This is one of the best stories by Lovecraft. Cthulhu is an extraterrestrial entity that makes a major appearance. The story is presented as a manu...
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Feb 01, 2012
Stephen
rated it: 
This here, folks, is the most impressive image of Cthulhu that I’ve come across:
He just looks so damn regal, this eldritch, malevolent entity that appears partoctopus kraken, part dragon, part human caricature…the so called "mountain who walks."
Yes, I admit that I’m a Lovecraft/Cthulhu mythos junkie. I can’t help it. I think his stories are just amazing.
Depending on which HPL story I’ve most recently consumed, I vacillate regarding what is my ab More...
He just looks so damn regal, this eldritch, malevolent entity that appears part
Yes, I admit that I’m a Lovecraft/Cthulhu mythos junkie. I can’t help it. I think his stories are just amazing.
Depending on which HPL story I’ve most recently consumed, I vacillate regarding what is my ab More...
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Aug 12, 2011
Cindy
rated it:
First rule of Cthulhu: No one knows about Cthulhu.
Except, of course, all fans of SF/F should read the original Cthulu short story that is still inspiring storytellers today.
________________
"Johansen and his men were awed by the cosmic majesty of this dripping Babylon of elder daemons, and must have guessed without guidance that it was nothing of this or of any sane planet."
"The Thing cannot be described - there is no language f More...
Except, of course, all fans of SF/F should read the original Cthulu short story that is still inspiring storytellers today.
________________
"Johansen and his men were awed by the cosmic majesty of this dripping Babylon of elder daemons, and must have guessed without guidance that it was nothing of this or of any sane planet."
"The Thing cannot be described - there is no language f More...
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Aug 12, 2011
Robo
rated it: 
My second experience of Lovecraft (after At The Mountains of Madness) and equally enjoyable. So far I'm liking the fact that Lovecraft frames his stories in interesting ways - this in the form of pieces of a manuscript and ATMOM in a clipped journalistic style.
Easy to read through in an hour or so this gave some interesting insights into the Cthulhu Cult and I really enjoyed the way pieces of the mythology keyed into things I'd read in ATMOM. There's definitely a contin More...
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Aug 12, 2011
Dave
rated it:
Now I finally know what/who Cthulhu is.
Pretty good apocalypse-narrowly-avoided story. I'm always fascinated by stories from this time when these wealthy white men get turned on to some fact or strange occurrence take time out to gallivant around the world for a few years to investigate. Apparently they have all the time and money in the world to ferry between the continents not even sure that the person they're going to meet is still there.
Anyway. It's about a guy who has More...
Pretty good apocalypse-narrowly-avoided story. I'm always fascinated by stories from this time when these wealthy white men get turned on to some fact or strange occurrence take time out to gallivant around the world for a few years to investigate. Apparently they have all the time and money in the world to ferry between the continents not even sure that the person they're going to meet is still there.
Anyway. It's about a guy who has More...
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Nov 01, 2011
Trisha
rated it:
The Short and Sweet of It
When his uncle dies, our narrator discovers a strange box full of weird art, newspaper clippings, "disjointed jottings, ramblings, and cuttings." This discovery sets him on a path to explore the queer world of an ancient cult and its sleeping gods.
A Bit of a Ramble
Cthulhu is sort of the head dude of these sleeping gods, the one tasked with awakening them when the time is right. And he's a seriously messed up looking god with the whole o More...
When his uncle dies, our narrator discovers a strange box full of weird art, newspaper clippings, "disjointed jottings, ramblings, and cuttings." This discovery sets him on a path to explore the queer world of an ancient cult and its sleeping gods.
A Bit of a Ramble
Cthulhu is sort of the head dude of these sleeping gods, the one tasked with awakening them when the time is right. And he's a seriously messed up looking god with the whole o More...
Oct 16, 2011
Lianne
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Oct 02, 2011
Nick
rated it: 
Check out more reviews and SciFi/Fantasy fun at Lions and Men.
Cthulhu is written in the form of an old journal of a man named Francis Thurston. After his great uncle's death, Francis discovers that he has come to inherit a body of work that attempts to piece together mysteries surrounding mass hysteria and violent cults. Together with this information and his own investigation, Thurston describes the unspeakable horror that he uncovers.
The story is broken up into More...
Cthulhu is written in the form of an old journal of a man named Francis Thurston. After his great uncle's death, Francis discovers that he has come to inherit a body of work that attempts to piece together mysteries surrounding mass hysteria and violent cults. Together with this information and his own investigation, Thurston describes the unspeakable horror that he uncovers.
The story is broken up into More...
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Oct 17, 2011
Thaddeus.lewis
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Thurston the main character is left a manuscript by his granduncle George Gammell Angell a professor at Brown university. The story recounts his early life and a cult he discovered. The cult was of Cthulu, a old diety that was put into hibernation at the beginning of earth's time. Cthulu was asleep for billions of years always whispering to people in thier dreams who were more emotionally unstable then others. Through the Manuscript Thurston reads the adventures of his uncle and what he learned
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Aug 12, 2011
Elliot
rated it:
The works of Lovecraft are spectacular. You can see the influence they have on the great masters of horror in our time (Stephen King's short stories, John Carpenter's "The Thing"). I have great affinity for what he did, which was basically attempting to think of the kind of horror that comes from what humans do not know or fathom. Obviously, there is his Cthulhu Mythos, but for an example of his creative mental exercises at work, read "The Colour Out of Space," which essentia
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Jan 23, 2012
David
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I've finally gotten around to reading more about the Cthulhu mythos I keep hearing references to; and I must say that I enjoyed what I read. This short story is apparently the first one that all interested readers should go through before moving on to other books.
It nicely sets the stage for the feeling of dread and of the horrible enormity of the fate looming over mankind. What a bleak picture it paints, and how it insignificant mankind is compared to entities almost ageless in comp More...
It nicely sets the stage for the feeling of dread and of the horrible enormity of the fate looming over mankind. What a bleak picture it paints, and how it insignificant mankind is compared to entities almost ageless in comp More...
Dec 30, 2011
Nadyne
rated it:
I rather enjoyed this story...
Summary taken form Wikipedia:
The story is presented as a manuscript "found among the papers of the late Francis Wayland Thurston, of Boston". In the text, Thurston recounts his discovery of notes left behind by his granduncle, George Gammell Angell, a prominent Professor of Semitic languages at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, who died suddenly in "the winter of 1926–27" after being "jostled by a nautical-look More...
Summary taken form Wikipedia:
The story is presented as a manuscript "found among the papers of the late Francis Wayland Thurston, of Boston". In the text, Thurston recounts his discovery of notes left behind by his granduncle, George Gammell Angell, a prominent Professor of Semitic languages at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, who died suddenly in "the winter of 1926–27" after being "jostled by a nautical-look More...
Aug 12, 2011
Ethan
rated it:
Rest assured in knowing that I haven't read all of the great Lovecraft's tales, so this shall merely be a review of his story "The Call of Cthulu." My good friend Colin had told me of this book and the mighty power of Cthulu in times past, yet the actual narrative of this leviathan truly describes the horror of such a beast.
If you haven't guessed by now, "The Call of Cthulu" was incredible, a stunning read nearly the entire way through. I may have praised "T More...
If you haven't guessed by now, "The Call of Cthulu" was incredible, a stunning read nearly the entire way through. I may have praised "T More...
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Aug 12, 2011
Scott
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This is a review of The Call of Cthulhu and a number of other Lovecraft stories that I have read. Genre-wise, they sit at the crossroads of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Lovecraft had a great imagination and creative mind, and was Poe's equal in terms of establishing a creepy atmosphere. On the other hand, his writing style can be a bit heavy-handed and cumbersome, which affected my enjoyment of his stories. He has the tendency to use obsolete, obscure, or lengthy adjectives--on the one
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Aug 12, 2011
Santoso
rated it:
This is the first--and currently the only--of Lovecraft's horrors that I have read, spurred by many popular culture references that I have seen (Warcraft lore, South Park, to name a few) lately. I was intrigued by the premise of Lovecraftian horrors: unimaginably dark and massive presence and consciousness that dwarfs our own race's existence in the cosmos; the powerful lure to insanity.
So I read this staple short story that gives the Lovecraft brand its current logo, so to speak. It More...
So I read this staple short story that gives the Lovecraft brand its current logo, so to speak. It More...
Aug 12, 2011
Daniel
rated it:
H.P. Lovecraft is said to have influenced the work of Anne Rice, one of my favorite authors. The first time I encountered his name was in a Rice novel called "The Tale of the Body Thief" in which the antagonist leaves for the protagonist a copy of Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep." I had resolved then, and at subsequent readings of Rice, to further read and investigate H.P. Lovecraft, but never followed through. Recently a colleague and fellow Goodreads member read and
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Aug 12, 2011
adventurat
rated it: 
I downloaded this from (I think) Project Gutenberg: furthering my classical education. Well, except that this one was written within the last 100 years, so perhaps it's not actually a classic yet? But that's all semantics.
All I know about Cthulhu, I learned from Futurama and LiveJournal, so obviously it wasn't much. Wikipedia tells me that this is only the first in a series of stories about Cthulhu and the cult, and that it is generally regarded as the author's masterpiece.
H More...
All I know about Cthulhu, I learned from Futurama and LiveJournal, so obviously it wasn't much. Wikipedia tells me that this is only the first in a series of stories about Cthulhu and the cult, and that it is generally regarded as the author's masterpiece.
H More...
Aug 12, 2011
Amadei
rated it:
I have a bone to pick with the protagonists of horror stories. Here's my problem:
If they're supposedly uncovering some sort of Great Big Evil Truth (tm) that they don't want anyone else to know about, why are they writing down all the information they have and just putting it under lock and key. Really. It makes no sense to me.
Like in The Call of Cthulhu...the narrator finds, in amongst his now-deceased uncle's things, a strange locked box which he then proceeds to open. More...
If they're supposedly uncovering some sort of Great Big Evil Truth (tm) that they don't want anyone else to know about, why are they writing down all the information they have and just putting it under lock and key. Really. It makes no sense to me.
Like in The Call of Cthulhu...the narrator finds, in amongst his now-deceased uncle's things, a strange locked box which he then proceeds to open. More...
Sep 28, 2011
Lindsay
rated it:
I'm about half way through the complete works at the moment (one of my 2011 reading challenges :-D), and this short story contains many of the classic Lovecraft themes so I can see why it's a 'standard', but it doesn't strike me as one of his best works despite its fame. It lacks the baroque detail and atmosphere-drenched build-up to the inevitable nameless terrors of At the Mountains of Madness, and the rollocking psychedelic adventure that is The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. It is Lovecraft
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Aug 25, 2011
Stephen
rated it:
Absolutely LOVE this story... its such a perfect horror story. It appeals to the deepest and most primal of all fear, the fear of death. It crashes through the ignorant ideas that we have put in place to guard ourself from the fact that we will all die, and be dead forever. Ahhhh this book had me unnerved and consumed by sickly fear for weeks after i read it XD. A true masterpiece of horror, thank you Mr. Lovecraft, for disturbing my fragile veil of happiness :P
Aug 13, 2011
Harrison
rated it:
After using Cthulhu in so many stories and jokes, I decided I should actually read up on it. The book in general wasn't that horrifying, but for some reason Lovecraft's writing style made it the scariest thing I have ever read. I guess there was just always this... ominous tone. A tone that said anything could happen but at the same time nothing could happen. Ha, it was a really great short story to read through.
Oct 11, 2011
Bruce
rated it:
This quick read was certainly interesting, and creates a fun mythology which has served as a genesis for an expansive universe. However, Lovecraft's writing style is often bereft of descriptive language. I lost count of how many times he used "horrible," "terrible" and "monstrous" to describe various aspects of the Cthulhu concept.
Enjoyable book, but glad I didn't have to spend much time reading it.
Enjoyable book, but glad I didn't have to spend much time reading it.
Oct 04, 2011
Jesse
rated it:
This is, of course, concidered Lovecraft's masterpiece. It has many of the aspects from other stories all wrapped into one: an incrediblly rich backstory, classic horror in the sense of ancient rituals, cannibalism, and batwinged horrors, and scifi with the elder evils from the stars.
This really solidfies the Cthulhu Mythos and is a must read for anyone who is interested in Lovecraft.
This really solidfies the Cthulhu Mythos and is a must read for anyone who is interested in Lovecraft.
Aug 12, 2011
Ben
rated it:
At 52 pages, this is a good, quick read. Published in 1928, the story definitely has an favorably old feel through its descriptions of a professor's old manuscripts, sea voyages, and mysterious midnight cults. Though I am hardly inventing the comparison, Lovecraft's writing did remind me somewhat of Poe.
Hardly more than a short story (technically a novella), this is a good choice if you're looking for an old horror story to finish off in a brief sitting.
Hardly more than a short story (technically a novella), this is a good choice if you're looking for an old horror story to finish off in a brief sitting.
Sep 02, 2011
Shanawaz
rated it:
Oh man now I know why Stephen King rates this guy so highly. There is always an aura about his writing. Its as if a malignant spirit is looking at you, over your shoulder while you read this.
The plot is so unique, and Cthulhu such an intriguing yet terrifying entity, truly awesome, his worshipers sinister and ruthless.
The story is laid out perfectly so that one detail after another comes to light. Very enjoyable read.
The plot is so unique, and Cthulhu such an intriguing yet terrifying entity, truly awesome, his worshipers sinister and ruthless.
The story is laid out perfectly so that one detail after another comes to light. Very enjoyable read.
Aug 12, 2011
Apothekari
rated it:
Having just re-read this, as I see it, very best of Lovecraft's stories. I felt the need to comment.
Those looking to investigate the works of this most influential author, should start here. This one truly has all the components of what ushered this author into literary immortality. The core story of the "Mythos" that he created from his long childhood locked in a well stocked familial library that included works by Arthur Machen, Robert W Chambers and Algernon Blackwood. All fair More...
Those looking to investigate the works of this most influential author, should start here. This one truly has all the components of what ushered this author into literary immortality. The core story of the "Mythos" that he created from his long childhood locked in a well stocked familial library that included works by Arthur Machen, Robert W Chambers and Algernon Blackwood. All fair More...
Dec 21, 2011
Ellen
rated it:
Okay, so after all of the sci-fi/gaming things mentioning Cthulhu, I decided I should read the original, and since it was a free download at www.feedbooks.com, I thought, "what the heck". Seriously, as short as it is, I had goosebumps starting about page 4 and they continued until the end.
Aug 12, 2011
Eric
rated it:
This is the first Lovecraft I've ever read and it was truly excellent. HP combines a talent for storytelling with high-quality prose, which I've found to be pretty rare. The first paragraph, for instance, is an amazing rumination, very compelling despite not advancing the plot one bit, and then when we do get into the plot there are all sorts of interesting details which keep the reader fascinated, such as strange geometries, alien religions, and maddening dreams. It's the sort of writing which
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Aug 12, 2011
Harold
rated it:
Thought I'd have another go at Lovecraft, after having tried (and failed) to read some of his work as a kid. For a young reader coming off of Stephen King & Clive Barker, Lovecraft's writing style is not exactly the most accessible. This time around, however, I had a much easier time getting into the story - which is actually pretty brief and fast paced. Lovecraft creates a nice sense of creeping dread, and I loved how he describes the architecture of the "old ones". So many other
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Nov 02, 2011
Sonia
rated it:
I definitely liked this a lot more than I expected too. Although Lovecraft has this huge reputation amonst horror and fantasy writers, I've had a little trouble really getting into what I've read of his so far. This was quite refreshing in comparison.
Aug 12, 2011
Jorge
rated it:
What more does anyone need? Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft is an old standby of mine. If ever I am at a loss for literature and I want to read something horrific, intelligent, philosophical, and (still) ground-breaking, I always come back to Lovecraft. The man's brilliance knows no bounds whatsoever and it really shows in what is (aside from "At the Mountains of Madness" - don't know how to underline) his most popular and highest-regarded story. A must read for horror/sci-fi fans an
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