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3rd out of 84 books
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The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories
by
S.T. Joshi,
S.T. Joshi
This new edition brings together a dozen chilling tales from the unrivaled master of the fantastic and the macabre.
Mass Market Paperbound, 443 pages
Published
October 1st 2001
by Penguin Books
(first published 1937)
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This book contains some of the best short stories I've ever read, despite a few of them feeling unfinished. One of the best is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, the story of a man seeking out the truth about his great-great-great grandfather, and the terrible secrets that he uncovered in this search.
My favorite story of all, though, is At the Mountains of Madness. Lovecraft masterfully built suspense page after page until the reader feels overwhelmed by the horrible realities that an...more
My favorite story of all, though, is At the Mountains of Madness. Lovecraft masterfully built suspense page after page until the reader feels overwhelmed by the horrible realities that an...more
I did not read the entirety of this book—just a few stories. Perhaps I'll get around to reading the rest some other time. Lovecraft has a very distinct style which does not lend itself to plowing through 350 pages in a few sittings.
I mainly got this collection because I really wanted to read "At The Mountains of Madness". Those not familiar, it's the tale of a 1930s Antarctic expedition that uncovers an ancient city and evidence of extraterrestrial beings playing with genet...more
I mainly got this collection because I really wanted to read "At The Mountains of Madness". Those not familiar, it's the tale of a 1930s Antarctic expedition that uncovers an ancient city and evidence of extraterrestrial beings playing with genet...more
There's not a lot I can say about this one that I didn't already say about The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales. It was a pleasure to read a Lovecraft novella I'd never even heard of ("The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward," which was amazing in its slow, steady creep towards the revelation of great horror), and "Pickman's Model" was probably my favorite short story of the volume. That one in particular felt very modern to me, maybe because I could see what the revel...more
I learned that you should never dig up bodies in graveyards for any reason whatsoever, not even if your oldest friend (who has progressively gone made from dabbling in evil science) asks for your help.
This is the second of the Lovecraft collections by Penguin edited by S.T. Joshi.
I generally liked it - the first half of short stories which include The Tomb, The White Ship, The Quest of Iranon are b-list work.
Others such as The Music of Erich Zann, Pickman's Model, The Thing on the Doorstep are very good, pulpy scary stories.
The heart of the book lies in The case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Dunwich Horror and At the Mountains of Madness - this book is a...more
I generally liked it - the first half of short stories which include The Tomb, The White Ship, The Quest of Iranon are b-list work.
Others such as The Music of Erich Zann, Pickman's Model, The Thing on the Doorstep are very good, pulpy scary stories.
The heart of the book lies in The case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Dunwich Horror and At the Mountains of Madness - this book is a...more
Like the other two Joshi anthologies, this collection includes pieces Lovecraft wrote throughout his career. The two earliest--"The Tomb" and "Beyond the Wall of Sleep"--are crude but characteristic in the way they assume that true horror is born from the human mind's capacity for transcending space and time and the possibility that entities from beyond space and time can take advantage of this capacity. The two Dunsanian imitations--"The White Ship" and "...more
THE TOMB
An horror short story written in June 1917.
‘All things appear as they do only by virtue of the delicate individual physical and mental media through which we are made conscious of them.’ (p. 1)
Jervas Dudley discovered the entrance to a mausoleum belonging to the Hyde family , whose house had burnt many years before.
Jervas attempts to enter in the tomb, but he is unable; so, inspired by an example of Plutarch’s Lives, he decides to wait until it ...more
An horror short story written in June 1917.
‘All things appear as they do only by virtue of the delicate individual physical and mental media through which we are made conscious of them.’ (p. 1)
Jervas Dudley discovered the entrance to a mausoleum belonging to the Hyde family , whose house had burnt many years before.
Jervas attempts to enter in the tomb, but he is unable; so, inspired by an example of Plutarch’s Lives, he decides to wait until it ...more
Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress"
rated it
HP Lovecraft's volume The Thing at the Doorstep and other stories is pretty good. Lovecraft has quite an imagination. However I am quite sure that one cannot read too much Lovecraft at one time. His writing style is so unique and in some ways taxing, that it is best to break up reading him.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward was surprisingly a real page turner. It is about the possessing of an inquisitive youth by his nefarious wizard ancestor. It is written almost like a report and y...more
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward was surprisingly a real page turner. It is about the possessing of an inquisitive youth by his nefarious wizard ancestor. It is written almost like a report and y...more
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Relative newcomer to this writer's work. Very impressive. Extraordinary works of imagination written with such realism the stories are engrossing, believable and chilling. Repeated re-readings will be rewarding and I'm looking forward to the losing myself in the rest of his work.
Also, this edition was well put together with bibliographies for every tale and insightful footnotes. I'll be sticking to this series for the rest.
Also, this edition was well put together with bibliographies for every tale and insightful footnotes. I'll be sticking to this series for the rest.
Not only is Lovecraft the orignal master of the horror genre, to my mind he is among the greatest authors of all time. I can't explain quite how appealing his work is, but among other characteristics it is his style of thoroughness. He never leaves a loose end or an unexplained point. His is methodical and full. A writer really in touch with his imagination, his work comes across with the feel of an unlimited universe to which the reader is invited, if they dare. I go back to his stories over an...more
Howard Phillips Lovecraft's unique contribution to American literature was a melding of traditional supernaturalism (derived chiefly from Edgar Allan Poe) with the genre of science fiction that emerged in the early 1920s. This new Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics edition brings together a dozen of the master's tales-from his early short stories "Under the Pyramids" (originally ghostwritten for Harry Houdini) and "The Music of Erich Zann" (which Lovecraft ranked second among...more
Lovecraft's short stories typically adhere to one of several types: from the odd sub-Dickensian ghost story, to literate horror originals, to supernatural/horror/sci-fi insanity that makes the blood run cold and finally the just plain weird - works of imagination one can scarcely fathom being birthed in a world, well, before H.P. Lovecraft!
Maybe the problem is that a lot of these stories, according to the editor, weren't included necessarily because they're all that great, but because they tell us something interesting about the author himself? Either way, by the time I got through "The Dunwich Horror," I was so bored by shadowy, unnameable menaces threatening the world and being stopped by incantations chanted by erudite professors that I couldn't bring myself even to start At the Mountains of Madness.
I love H.P. Lovecraft. I'm about to start reading Penguin's third and final volume of his collected stories and am dreading the day I run out. He's the author I remember wishing I could read in middle school but didn't know existed (although I tried writing a few disastrous stories of my own). I thought this one line from At the Mountains of Madness (1931) sums him up neatly:
"It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth's dark, dead corners...more
"It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth's dark, dead corners...more
It's Lovecraft... I think that resumes much :) The only story I didn't liked that much was "Under the Pyramids" and that was written with/by Harry Houdini. Loved the rest of it, expecially "The Dunwich Horror".
An ecclectic mix of dark and disturbing tales spanning his career.
Some really good stories here but overall, not as strong as the other collection I have read: "Call of Cthulu and other stories".
Some really good stories here but overall, not as strong as the other collection I have read: "Call of Cthulu and other stories".
H.P. Lovecraft, what can I saw? I must say that the main thing I took away from this book, particularly in the title story, The Thing on the Doorstep, is that I should never date women. Ever.
The Thing on the Doorstep is my favorite Lovecraft story of all time.
Great collection of odd shorts and full blown classics.
"Under the Pyramids" and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" are so far the best of the lengthier short-stories...
"Pyramids" was ghost-written for Harry Houdini - which just makes it even cooler.
If you like HP Lovecraft, an you like video games, I highly recommend 'Eternal Darkness' for the Nintendo Gamecube. It is heavily influenced by HP Lovecraft's work - and got me interested in it in the first place ^^
*edit This particular Pe...more
"Pyramids" was ghost-written for Harry Houdini - which just makes it even cooler.
If you like HP Lovecraft, an you like video games, I highly recommend 'Eternal Darkness' for the Nintendo Gamecube. It is heavily influenced by HP Lovecraft's work - and got me interested in it in the first place ^^
*edit This particular Pe...more
It's Lovecraft — enough said.
Scotchandsoda
is currently reading it
supercreepy, dude.
There is something brilliantly twisted about Lovecraft. Not great at setting up a narrative, but his instances of horror are great.
Read the Case of Charles Dexter Ward specificially for a group read
My introduction to Lovecraftand I was very very impressed. Need to get my hands on the other two volumes ASAP.
while not quite as strong as the other two lovecraft collections from penguin, it's still solid and should be read just for "at the mountains of madness", which does more to tie the various elements of the cthulhu mythos into a cohesive whole than any other story. the ghostwritten-for-harry-houdini "under the pyramids" is also a fun read and presents a voice other than one typical of lovecraft.
Had to return to library so only had time to read a couple of these short stories. Otherwordly and bizarre, and that is a good thing...
This is one of the standard texts of Lovecraft's stories now that Arkham House is defunct. Any and all HPL scholars and readers take note: these Penguins editions supercede the Arkham House editions, because many of the stories contained in the Penguin Classics series have been recently further corrected by S. T. Joshi according to HPL's autograph manuscripts at the John Hay Library.
I always heard good things about H.P. Lovecraft, so I checked this out. Good short-stories, sort of Poe-ish, creepy, weird and creative. However, the writing is dense, a bit too dense for me in parts. I want to read Call of Cthulhu next, that's his most famous short story, and hopefully more accessible than this collection.
Not what I was expecting. Too much short story not enough meat.
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Sunand Tryambak Joshi (b. 22 June 1958 in Pune, India) is an Indian American literary scholar, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors. Besides what some critics consider to be the definitive biography of Lovecraft (H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, 1996), Joshi has written about Ambrose Bierce, H. L. Mencken, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James, and has edited collections...more
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