by the bucketful, an asexual aristocrat from Providence wrote some of the most genuinely disturbing stories in American literature. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but even if one doesn't enjoy his eldritch horrors from beyond the wall of sleep, they can at least appreciate how his stories represent a certain kind of paranoia: one that could have only been penned by an exceedingly well...more

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Apr 06, 2009 Rose rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read a quarter of the tales in the book and only one (not a Cthulhu tale) particularly sticks with me a week later. They were entertaining, the style light and strong, but all too much alike. By the fifth or sixth tale, they had become predictable, and predictable horror just isn't scary. Also, I understand and agree with Lovecraft that the unknown is what truly terrifies us, but I would have been more scared by his stories had he used descriptors more visceral than, "unfathomable," "ineffable...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

I took one of those quizzes online to see which famous author "I write like" (iwl.me) and it came back as H.P. Lovecraft. Having never read his works, I think now would be a good time to start.

Oh man, this book was excellent! H.P Lovecraft was way ahead of his time in his writing. He was bizarro before bizarro was even a genre and his horror is right on - creepy and kind of gorey, but excellently done. He kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next.

Even though I enjoy...more

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Mar 03, 2010 Brittni rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: gothic, horror, supernatural

It’s tough to give a rating to an anthology, but I have to give five stars for Lovecraft’s style and subject difference. My quote book is mostly filled with his horrifyingly beautiful words now. He’s truly a one-of-a-kind writer, although his stories share large similarities: a logical protagonist, not given to superstitions, encountering something to shake his beliefs; otherworldly entities; a certain book called The Necronomicon; the struggle against madness after learning too much...

I didn’t...more It’s tough to give a rating to an anthology, but I have to give five stars for Lovecraft’s style and subject difference. My quote book is mostly filled with his horrifyingly beautiful words now. He’s truly a one-of-a-kind writer, although his stories share large similarities: a logical protagonist, not given to superstitions, encountering something to shake his beliefs; otherworldly entities; a certain book called The Necronomicon; the struggle against madness after learning too much...

I didn’t much like the gorier stories in this collection, such as “The Colour Out of Space”, “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”, and “Herbert West – Re-animator” (the last of which I was not keen on reading to begin with, knowing enough about the movie it inspired). My favorites, rather, were “The Rats in the Walls”, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, and—most favorite—“The Outsider”. These stories are the ones that end in a more particularly sad way. Every story’s protagonist has to deal with either deaths around him, or a complete weariness and horror in spirit after his ordeals, but my favorite selections were a bit different. In the first two, the protagonists feel revulsion for that which is going on around them, but in the end they become what it is they hate. This, in its own way, is more horrifying than anything else could be, because they can’t escape their fate. There’s a lingering finality to these stories that the others don’t have. In “The Outsider”, the protagonist is actually a horror all along, without knowing it, trying to reach out to others who run from him. There’s something both horrific and beautifully sad in that.

I was able to figure out the underlying mysteries in each story before the author actually revealed them, but that didn’t take away from the stories. Lovecraft makes a point of reiterating that there’s more beyond the scope of human knowledge, poking fun at the black-and-white mind of logical man. What could be more frightening to the practical person than to discover that what he used to deem impossible, actually exists? Even the most intellectual man, priding himself on his ability to stay unshaken, couldn’t handle what Lovecraft’s characters run into. This is a message of warning to everyone out there that it’s dangerous for the logical mind to believe with a certainty that there’s not something more out there, and I love it. Lovecraft seems to have been a logical man himself, but he’s poking fun at others who are so narrow-minded to presume they know what can and can’t be real.
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Sep 09, 2009 Susanne rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who like Poe, Twilight Zone, X-Files, and citizens of Arkham

I learned that Cthulhu is pronounced Khlul-hloo .
Two syllables. The u in the first syllable sounding like the u in full.

I've been pronouncing it K-thoo-loo (three syllables). Oops.

Also, knowing that Lovecraft's paranoid, delusional mother kept him isolated for years and convinced him he was ugly makes The Outsider truly poignant.

My favorite story in this book is The Thing On The Doorstep. Waaay creepy.

Lovecraft's favorite was The Colour Out Of Space.
Also very creepy.

In fact, if you sit and read...more

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Jun 24, 2009 Briana rated it 3 of 5 stars

Actually, I didn't finish this. But I've read as much of it as I'm going to...YES, Alex, I read "The Call of Cthulhu"...It was okay. I like Lovecraft's style. The only story that really jumped out at me was the first one in this collection...I forget the title...but it actually sent a shiver down my spine when I finished it. And that's never happened before, not with Edgar Allen Poe or Frank Peretti or Charles Williams...of course, I read it really late at night while everyone was asleep. HOWEVE...more

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Feb 12, 2008 Dave Henry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

While I have not read the vast majority of horror fiction available, I would still be willing to stake a claim that no other writer has written in the genre more effectively in the last hundred years than Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

He is almost definitely the most influential. Any modern horror author worth his salt would almost certainly cite Lovecraft as an enormous influence; his last name alone has entered the Lexicon as a descriptive; the adjective "Lovecraftian" calls to mind images and the...more While I have not read the vast majority of horror fiction available, I would still be willing to stake a claim that no other writer has written in the genre more effectively in the last hundred years than Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

He is almost definitely the most influential. Any modern horror author worth his salt would almost certainly cite Lovecraft as an enormous influence; his last name alone has entered the Lexicon as a descriptive; the adjective "Lovecraftian" calls to mind images and themes almost as quickly as "Shakespearian," "Orwellian," or "Kafkaesque." Note that each word represents its own distinct genre of literature; it is telling, therefore, that Lovecraft would be the sole representative of his field.

And yet it would be lacking to simply describe Lovecraft's works as "horror" fiction. Perhaps psychological terror would be a better term--certainly, the dread his stories instill in the reader emanates just as much from what is unseen than what is seen, and in many cases a great deal more.

Consider, "The Colour Out of Space," in which he describes a terrifying extra-terrestrial force characterized by a colour completely alien to our spectrum of light. Not an enviable task, to be sure, and yet Lovecraft manages to describe the unquantifiable element, along with the maddening effect it has on all who witness it, in a way that not only is more than satisfactory, but genuinely frightening. In fact, it is this way of describing what simply cannot be described that informs his mezmorizing style--and though it is certainly verbose, no word or phrase is wasted.

It is for these and many other reasons that Lovecraft had defied transition to film for decades, though that has not stopped filmmakers from trying (and only one, Stuart Gordon, from succeeding with his wonderful "Re-Animator" franchise). After all, how does one create "The Thing [that] cannot be described--there is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order," in a special effects studio? The feeling one gets from reading Lovecraft's prose is almost as indescribable as the subjects of his tales themselves.

This volume collects 19 short stories, two novellas, and one serial novel, the aforementioned "Herbert West: Re-Animator." All of Lovecraft's tales more or less take place in the same "mythos," and many center around the fictional New England town of Arkham, and the enigmatic Miskatonic University. Though through this collection of the macabre we are led to visit many other places: the nearby seaside town of Innsmouth, where the strange and reclusive residents may hide a terrible secret; the hamlet of Dunwich, where an ancient evil waits to be reborn, and even to the Mountains of Madness in Antarctica, where an expedition from Miskatonic university learns how insignificant humanity really is in the cosmic maw of an indifferent universe. We even are given a glimpse of the distant past and future in "The Shadow Out of Time."

I read this book in October of 2005, and while it is certainly a great Halloween read, I would recommend this title any time of the year. It is best experienced in the dark, with only enough light to see the words on the page, but I defy to to read this book even in broad daylight and not be sucked into the masterful strokes of Lovecraft's fiction.(less)

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Apr 02, 2012 Vheissu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature, fantasy-horror

Masterful prose and idiosyncratic terror. Quote:

In the whole spectacle there was a persistent, pervasive hint of stupendous secrecy and potential revelation; as if these stark, nightmare spires marked the pylons of a frightful gateway into forbidden spheres of dream, and complex gulfs of remote time, space, and ultra-dimensionality. I could not help feeling that there were evil things--mountains of madness whose farther slopes looked out over some accursed ultimate abyss. That seething, half-lum

...more

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Dec 08, 2012 Woolrich13 rated it 4 of 5 stars

How odd a man was Howard Phillips Lovecraft? He was an atheist and Darwinist who insisted on marrying his Jewish wife at a high Anglican church service. Also, he gave a spoken abstract analytical review praising Hitler's "Mein Kampf" to same Jewish wife as well as Lovecraft's then literary agent (also Jewish), who proceeded to more or less ignore him and say, "Oh, that's Howard!" However, this was during Lovecraft's more sociable phase, such as it was, when he had a very, very unhappy stay in Ne...more How odd a man was Howard Phillips Lovecraft? He was an atheist and Darwinist who insisted on marrying his Jewish wife at a high Anglican church service. Also, he gave a spoken abstract analytical review praising Hitler's "Mein Kampf" to same Jewish wife as well as Lovecraft's then literary agent (also Jewish), who proceeded to more or less ignore him and say, "Oh, that's Howard!" However, this was during Lovecraft's more sociable phase, such as it was, when he had a very, very unhappy stay in New York City, which, to him, was the most repugnant city on earth, with its lack of historical continuity, noise and clatter and endless hordes of foreigners. For the most part, Mr. Lovecraft stayed at home in Providence, Rhode Island and lived as a recluse--a writer who did most of his work at night--and socialized mainly with two maiden aunts. He disliked many, many people, and his racist views supported some of this enmity. Lovecraft saw no purpose to the Universe--none whatsover--and so he invented a strange pantheon of "gods" for atheists and agnostics--Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Azatoth and their hideous, eldritch, ineffable kin. These same gods wanted nothing more than to be set loose on the world and devour everyone in it, and various of their agents (either often unsuspecting effete scholars or, alternately, mobs of plotting ethnic cultists) wanted to help them along. There's something quite compelling about these "Cthulhu Mythos" stories, and most of them are in this same Library of America volume. They represent a chaotic world of paranoia, where humanity's little hopes and dreams are worse than worthless. They are very dark, and it's easy to see why writers such as Michel Houellebecq have embraced Lovecraft as a literary influence.

Does Mr. Lovecraft have his faults, besides the personal ones listed? Yes, he repeats himself (as he was writing for pulp magazines such as "Weird Tales" mainly), he is inordinately fond of adjectives and a somewhat stuffy pseudo-18th century writing style (as he fancied himself an English gentleman of that era at times), and, in some of his earlier stories, he slavishly copies other writers (mainly Poe and Lord Dunsany). But, by tapping into his own fears, contempt for others, and hatred of religion, he created something quite unique in world literature and sui generis (until dozens of Lovecraft imitators followed him to the printed page). Some of his work reminds me a bit of Belgian fantasist and horror writer Jean Ray (q.v., "The Mainz Psalter" and others), but the two were rough contemporaries in the 1920s and 1930s and apparently knew nothing of one another's work! I suppress an odd shiver at this coincidence, as I suspect dread Cthulhu's influence, dear reader.

Anyway, let us ask ourselves, can a racist be a great writer? Yes, no matter how much we may deplore his or her personal opinions or worldview, he or she indeed may. It's absurd to suppress their work for this fault alone, and Orwellian academics who do are fools of the first rank. Is Lovecraft a great world writer? Well, he has his talents, and, while I can't compare him to Shakespeare or Swift, he has earned a deserved place at the front line of genre writers, particularly in the field of horror. What he does, he does very well and, if, as I do, you wince while reading parts of "The Horror at Red Hook" or "The Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" (which is basically a weak allegory concerning repugnance about miscegenation), it's likely to be made up for by the sweeping cosmic weirdness & terror of "The Call of Cthulhu," "At the Mountains of Madness," or "The Colour Out of Space." Take Mr. Lovecraft's work with a grain of salt, accept his human failings if you can, and you may be rewarded. (less)

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Aug 17, 2012 Sandra rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Sandra by: Neale

Shelves: fiction, horror, couldn-t-finish

I really wanted to like this book. I really really tried. But.....Behind many of the books I read, there is a story...thus, here it is. Lovecraft was introduced to me by a guy, named Neale, who looks much like Rubeus Hagrid.(you know, in the Harry Potter movies.) Turns out Neale is getting his PhD in English Literature, and his thesis is on H.P. Lovecraft. Neale works as a supervisor at a storage locker, thus allowing him lots of uninterrupted time to work on his thesis, which explains why it to...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Randolph Carter rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, horror, strange-stories

If you only wanted to invest in one really good hardcover of Lovecraft and don't require all the stories, this would be a good place to go. Sure we can all argue that this story is not here or that one shouldn't be, but overall this is a first rate single volume of Lovecraft's tales for those that aren't completists.

Although Peter Straub chose the stories to include, the texts are all from the definitive Arkham House/Joshi texts. There is a chronolgy, a few footnotes, and all the relevant source...more

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Aug 29, 2007 Michael Shilling rated it 5 of 5 stars

Laugh-out loud funny until you try to go to sleep. The mad protestant in the loamy gloaming pagan wilderness. An indictment and love letter to New England and its witchy tombstone supulchre bling. And a monster named Yog-Sogoth. The only author I've read where I thought, "I wonder if he's a good dancer."

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Oct 19, 2011 Anjali Williams rated it 2 of 5 stars

I only ended up reading "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward." I have a feeling I would have enjoyed these stories more, if I had read them when I was younger. I found it too easy to predict what was going to happen, based on Lovecraft's clues, and then it was just a matter of dreading and waiting to get confirmation that I was right - and to see exactly how it would, indeed, play out. It turns out he was critical of these two stories, himself, calling them both "cumbruous,...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars

H.P. Lovecraft: Xenophobic? Check. Clunky and awkward word choice? Check. Creator of freaky and bizarre worlds and one of my new favorite authors? Big check.

Man oh man, this was a feat! Over 800 pages of the craziest stuff i've ever read. I can see why this is the guy that gives Stephen King nightmares.

As far as I'm concerned there are three names in American horror: Poe, Lovecraft and King. Lovecraft was clearly damaged goods that had more hate and fear in his heart than anything resembling lov...more

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Feb 19, 2012 Withanhauser rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lovecraft was a pretty prolific short story writer, and most of his works are collected in this book. I put a decent dent in it, but I'm putting it down for now. Most of Lovecraft's stories are great. They're weird, spooky, and over-the-top. They'd be sinister, if they weren't so kitschy. His characters are alternately haunted by tree-like aliens, mole people, and giant albino penguins. But there's a little too much similarity between the stories. For example, the scary thing haunting the protag...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Kurt rated it 5 of 5 stars

H.P. Lovecraft became one of my desert island writers, his skill at subtle horror is quite shocking:

"Dunwich is indeed ridiculously old - older by far than any of the communities within thirty miles of it....Oldest of all are the great rings of rough-hewn stone columns on the hill-tops, but these are more generally attributed to the Indians than to the settlers. Deposits of skulls and bones, found within these circles and around the sizeable table-like rock on Sentinel Hill, sustain the popular...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Deborah Markus rated it 3 of 5 stars

My husband got mock-annoyed with someone the other day. "She hasn't heard of Lovecraft," he said. "Now I can never talk to her again."

The thing is, Lovecraft is a difficult author to point to. You've only heard of him if you've heard of him. There's no quick and easy reference to him. "Oh, *you* know Lovecraft -- he wrote 'Blahdy-Blah'!"

I can hear the nerd screams from here. Yes, he created Cthulhu. Given that there doesn't even seem to be any agreement on how that's pronounced, I don't think y...more My husband got mock-annoyed with someone the other day. "She hasn't heard of Lovecraft," he said. "Now I can never talk to her again."

The thing is, Lovecraft is a difficult author to point to. You've only heard of him if you've heard of him. There's no quick and easy reference to him. "Oh, *you* know Lovecraft -- he wrote 'Blahdy-Blah'!"

I can hear the nerd screams from here. Yes, he created Cthulhu. Given that there doesn't even seem to be any agreement on how that's pronounced, I don't think you can blame anyone for not being familiar with it.

The fact is, Lovecraft's obscurity seems to be cherished by his deepest admirers. They *love* adoring The Important Writer Nobody Else Has Heard Of.

They also love how difficult Lovecraft is to explain, and how hard his work is to master. Yes, the man created a mythos all his stories and novellas fit into, no matter how well those stories stand on their own. But that mythos is terribly hard to get a handle on. The same shared universe houses the Old Ones and the Elder Gods, who are *not* the same people. There are Shoggoths, and there's Yog-Sothoth. If you want to have some fun, find a Lovecraft fan and say something about "Yog-Soggoth." He'll start bleeding from both eyeballs.

And yes, odds are this fan will be a he, because there's something very boyish about the adoration of Lovecraft. The monsters are slimy and creepy, Pluto is still a planet (and an important one!), and there's not the slightest breath of sexual tension. You'll find more women in Melville's entire body of work than you will in Lovecraft's -- and yes, I know I'm exaggerating, but not by much. Back off, nerds, or I'll start spoilering. Does Asenath even *count* as a female character, all things considered?

And there are the recurring words and phrases from Lovecraft's invented language -- "Cthulhu fhtagn!" "Ia! Ia!" Lovecraft makes a brilliant point that he's protesting against "the silly and childish habit of most weird and science-fiction writers, of having *utterly non-human entities* use a nomenclature *of thoroughly human character;* as if alien-organed beings could possibly have languages based on *human* vocal organs." Brilliant in theory. In practice, it looks like something Tolkien might have come up with if he got plastered one night at the typewriter.

Lovecraft is also difficult to read because, in spite of the fact that he was born in America in 1890 and died in 1937, his writing is so deliberately ornate and his prose so dense that he might have been writing a hundred years earlier. Yes, nerds, I *know* he did that on purpose. But it serves the purpose of weeding out the weak and leaving only the truly dedicated fans to worship at his altar.

This one's not so funny: The only thing more anachronistic than Lovecraft's carefully cultivated writing style is his unapologetic racism and xenophobia. Nerds, don't you *dare* try to pass this off as Lovecraft just being a product of his time. He was a Yankee. He wrote "The Rats in the Walls" in 1923. Are you seriously telling me that everybody thought it was fine and dandy to name a black cat "Nigger-Man," as he did in that story? You love the fact that he came up with the idea of Abdul Alhazred, the name of the man he'd later credit with writing the infamous Necronomicon, when he was only five years old; you don't get to skip the part where he wrote "De Triumpho Naturae: The Triumph of Nature over Northern Ignorance," an *anti-abolition*, white supremacist poem, when he was fifteen. In *1905,* a Northern teenager is writing a poem about what a shame it is we freed all those slaves? That's the wrong kind of creepy, is what that is.

So yes, I found much of this writing fascinating, and much of it difficult, for various reasons. That's as it should be.

This particular collection is a good one to start with -- not only is it a fine selection of many of his best-known and most important writings, but it includes a brief biography and a chronology of the most important events in Lovecraft's short, strange life.

Read it and see why I gave my husband a "Miskatonic University" T-shirt for Christmas, and why my son received one that says, "What Part Of 'Ph'nglui Mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh Wgah'nagl Fhtagn' Don't You Understand?"(less)

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Apr 04, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

Overall, Lovecraft can start his stories with some really interesting hooks as seen in "The Statement of Randolf Carter," "The Whisperer in Darkness," "At the Mountains of Madness," "The Thing on the Doorstep," "The Shadow out of Time," and "The Haunter of the Dark." He's good at getting you interested.

His ideas can be genuinely horrifying several fronts as is the case with "The Rats in the Wall" where ritual cannibalism seems to be an inadequate description of the horrors but something within t...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Brian Burt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Overall these tales are quite good. I've found through our goodreads community's reviews a common criticism that the tales of Lovecraft are too similar and become formulaic. This is no doubt evident as many of the tales (if not all in this volume) share the same themes, motifs, and have similarities of plot. As viewed from the standpoint of a casual reader of literature this would have been my assessment as well (and indeed it was when I was making my way through the work; it was only as I was n...more

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Oct 23, 2010 Orrin Grey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: re-read, favorites

I didn't read all of the stories in this volume in one sitting, but I have read them all at is point I think. I picked this up because I wanted to revisit Lovecraft, and I discovered that I hadn't actually read everything in here before. New ones for me included "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," "The Whisperer in Darkness," and "The Shadow Out of Time." I also revisited a few old favorites like "Pickman's Model," "The Colour Out of Space," "The Music of Erich Zann," and "The Shunned House." I m...more

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Aug 29, 2010 Travis Ferrell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Contains some very well-written short stories and novellas.

Uses many elements of science fiction, but the horror in these stories do not read like the horror in a film like "Alien," for example. The fear is more mystical, as in a supernatural tale. What I am very impressed by is that Lovecraft takes the tradition of Promethus (of man reaching beyond into forbidden knowledge) out of the realm of the spirtual and places it completely within the materalistic. There are higher beings and their know...more Contains some very well-written short stories and novellas.

Uses many elements of science fiction, but the horror in these stories do not read like the horror in a film like "Alien," for example. The fear is more mystical, as in a supernatural tale. What I am very impressed by is that Lovecraft takes the tradition of Promethus (of man reaching beyond into forbidden knowledge) out of the realm of the spirtual and places it completely within the materalistic. There are higher beings and their knowledge is forbidden, but it is not that they are gods or God, it that man is so little in comparsion that they might as well be devine.

In fact, of all the American writers I have read, Lovecraft's interpretation of man's place in the universe is the most lacking in a sense of the lofty. It is just not that older, great creatures existed and exist, but that there are various magnitudes of such beings, the difference between one of them and us being the same as one of them and another kind. The horror is anomic, as man's place is inconsequential. Lovecraft creates a materalistic transgression and a mystical SF. It is quite impressive.

These stories are also a good example of what King in "Dance Macbre" calls the horror story as a story of the status quo, as a conservative instrument. The biological and cultural degeneracy of man and even of higher creatures is a big deal. Here in enters the racism and white supremancy that unfortunately mark so many of the texts.

Man's degeneracy is depicted as not just Eurocentric, but specifically Ayran. For example, the mult-ethnicity of New York City, its racial otherness, is the instrument from which the unnatural, the non-human, and the wicked evolve. In some ways, the racism of Lovecraft is very typical of the period. It reminds one very much of "Birth of a Nation."

These are not simply hateful texts,however. Allusions to Milton, Shakespeare, Poe, and Machen are made artfully, and Lovecraft always often multiple layers of mystery, many unresolve and understated. There is also a great deal of cultural influence here. You can see Lovecraft's vision of fallen, past super scientific civilizations influencing King's "Dark Tower" series and even popular video games.

Aside from white supremacy, the stories are dated in other ways as well. His placing "Mountains of Madness" in Antartica is like Swift placing giants where Alaska is today. Also, Pluto is no longer even considered a planet.

There is another way in which these stories are products of there time. They are in a kind of negative picture of "Clarke's Law," that any sufficantly advanced technology is indistinguishable form magic. What I mean is that certain authors create magical devices in their fiction that later become actual science. For example, there is a "wireless" magic phone in an Oz book that predates cell phones by about 100 years. Lovecraft's shoggoths predate the notion of artifical biology by at least 90 years. The exception of course is that Lovecraft would never call any of his creatures magical so much as unnatural (having natural laws of a higher order than those of man's scale of being, as opposed to above them as the superatural is). It reads with the same feeling of mystical transgression that a monster has, however.

A highly entertaining, although at times distrubingly racist, read. The racism gives insight into America's cultural past, however, and is historically instructive as to America's changing temperments over time.(less)

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Feb 23, 2012 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those who aren't afraid of that which goes bump in the night

Alright, so I didn't read every single page. More like 300 or so. Of the 22 or so stories featured in Lovecraft Tales, I partook in about 10, my favorites being The Dunwich Horror, At the Mountains of Madness, The Outsider, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

For those of you not acquainted with Lovecraft, as he is a rather obscure author, he is a master of the weird, the zany, the absurd, and the horrific. He's legitimately Stephen King with a more paranormal edge, and a mythos the size of another wo...more

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Apr 21, 2010 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars

In many ways, the writing of H.P. Lovecraft is autobiography.

I don't mean that he believed in Cthulhu, or Nyarlathotep, or the Great Race that steals your body and casts your mind back to a vast, ancient, Cyclopean prison that serves as a library of all the knowledge of the cosmos, past, present and future. There are people who believe Lovecraft really believe in what he wrote about, or at least say they do, but that's not what I'm talking about. The writing of H.P. Lovecraft is autobiographical...more In many ways, the writing of H.P. Lovecraft is autobiography.

I don't mean that he believed in Cthulhu, or Nyarlathotep, or the Great Race that steals your body and casts your mind back to a vast, ancient, Cyclopean prison that serves as a library of all the knowledge of the cosmos, past, present and future. There are people who believe Lovecraft really believe in what he wrote about, or at least say they do, but that's not what I'm talking about. The writing of H.P. Lovecraft is autobiographical in exactly the same way it is resonant for me as genuinely reflective of the universe as I've experienced it. Lovecraft, born in the late 19th century but fascinated and in some ways trapped far earlier, felt the universe was far vaster than we knew, and far colder than we want to believe. Virtually every story of his, the most effective ones, especially, are grounded in the idea that we are all insignificant motes of dust in a momentary ray of light shining through a monstrous reality filled with old and illimitable powers playing out baroque scenarios our minds cannot comprehend without descending into gibbering madness.

Lovecraft's way of crafting words is very nearly viral, which is why he had such a profound effect on writers ranging from his own contemporaries, through to Alan Moore and others not yet born. Hell, I never use the words "illimitable," or "gibbering," but I bet both are to be found many times in Lovecraft Tales, a massive and entirely essential hardcover collection from The Library of America.

I bought the book somewhat on a whim, and under circumstances Lovecraft would have found familiar. He was an antiquarian, fascinated with the past and also in love with "weird fiction," which (and about which) he wrote quite eloquently and passionately. I was browsing a mammoth bookstore in New England (really, I was) when I spotted the dark, foreboding cover with the slightly eerie author photo. It seemed to raise genuine, half-remembered thrills and the promise of wonder. As I saw Lovecraft's name on it, I remembered reading some of his fiction in my very early teens. I remember gray paperback book covers with hints of distorted, mind-warping biology and rotting, dilapidated houses. "Lovecraft," I thought to myself. "I've read him before, but it was a long time ago." The volume promised to be a near-definitive collection (it's not complete, but it's completely fantastic and brilliantly edited by horror writer Peter Straub), and as I browsed the untold piles and shelves of books in this New England bookstore (all right, it was in Vermont, not Boston, or Arkham, but still, it was New England), I was (I really was!) gripped by the desire to, after all these decades, re-immerse myself in whatever dark wonders Lovecraft had led me into as little more than a child.

Reading the stories in this volume, every one a dark delight, made me realize just how deeply Lovecraft's shadowy vision is woven into the fabric of our modern fiction. He was inspired by Poe and other pre-20th century writers of strange tales, but, beginning to write his own fiction before he was even 10 years old, Lovecraft's ancient fascinations and sense of alienation combined with a sharp mind to allow him to generate, over the course of his writing career, a vast tapestry of madness and the unknown that self-refers again and again. The earliest tales here seem like avatars of ancient days, but as science and knowledge expanded rapidly in the early 20th century, Lovecraft's mind expanded with them. Quantum physics in general and relativity in particular lent his work more, not less, verisimilitude, even as greater life experience and exposure to the ideas of others seem to tamp down his earliest, most immature and frequently racist touches. The oldest stories in the book seem like stories that could have been told to (or by) precocious children by the fire in the late 18th century; more expansive (in length and ideas) stories near the end, particularly the masterworks The Shadow Out of Time and At The Mountains of Madness would not have been conceivable without Lovecraft's exploration of the then-burgeoning body of knowledge about Earth's true place in the great scheme of the cosmos. How strange, in fact, to experience this book as a whole and note the introduction, over its course, of the automobile becoming commonplace, or of Einstein being named and his theories hinted at as possible explanations for the existence of other dimensions and perverse, forbidden journeys made possible by the very different physics and thought-processes of the elder gods.

Lovecraft's work is essential, addictive prose that gripped my soul as a child and has excited and recharged my imagination as an adult. Others have played in his sandbox, but no one could ever hope to match the singular and unique voice he cultivated in his years as a writer. Lovecraft Tales is a true treasure of dark delights, and a book literally full from beginning to end with stories worth re-reading, pondering over, and hoping never, ever come true.(less)

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Jun 03, 2009 Greg Heaney rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, horror

My acquaintance with Lovecraft felt much like one of his own stories, in retrospect. In reading what authors inspired my favorites, or lightly researching some famous novel, I occasionally heard his name come up. No one was ever specific about him, but he was always linked up with a foreboding sense of dread and terror. He remained a mystery to me.

That could not have kept up for long. After reading his stories, I realized that Lovecraftian influences have completely pervaded American culture. Ev...more My acquaintance with Lovecraft felt much like one of his own stories, in retrospect. In reading what authors inspired my favorites, or lightly researching some famous novel, I occasionally heard his name come up. No one was ever specific about him, but he was always linked up with a foreboding sense of dread and terror. He remained a mystery to me.

That could not have kept up for long. After reading his stories, I realized that Lovecraftian influences have completely pervaded American culture. Every single association we find between horror and slime, green goo, tentacles, invisibility, aliens, they all came from him. It felt like reading the biography of my best friend: I kept seeing things I knew, but could now identify the “why.”

This volume of Lovecraft is the perfect introduction. It loosely follows his own career: humble beginnings as a pulp fiction writer, slowly evolving into a master of his craft. It is as if every story lead up to the next, continuing what was great and dropping what didn’t work. His so-called Dream Sequence is well represented with works such as The Lurking Fear, The Outsider, and my own favorite, The Rats in the Walls. Although a few intermediate works could have been left out to make room for more classics (i.e. getting rid of The Horror at Red Hook or Cool Air and adding Dagon,) the stories soon become the most notable works of the “Cthulhu Mythos.” Piecing together his horrid cosmic mockery of humanity without that occasional side effect of insanity is easy to do with this volume.
As a writer, Lovecraft was not much of a groundbreaker. His stories are generally written in the first person by individuals who are, essentially, all the same. He has the tendency to use a few words quite a few times (After all, something “indescribable” can only be describe, ultimately, one way.” Truly representing 1920’s mentality, females play almost no roles, and blacks are literally portrayed as animals. Herbert West: Reanimator and my own favorite, The Rats in the Walls best exemplify this. Although I believe it’s a dirty word and choose to refrain from using it, I could not help but laugh out loud at the name of the narrator’s cat in this last story: “Nigger Man.” Apparently, Lovecraft himself had a cat of this name. As with most instances of racism, it’s more humorously juvenile than offensive, and is best ignored as a part of 20’s culture.

So, although Lovecraft is not a groundbreaking writer, his is still a groundbreaker. I believe he can easily be compared to Tolkien: although he ignores some basic rules of “good” writing, he makes up for it a thousand fold in creativity. Lovecraft has created an extra-terrestrial universe so believable, even the most hardened horror fan feels some sort of anxiety after turning out the lights. Speaking of other famous authors, it would not be remiss to label Lovecraft as the 20th century Poe, as many scholars have done before. Both lost the women in their lives to horrid diseases, and died all too young, unknown, sickly, and drunk in a gutter. Both were plagued by demons that could only be released on the page. And we, the audience, are able and willing to reap the sweet rewards of their suffering.

It is important to remember while reading Lovecraft that many of the elements may seem familiar, often times spoiling part of the fun. This is not because Lovecraft is not as scary as modern horror writers, it is because modern horror writers have been so inspired by him. Stephen King and Peter Straub, the editor of this volume, freely admit Lovecraft as an idol. Therefore, don’t be surprised if the story of plot device seems a little overused; be happy that you are now reading it in the original form.

I fell in love with Lovecraft after reading this book. Besides a rather hefty price tag, it is of superb quality, excellent editing, and is an absolute must have for anyone who has ever expressed the tiniest grain of interest in horror, science fiction, or Americana. Alexander Pope said that he stood on the shoulders of giants, and I believe most modern writers can say the same. We are but the lookers, Lovecraft is the giant.
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Jul 25, 2011 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

I think it took me a couple of years to finish this book because I was trying to not read the stories back to back. When I have had the opportunity to read them I just put it off because Lovecraft's work almost demands that you be in a certain frame of mind.

Now that I have read the read the majority of Lovecraft's work, I can sum up what I think are trends running through most of his stories. The following things happen in most:

1. the main character is very curious (occasionally to the point of...more

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Apr 15, 2009 Keith rated it 5 of 5 stars

To paraphrase my friend and colleague Scott Tobias talking about Bret Easton Ellis, Lovecraft tends to turn fans into apologists. So, right off the bat: Yes, the antique affectations of his prose can be a bit much. Yes, the stories tend to repeat a pattern of grabby openings and mounds of exposition that build to a big shocking ending that can occasionally feel anti-climactic. Yes, whole passages can be taken up with fearful names from a mythology of his own making. The above makes him easy to p...more

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May 15, 2010 David Kerr rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although I have been an H.P. Lovecraft fan for many years, and have subsequently acquired most of his available stories, I simply had to buy this Library of America collection of his works after seeing it in my local bookshop. This book is beautifully presented in a hardcover, complete with an integral bookmark and those "tissue-paper-like" pages that don't go yellow like so many others. So, the presentation is excellent, but what about the content? Well, I'm a big fan of Lovecraft's work anyway...more

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Aug 11, 2009 B. Jay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Love it! I can see why so many avent-gardes in the horror genre list Lovecraft as a huge influence. Although the formality of his writing and the consistancy of most stories being told in flashback form prohibit readers from diving in as deeply as one might like, Lovecraft's visions are genuinly terrifying. He was light years ahead of his time in terms of how he treated the subject material with deep seriousness, and created a whole world history (and future) in loving bits and pieces. Certain s...more

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Jun 07, 2011 Bre rated it 5 of 5 stars

Definately not for everyone but if you dig just plain weirdness and good old horror stories, this might be for you. I love Herbert West, which is partly the inspiration for King's Pet Semetary. Only thing I have to complain about this book is the cover. It's just...dull! Really, Lovecraft has such an epic imagination, so slap a picture of one of the "Old Ones" on the cover or something. If you read this book, you may never think of an octopus the same way again. (Shudders) Not to spoil anything,...more

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About H.P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a...more

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Books by H.P. Lovecraft

The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror

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Quotes from Tales

“My searchlight expired, but still I ran. I heard voices, and yowls, and echoes, but above all there gently rose that impious, insidious scurrying, gently rising, rising as a stiff bloated corpse gently rises above an oily river that flows under endless onyx bridges to a black putrid sea. Something bumped into me - something soft and plump. It must have been the rats; the viscous, gelatinous, ravenous army that feast on the dead and the living...” — 5 people liked it

“This time I did not have to question the source of his snarls and hisses, and of the fear which made him sink his claws into my ankle, unconscious of their effect; for on every side of the chamber the walls were alive with nauseous sound - the verminous slithering of ravenous, gigantic rats.” — 3 people liked it

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Tales (Library of America #155)

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