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The Complete H. P. LOVECRAFT Reader
(N.B. this new edition has corrected the formatting issues that has been voiced by some Lovecraft fans...) CONTENTS: The Nameless CityThe FestivalThe Colour out of SpaceThe Call of CthulhuThe Dunwich HorrorThe Whisperer in DarknessDreams in the Witch-houseThe Haunter of the DarkThe Shadow over InnsmouthThe Shadow out of TimeAt the Mountain of MadnessThe Case of Charles Dexter WardAzathothBeyond the Wall of SleepCelephaisCool AirDagonEx OblivioneFacts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His FamilyFrom BeyondHeHerbert West: ReanimatorHypnosImprisoned with the PharaohsIn the VaultMedusa's CoilMemoryNyarlathotepPickman's ModelPoetry of the GodsThe AlchemistThe Beast in the CaveThe BookThe Cats of UltharThe Crawling ChaosThe DescendantThe Doom That Came to SarnathThe Dream Quest of Unknown KadathThe Evil ClergymanThe Horror at Martin's BeachThe Horror at Red HookThe HoundThe Lurking FearThe Moon BogThe Music of Erich ZannThe Other GodsThe OutsiderThe Picture in the HouseThe Quest of IranonThe Rats in the WallsThe Shunned HouseThe Silver KeyThe Statement of Randolph CarterThe Strange High House in the MistThe StreetThe TempleThe Terrible Old ManThe Thing on the DoorstepThe TombThe Transition of Juan RomeroThe TreeThe UnnamableThe White ShipThrough the Gates of the Silver KeyWhat the Moon BringsPolarisThe Very Old Folk
1211 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 15, 2007
35 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
6,288 books19.4k followersHoward 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 series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
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 series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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October 31, 2011I'm about 33% through this right now. A lot of it is very fun, but in general its been a bit of a slog due to two factors. First, I find Lovecraft's general paranoia a bit hard to empathize with - I tend to think of the world as being ruled mostly by benign incompetence, rather than malicious conspiracy. Second, Christ is the man long-winded. Pretty much every story hear could stand to lose about 30% of its total length.
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August 3, 2019I'm not going to rate this one, how can a bind up of over 60 stories be properly rated? Some of the stories were amazing - Colour Out of Space and Mountains of Madness for example, so fantastic. Others were not so amazing, I mean what was Azathoth anyway? After a while it got majorly repetitive so that the stories after the 50% mark were seemingly not as good as the ones at the start, but I can't say for sure if they were truly not as good, or if I was just too worn out on Lovecraft to enjoy them properly. If I had read them first might I like them more? I don't know.
And then there is the racism, subtle in some stories and can be easily put down to "it's the time period he lived in" but then others it was blatantly in your face disgusting. When every person who is not quite white is deemed beyond ugly to the point that they inspire horror just by virtue of being not white, it's going way past that flimsy "it's the time period" justification point, and into the realm of, "Oh so Lovecraft was a racist arsehole then?" That's not even bringing up the names of certain black cats.
Also he is not that great at writing sympathetic characters. Almost none of the characters he wrote about made me feel anything for them, the exception being Colour Out of Time where I did feel for them, but every other character, first person POV or not, I felt like I didn't know them at all and so couldn't connect. I was still able to feel the atmospheric horror and dread that the stories are meant to inspire, so it's obvious that Lovecraft was good at writing horror, to make you feel dread when you don't care about the characters facing the dreadful stuff.
So over all, I don't know how to rate this so I won't. I am glad I read it.
And then there is the racism, subtle in some stories and can be easily put down to "it's the time period he lived in" but then others it was blatantly in your face disgusting. When every person who is not quite white is deemed beyond ugly to the point that they inspire horror just by virtue of being not white, it's going way past that flimsy "it's the time period" justification point, and into the realm of, "Oh so Lovecraft was a racist arsehole then?" That's not even bringing up the names of certain black cats.
Also he is not that great at writing sympathetic characters. Almost none of the characters he wrote about made me feel anything for them, the exception being Colour Out of Time where I did feel for them, but every other character, first person POV or not, I felt like I didn't know them at all and so couldn't connect. I was still able to feel the atmospheric horror and dread that the stories are meant to inspire, so it's obvious that Lovecraft was good at writing horror, to make you feel dread when you don't care about the characters facing the dreadful stuff.
So over all, I don't know how to rate this so I won't. I am glad I read it.
February 11, 2020
I have read lovecraft in the past, and was unimpressed.
After reading the entirety of his published official work-
Noting has changed.
Lovecraft's complete lack of ability in creating interesting dialog, his complete disdain for explaining what something just LOOKS LIKE, is so, so, terribly frustrating. The monotonous reuse of archaic, disused parts of language, such as "shew", and the unending, minute descriptions of environment to the exclusion of character, drives me to distraction-I completely forget what's actually happening, and that's not good storytelling.
His need to "twist" something at the end, the shock and surprise, may have shocked and surprised readers 90+ years ago, but the fantasy fiction environment has been so different for so long that it just seems..unsophisticated and childlike.
AND HE WAS IN THE HOUSE ALL ALONG!
It's nothing.
Having said all that, the teases of a larger universe, with horrific backstories and lore, *IS* interesting, but so little of it is ever really explored that it's just completely unsatisfying.
At the Mountains of Madness is the closest he gets to a full, complete, satisfying, curiosity engaging, and engaging story. The rest never seem to have a POINT.
But that may be precisely what he wanted, it may be a singular expression of the pointlessness of everything human when the cosmos is inhabited by hybrids, old gods, titans, and buried elbows (really dude?) I don't know, I'm no academician. I can only express how it affects me, and it all affected me negatively, and not even in an existentially negative way like his characters, just an "ugh, that doesn't MEAN anything!" way. And that's not what I want out of my precious reading time.
After reading the entirety of his published official work-
Noting has changed.
Lovecraft's complete lack of ability in creating interesting dialog, his complete disdain for explaining what something just LOOKS LIKE, is so, so, terribly frustrating. The monotonous reuse of archaic, disused parts of language, such as "shew", and the unending, minute descriptions of environment to the exclusion of character, drives me to distraction-I completely forget what's actually happening, and that's not good storytelling.
His need to "twist" something at the end, the shock and surprise, may have shocked and surprised readers 90+ years ago, but the fantasy fiction environment has been so different for so long that it just seems..unsophisticated and childlike.
AND HE WAS IN THE HOUSE ALL ALONG!
It's nothing.
Having said all that, the teases of a larger universe, with horrific backstories and lore, *IS* interesting, but so little of it is ever really explored that it's just completely unsatisfying.
At the Mountains of Madness is the closest he gets to a full, complete, satisfying, curiosity engaging, and engaging story. The rest never seem to have a POINT.
But that may be precisely what he wanted, it may be a singular expression of the pointlessness of everything human when the cosmos is inhabited by hybrids, old gods, titans, and buried elbows (really dude?) I don't know, I'm no academician. I can only express how it affects me, and it all affected me negatively, and not even in an existentially negative way like his characters, just an "ugh, that doesn't MEAN anything!" way. And that's not what I want out of my precious reading time.
February 26, 2014
As i said when i started the book, i've already read most of the stories here.So i'll just say a few words about those, that i hadn't read and made most impression on me.
Pickman's model - This one was really good, made me anticipate what will happen at the end and certanly had a horrifying taste.
The Hound was really good too.
Imprisoned with the pharaohs was not what i expected at first and even bore me in the beginning, but certanly proved to be enjoyable and was like a fresh breath among all the other stories, where the story takes place in gloomy and abandoned, god-forsaken places.
Facts concerning the late Arthur jermyn and his family - this one was very interesting, and here the reader can marvel and enjoy Lovecraft's skill at storytelling at length.Although sometimes he can become a little boring with details, the author always creates a great atmosphere and one can feel the gradual descend into terror and abomination.
Herbert West:Reanimator - this is one of his most famous works, which, i missed to read until now.I was not disappointed.And the end was scarily satisfying.
Medusa's Coil is in my top 3 favorites.This one was great and the impending doom at the end was bone-chilling.
The case of Charles Dexter Ward - this was the last one i read and the longest.
I truly think this one is the masterpiece of Lovecraft's writing.I can only compare it to The Call of Cthulhu; for me, these two are his best and everyone should read them and experience the horor they bring.
I really enjoyed the book, although i'm kinda sad that i've now read everyhting Lovecraft has written (i think?...) Now it's time to hunt for some books about the Cthulhu mytology and biografies about the author, because, you can never have enough Lovecraft horror.
Pickman's model - This one was really good, made me anticipate what will happen at the end and certanly had a horrifying taste.
The Hound was really good too.
Imprisoned with the pharaohs was not what i expected at first and even bore me in the beginning, but certanly proved to be enjoyable and was like a fresh breath among all the other stories, where the story takes place in gloomy and abandoned, god-forsaken places.
Facts concerning the late Arthur jermyn and his family - this one was very interesting, and here the reader can marvel and enjoy Lovecraft's skill at storytelling at length.Although sometimes he can become a little boring with details, the author always creates a great atmosphere and one can feel the gradual descend into terror and abomination.
Herbert West:Reanimator - this is one of his most famous works, which, i missed to read until now.I was not disappointed.And the end was scarily satisfying.
Medusa's Coil is in my top 3 favorites.This one was great and the impending doom at the end was bone-chilling.
The case of Charles Dexter Ward - this was the last one i read and the longest.
I truly think this one is the masterpiece of Lovecraft's writing.I can only compare it to The Call of Cthulhu; for me, these two are his best and everyone should read them and experience the horor they bring.
I really enjoyed the book, although i'm kinda sad that i've now read everyhting Lovecraft has written (i think?...) Now it's time to hunt for some books about the Cthulhu mytology and biografies about the author, because, you can never have enough Lovecraft horror.
April 11, 2011
What can I say? This is just indulgence on my part as I have read these before, but not on Kindle. It is a bit repetitive, and certainly racist by modern standards, as well as mildly anti-semitic. He cannot really do female characters and the adverbs and adjectives become very familiar. Clark Aston Smith and James Branch Caball are much better writers in this genre, but Lovecraft was the inventor and the founder of New England Gothic, and seminal to many others. Jack Vance and others did it better but he was first and his icons remain.
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January 2, 2010The Complete H. P. LOVECRAFT Reader (68 Stories Included) by H. P. Lovecraft (2007)
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September 9, 2016Skipping on rating this one, simply because there are so many pieces in it, and I read it over years, making it hard to give an overall impression.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews