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Crawling Chaos: Selected Works 1920-1935
An indispensable collection of HP Lovecraft's best work from his distinctive collaborative pieces, prose-poems and early tales of the gruesome and bizarre, through to his later, more mature work: the Cthulhu Mythos. With an introduction by Colin Wilson, Crawling Chaos is must-have for every horror/ fantasy fan.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1921
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
6,442 books19.6k 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 - 30 of 92 reviews
October 19, 2015
The Crawling Chaos
By Elizabeth Berkeley and Lewis Theobald, Jun.
[Winifred Virginia Jackson and H. P. Lovecraft]
This is a dream that Jackson had and Lovecraft wrote down. It is not about Nyarlathotep though.
It starts with an accidental opium overdose and it turns into an apocalyptic vision. The narrator witnesses the destruction of the whole world. You never know what is next because you are at the mercy of whatever the narrator experiences.
By Elizabeth Berkeley and Lewis Theobald, Jun.
[Winifred Virginia Jackson and H. P. Lovecraft]
This is a dream that Jackson had and Lovecraft wrote down. It is not about Nyarlathotep though.
It starts with an accidental opium overdose and it turns into an apocalyptic vision. The narrator witnesses the destruction of the whole world. You never know what is next because you are at the mercy of whatever the narrator experiences.
November 24, 2017
A guy takes opium and sees the end of the world. I'm partial to Lovecraft's exquisite use of words, so I loved it.
March 3, 2010
You love him or you hate him. I think this is my top Lovecraft anthology. All my favorite tales in one book. Dreams In The Witchhouse and The Hound amongst others.
Does exactly what it says on the tin.
Read it and then start dropping "eldritch" and "squamous" into conversation.
Does exactly what it says on the tin.
Read it and then start dropping "eldritch" and "squamous" into conversation.
February 22, 2019
Un viaje de opio
February 13, 2018
Seems like the narrators good doctor laced his opium with Peyote, a mistake benefiting posterity.
July 18, 2018
Similar to the dream cycle stories in spirit which is enjoyable, but very haphazard and moved from point to point to point, seemingly with no direction or end-goal. Needed more focus.
June 1, 2020
Se trata de una antología de Lovecraft en la que se incluyen colaboraciones con otros autores o cuentos que surgen a partir obras ya escritas. Tiene en total 7 cuentos cortos, los cuales si bien abordan distintas temáticas, el que le da origen al título del libro describe los horrores tras una sobredosis de opio.
Aunque en principio no me impresionó demasiado en comparación con otros cuentos que he leído del autor, a medida que avanzaba me topé con cosas que realmente me gustaron y que claramente transmiten ese temor justificado hacia lo desconocido por el hombre. Si bien considero que esta antología no recopila los mejores trabajos de HP Lovecraft, revelan mucho de la naturaleza obsesiva de la mitología creada por autor.
En cuanto a las descripciones, son tan vívidas y hermosas que te sumergen de lleno en la historia. Creo que es un libro que se disfruta mucho, luego que dejas de lado la búsqueda del horror sensacional y comienzas a apreciar los detalles de la escritura de Lovecraft. Mis cuentos preferidos fueron:
-La pradera verde
-Cenizas
-El horror de Martin´s Beach
-Amados muertos
Aunque en principio no me impresionó demasiado en comparación con otros cuentos que he leído del autor, a medida que avanzaba me topé con cosas que realmente me gustaron y que claramente transmiten ese temor justificado hacia lo desconocido por el hombre. Si bien considero que esta antología no recopila los mejores trabajos de HP Lovecraft, revelan mucho de la naturaleza obsesiva de la mitología creada por autor.
En cuanto a las descripciones, son tan vívidas y hermosas que te sumergen de lleno en la historia. Creo que es un libro que se disfruta mucho, luego que dejas de lado la búsqueda del horror sensacional y comienzas a apreciar los detalles de la escritura de Lovecraft. Mis cuentos preferidos fueron:
-La pradera verde
-Cenizas
-El horror de Martin´s Beach
-Amados muertos
December 15, 2018
I was unimpressed at the start of this anthology, possibly because the things HPL did wrote in the 1920s have reached me via popular culture before reading this. Another possibility is that I didn't enjoy a lot of the stories because most of his characters are either flat, aren't believably human or are plain unlikable. It might also have to do with the repetitiveness of his prose from one story to the next.
And yet as I got further into this, I found more to like, more stuff that actually started feeling like it might be scary and more varied occurrences than just "dark rituals" and "unfathomable evil".
I think this is a good representation of HPL's writing, racist warts and all and while I found about half of it to be a slog, I'l carry some of his best imagery with me....forever. muhahaha!
And yet as I got further into this, I found more to like, more stuff that actually started feeling like it might be scary and more varied occurrences than just "dark rituals" and "unfathomable evil".
I think this is a good representation of HPL's writing, racist warts and all and while I found about half of it to be a slog, I'l carry some of his best imagery with me....forever. muhahaha!
November 15, 2019
Wordsworth Editions
2010.
Published as a complete book under the title "The Horror in the Museum".
Bought this book on my trip to Transylvania where I was almost abducted by Gypsies.
The language does not have deeper layers of actualizations, it does not have wicked metaphors, no cool neologisms...
The atmosphere is not on the level which Howard Phillips could have accomplished.
The content is not creative, the autodiegetic narrator has been enchanted by opium and travels to another universe. It sounds good but it smells awful.
¡Hasta luego!
2010.
Published as a complete book under the title "The Horror in the Museum".
Bought this book on my trip to Transylvania where I was almost abducted by Gypsies.
The language does not have deeper layers of actualizations, it does not have wicked metaphors, no cool neologisms...
The atmosphere is not on the level which Howard Phillips could have accomplished.
The content is not creative, the autodiegetic narrator has been enchanted by opium and travels to another universe. It sounds good but it smells awful.
¡Hasta luego!
August 26, 2019
Honestly, I regret not picking up H.P. Lovecraft sooner. Even though his writing style could be described as thesaurus-slinging and often posed a challenge for me (despite my familiarity with English as a foreign language), it was nevertheless extremely enjoyable and managed to paint a picture of despair, horror and mysticism that I have not been able to find anywhere else.
H.P. Lovecraft is a master of atmosphere and subtle existential dread.
H.P. Lovecraft is a master of atmosphere and subtle existential dread.
December 24, 2019
Tres estrellas y media
Este libro pertenece a las colaboraciones de Lovecraft con diferentes autores, son diferentes relatos que fueron publicados en diferentes revistas... No hay duda de el enorme legado del maestro. Mis relatos favoritos fueron El horror de Martin's Beach y Los amados muertos.
Este libro pertenece a las colaboraciones de Lovecraft con diferentes autores, son diferentes relatos que fueron publicados en diferentes revistas... No hay duda de el enorme legado del maestro. Mis relatos favoritos fueron El horror de Martin's Beach y Los amados muertos.
September 7, 2019
"The Crawling Chaos" is a short story by American writers H. P. Lovecraft and Winifred V. Jackson (first published April 1921 in the United Cooperative. As in their other collaboration, "The Green Meadow", the tale was credited to "Elizabeth Berkeley" (Jackson) and "Lewis Theobald, Jun" (Lovecraft). Lovecraft wrote the entire text, but Jackson is also credited since the story was based on a dream she experienced.[citation needed]
Despite the title's similarity to the character's epithet, Lovecraft's monster Nyarlathotep does not appear in this story. The name was used because Lovecraft liked "the ring of it".
The story begins with the narrator describing the effects of opium and the fantastical vistas it can inspire. The narrator then tells of his sole experience with opium in which he was accidentally administered an overdose by a doctor during the "year of the plague".
After a disembodied sensation of falling, the narrator finds himself within a strange beautiful room containing exotic furniture, where a pounding sound from outside inspires an inexplicable sense of dread within the narrator. Determined to identify the origin of this sound, the narrator moves towards a window and observes a terrifying scene of fifty-foot waves and seething vortex consuming the shoreline at an incredible rate.
Sensing imminent danger, the narrator quickly exits the building. Fleeing the waves, the narrator travels inland. The narrator eventually arrives in a valley with tropical grass extending above his head and a great palm tree in the center. Driven by curiosity despite his fear, the narrator crawls on his hands and knees toward the great palm.
Soon after arriving at the tree, the narrator observes an angelic child fall from its branches. The child then smiles and extends its hand towards the narrator and the narrator hears ethereal singing within the upper air followed by the child saying in an otherworldly voice:
It is the end. They have come down through the gloaming from the stars. Now all is over, and beyond the Arinurian streams we shall dwell blissfully in Teloe.
As the child speaks, the narrator observes two youths emerging from the leaves of the tree. They take the narrator by the hand and describe the worlds of "Teloe" and "Cytharion of the Seven Suns" which lie beyond the Milky Way.
As they speak, the narrator observes that he is floating in the upper atmosphere, with the palm tree far below, and now accompanied by an ever increasing number of singing, vine-crowned youths. As they ascend, the child tells the narrator that he must always look upward and never down at the earth below.
As he rises further listening to the youths singing, the narrator is disturbed by the return of the sound of the waves, and, forgetting what the child said, looks downward and observes a sight of global destruction, with the waves consuming the cities until there is nothing left. This is followed by the waters draining into the Earth's core via an opening gulf, which causes the Earth to explode.
The tale was published in Beyond the Wall of Sleep. The corrected text is collected in Lovecraft's revisions volume The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions (Arkham House, 1970).
Despite the title's similarity to the character's epithet, Lovecraft's monster Nyarlathotep does not appear in this story. The name was used because Lovecraft liked "the ring of it".
The story begins with the narrator describing the effects of opium and the fantastical vistas it can inspire. The narrator then tells of his sole experience with opium in which he was accidentally administered an overdose by a doctor during the "year of the plague".
After a disembodied sensation of falling, the narrator finds himself within a strange beautiful room containing exotic furniture, where a pounding sound from outside inspires an inexplicable sense of dread within the narrator. Determined to identify the origin of this sound, the narrator moves towards a window and observes a terrifying scene of fifty-foot waves and seething vortex consuming the shoreline at an incredible rate.
Sensing imminent danger, the narrator quickly exits the building. Fleeing the waves, the narrator travels inland. The narrator eventually arrives in a valley with tropical grass extending above his head and a great palm tree in the center. Driven by curiosity despite his fear, the narrator crawls on his hands and knees toward the great palm.
Soon after arriving at the tree, the narrator observes an angelic child fall from its branches. The child then smiles and extends its hand towards the narrator and the narrator hears ethereal singing within the upper air followed by the child saying in an otherworldly voice:
It is the end. They have come down through the gloaming from the stars. Now all is over, and beyond the Arinurian streams we shall dwell blissfully in Teloe.
As the child speaks, the narrator observes two youths emerging from the leaves of the tree. They take the narrator by the hand and describe the worlds of "Teloe" and "Cytharion of the Seven Suns" which lie beyond the Milky Way.
As they speak, the narrator observes that he is floating in the upper atmosphere, with the palm tree far below, and now accompanied by an ever increasing number of singing, vine-crowned youths. As they ascend, the child tells the narrator that he must always look upward and never down at the earth below.
As he rises further listening to the youths singing, the narrator is disturbed by the return of the sound of the waves, and, forgetting what the child said, looks downward and observes a sight of global destruction, with the waves consuming the cities until there is nothing left. This is followed by the waters draining into the Earth's core via an opening gulf, which causes the Earth to explode.
The tale was published in Beyond the Wall of Sleep. The corrected text is collected in Lovecraft's revisions volume The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions (Arkham House, 1970).
February 24, 2022
1920: The Crawling Chaos (with Winifred V. Jackson)
”Slowly but inexorably crawling upon my consciousness, and rising above every other impression, came a dizzying fear of the unknown; a fear all the greater because I could not analyse it, and seeming to concern a stealthily approaching menace—not death, but some nameless, unheard-of thing inexpressibly more ghastly and abhorrent.”
“The Crawling Chaos” is arguably the 41st oldest surviving fictional work by American weird fiction author H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937, this time collaborating with Winifred V. Jackson for the second and final time. It was probably written in December 1920 and first published in the United Co-Operative in their April 1921 issue. While the title is one of the monikers of Lovecraft’s character Nyarlathotep, the story actually has nothing to do with him. HPL wrote to a friend that used the name simply because he liked the sound of it (Joshi & Schultz, 2001).
The events of “The Crawling Chaos” all appear to take place in an opium-induced dream that the protagonist experiences. The text suggests that the narrator actually travels into a distant future where he sees the end of the Earth. While the story contains some creepy imagery and good use of language, it largely left me cold as a reader.
Title: “The Crawling Chaos”
Author: H.P. Lovecraft & Winifred V. Jackson
Dates: December 1920 (written), April 1921 (first published)
Genre: Fiction - Short story, horror
Word count: 3,020 words
Date(s) read: 2/22/22-2/23/22
Reading journal entry #64 in 2022
Sources:
The story: https://hplovecraft.com/writings/fict...
The United Co-operative vol. 1, no. 3 (April 1921): 1–6.
Joshi, S. T., & Schultz, D. E. (2001). An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press.
Bobby Derie article: “‘The Crawling Chaos’ (1921) by Winifred Virginia Jackson & H. P. Lovecraft” (2019): https://deepcuts.blog/2019/03/09/the-...
The image in this review is Dark Providence's "The Crawling Chaos" by Jan Pimping. You can find it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Lovecraft/co...
”Slowly but inexorably crawling upon my consciousness, and rising above every other impression, came a dizzying fear of the unknown; a fear all the greater because I could not analyse it, and seeming to concern a stealthily approaching menace—not death, but some nameless, unheard-of thing inexpressibly more ghastly and abhorrent.”
“The Crawling Chaos” is arguably the 41st oldest surviving fictional work by American weird fiction author H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937, this time collaborating with Winifred V. Jackson for the second and final time. It was probably written in December 1920 and first published in the United Co-Operative in their April 1921 issue. While the title is one of the monikers of Lovecraft’s character Nyarlathotep, the story actually has nothing to do with him. HPL wrote to a friend that used the name simply because he liked the sound of it (Joshi & Schultz, 2001).
The events of “The Crawling Chaos” all appear to take place in an opium-induced dream that the protagonist experiences. The text suggests that the narrator actually travels into a distant future where he sees the end of the Earth. While the story contains some creepy imagery and good use of language, it largely left me cold as a reader.
Title: “The Crawling Chaos”
Author: H.P. Lovecraft & Winifred V. Jackson
Dates: December 1920 (written), April 1921 (first published)
Genre: Fiction - Short story, horror
Word count: 3,020 words
Date(s) read: 2/22/22-2/23/22
Reading journal entry #64 in 2022
Sources:
The story: https://hplovecraft.com/writings/fict...
The United Co-operative vol. 1, no. 3 (April 1921): 1–6.
Joshi, S. T., & Schultz, D. E. (2001). An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press.
Bobby Derie article: “‘The Crawling Chaos’ (1921) by Winifred Virginia Jackson & H. P. Lovecraft” (2019): https://deepcuts.blog/2019/03/09/the-...
The image in this review is Dark Providence's "The Crawling Chaos" by Jan Pimping. You can find it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Lovecraft/co...
September 13, 2018
The entry for this book (ASIN B00815UE0C) is misleading. It says it is well over 300 pages long. It is not. With this edition from Acheron Press, all you get is the single short and three pictures.
The short story will not disappoint any fan of Lovecraft. It is a story of a man undergoing an overdose of opium. While it is strange, it is also fairly tame for a Lovecraft story.
Again, there is nothing wrong with the story by itself. The only reason I only gave it two stars is the fact that this edition said it was over 300 pages long when it was really closer to 15 pages. There are others books out there with similar titles, so just be careful when choosing which one to download. Go with the one that says 'and other stories' if you want the real collection.
The short story will not disappoint any fan of Lovecraft. It is a story of a man undergoing an overdose of opium. While it is strange, it is also fairly tame for a Lovecraft story.
Again, there is nothing wrong with the story by itself. The only reason I only gave it two stars is the fact that this edition said it was over 300 pages long when it was really closer to 15 pages. There are others books out there with similar titles, so just be careful when choosing which one to download. Go with the one that says 'and other stories' if you want the real collection.
May 22, 2019
Після того, як лікар вколов оповідачу занадто велику дозу опіуму, він починає марити. Він опиняється в дивному будинку, а зовні бачить не менш екзотичні пейзажі. Відчуваючи щось лихе, оповідач залишає будинок і по дорозі зустрічає божественних співців, які обіцяють забрати його на далеку планету, де живеться, як у раю. Їхня єдина умова - не оберататися назад. Але чоловік їх ослухується і спостерігає, як землю поглинає океан. Пересвідчившись, що його світ загинув, він обертається до своїх супутників, але їх вже немає поряд. Більше він ніколи не погодиться на морфій.
January 23, 2020
Thanks for netgalley and respective publishers for the copy.
Low grid poetry. Readers wouldn't be happy after reading Overall book. But they would find some poems as compensation.
I really do not recommend to read it.
But if you're a beginner in reading world, you can go along.
Low grid poetry. Readers wouldn't be happy after reading Overall book. But they would find some poems as compensation.
I really do not recommend to read it.
But if you're a beginner in reading world, you can go along.
October 17, 2019
Aunque es un volumen en colaboración, los relatos están bien construidos y tienen una atmósfera que, incluso a los no fans del terror encantará. Como Poe y quizás hasta mejor.
January 2, 2015
Opium dream horror. So far, the most horrifying.
June 6, 2015
Releído y me maravilla este viaje sideral, como si estuvieras totalmente drogado. Droga pura. Y no, no es Nyarlathotep. :D
Read
June 22, 2015Don't do drugs kids.
July 30, 2021
אפשר למצוא אותו בכל מקום, את לאבקרפט. אי אפשר להבין את התרבות של המאה ה-21, את הספרות, את הפנטזיה, בלי להכיר אותו. אז 'התוהו המזדחל' הוא באמת מבוא לא רע, וכל החבר'ה מקת'ולהו עד ניארלטחוטפ, דרך הערבי המטורף עבד אל-הזרד נמצאים כאן. יש כאן כמה קלאסיקות, כמו 'קריאתו של קת'ולהו', וכשהוא טוב, הוא טוב, לאבקראפט. זו למעשה קריאת חובה לכל מי שרוצה להבין לעומק כל מה שקרה בשדה האימה / פנטזיה / מד"ב מאז - ומי לא רוצה. שתי אזהרות - זה קובץ סיפורים, ולמרות שכמה מהם (במיוחד הקצרים יותר) מתעלים לרמה מאוד גבוהה, הם לא אחידים ברמה, ובארוכים יותר יש המון קטעים מתים. אזהרה שנייה - למרות התרגום הלא רע של דניאל ברק, אין שום דרך להעביר את הסגנון של לאבקרפט במלוא גוני גוניו לעברית. אז בואו נקרא לזה 'מבוא' או 'סם מעבר'. לוקחים, שואפים עמוק, מפנימים, ועוברים לספרים באנגלית. ההנאה מובטחת. טוב, חייבים עוד משהו קטן - לא נדבר כאן על גזענות, ועל דטרמיניזם ביולוגי, וכל הדברים האלה. אנחנו כבר מספיק גדולים לקחת מהספרים האלה את מה שטוב, ולהשאיר בשנות ה-20 של המאה ה-20 את מה שהיה מקובל בזמנו, והיום פחות, נכון? אנחנו קוראים את 'ארץ הישימון' ושומעים את 'קאטס' גם אם יש שם אצל אליוט המון שורות נורא מבחילות על יהודים שהם כמו עכברושים, ואצל לאבקרפט אין אפילו את זה. אז לקרוא בלי רגשות אשמה, לקחת את התנופה המיתית, את יצירת העולם, את המבנה הפתלתל של המשפטים, ואת כל המטען התרבותי שהסיפורים האלה נושאים איתם, ולצאת קצת יותר עשיר, ועם קצת יותר הבנה לתרבות של המאה ה-21, שלקחה מלאבקרפט הרבה יותר ממה שמישהו מוכן להודות.
August 23, 2022
Wracked with agony in a hospital bed, a plague-victim receives a substantial dose of painkilling opium and slips into an unusually vivid and mind-bending dream.
This story was not what I was expecting. From its title, I thought I'd see Nyarlathotep - a Lovecraft character often referred to as "The Crawling Chaos" - make an explicit appearance, but the tale never mentions him exactly (though my interpretation still places him within the story's events). Instead, we get an incredibly visual and psychedelic romp through a rapidly deteriorating drug-trip of conspicuous terror.
There was an underlying sense of unsettling warning throughout the story's early moments, and the end just goes crazy with it. While I wouldn't rank this among my favorite Lovecraft tales, it certainly succeeds at its intended objectives with flying colors.
Although Nyarlathotep's presence here is ultimately up to the reader, I don't seem to be the only one who sees him in this story, as Mythos writers ever since its publication have riddled their subsequent depictions of the character with traits and asides relating to this tale. I like that.
I give this story 4 cherub-infested palm trees out of 5 frightening reminders of the power of erosion.
This story was not what I was expecting. From its title, I thought I'd see Nyarlathotep - a Lovecraft character often referred to as "The Crawling Chaos" - make an explicit appearance, but the tale never mentions him exactly (though my interpretation still places him within the story's events). Instead, we get an incredibly visual and psychedelic romp through a rapidly deteriorating drug-trip of conspicuous terror.
There was an underlying sense of unsettling warning throughout the story's early moments, and the end just goes crazy with it. While I wouldn't rank this among my favorite Lovecraft tales, it certainly succeeds at its intended objectives with flying colors.
Although Nyarlathotep's presence here is ultimately up to the reader, I don't seem to be the only one who sees him in this story, as Mythos writers ever since its publication have riddled their subsequent depictions of the character with traits and asides relating to this tale. I like that.
I give this story 4 cherub-infested palm trees out of 5 frightening reminders of the power of erosion.
September 28, 2025
While I have read HP Lovecraft in the past, this book was a useful collection of several of his best stories throughout his life. Any praise I give Lovecraft has probably been repeated tenfold by others, but I will still praise him nevertheless. Lovecraft is able to take the feeling of going crazy and apply that to an entire universe. Madness, incomprehension, confusion, fear, and many other unpleasant emotions come together to create both the Cthulhu Mythos and many other stories unrelated. The Cthulhu stories are deservedly famous, and they conjure up a world on the brink of apocalyptic catastrophe fueled by mad cultists. But beyond those stories, Lovecraft's other works are also haunting as well. The regular theme of something being wrong and no one realizing until it's too late (if there was ever anything that could be done) creates tension in every story. While some of his stories are not amazing and feel too commercially written, they still are interesting. It is amazing that his stories hold up a century later, as even as technology changes, it still will never be enough to combat the Great Old Ones. Horror fans should read Lovecraft, as his influence permeates the genre into the 21st century.
January 11, 2024
The title doesn't refer to Lovecraft's later Mythos creation, Nyarlathotep, but rather to an opium-induced dream of the end of the world in a far future when the sun itself is dying. It does presage some other themes of the Mythos and cosmicism, with one passage in particular sticking in my mind:
Both of his collaborations with Jackson, including "The Green Meadow", reflect this obsession he had throughout his life with the fear of the unknown and a vaster reality in which we are completely insignificant. Unlike that one, though, this text focuses on the human perspective on our frailty.
Slowly but inexorably crawling upon my consciousness and rising above every other impression, came a dizzying fear of the unknown; a fear all the greater because I could not analyze it, and seeming to concern a stealthily approaching menace; not death, but some nameless, unheard-of thing inexpressibly more ghastly and abhorrent.
Both of his collaborations with Jackson, including "The Green Meadow", reflect this obsession he had throughout his life with the fear of the unknown and a vaster reality in which we are completely insignificant. Unlike that one, though, this text focuses on the human perspective on our frailty.
May 24, 2026
Nyarlethotep isn't even in here?!
This is more of a mood poem than a story, that does a good job of evoking a slow, looming sense of dread but does not bother much with narrative or character. It's interesting that Lovecraft would later reuse the epithet "the crawling chaos" for his Nyarlathotep and I can see thematic links between the looming destruction portrayed here in this portrait of an ending world and the chaotic fear that Nyarlathotep induces. I actually quite enjoyed the aesthetics of this and it's effective as a palm sweat inducing vision of the apocalypse. But it is missing revisions into something narratively cohesive. There are some great lines though.
2 Creepy Little Knife Children out of 5
👦🏻👦🏻⬛⬛⬛
This is more of a mood poem than a story, that does a good job of evoking a slow, looming sense of dread but does not bother much with narrative or character. It's interesting that Lovecraft would later reuse the epithet "the crawling chaos" for his Nyarlathotep and I can see thematic links between the looming destruction portrayed here in this portrait of an ending world and the chaotic fear that Nyarlathotep induces. I actually quite enjoyed the aesthetics of this and it's effective as a palm sweat inducing vision of the apocalypse. But it is missing revisions into something narratively cohesive. There are some great lines though.
"It is the end. They have come down through the gloaming from the stars. Now all is over, and beyond the Arinurian streams, we shall dwell blissfully in Teloe."
2 Creepy Little Knife Children out of 5
👦🏻👦🏻⬛⬛⬛
May 4, 2023
El primer tomo (de 5) que compré hace poco en el Parque Rivadavia. Son todas colaboraciones entre HPL y otros autores. Estas colaboraciones difieren de tipo, según el relato. Algunos textos sólo fueron corregidos por Lovecraft, otros fueron escritos por él a partir de originales de otros autores, etc.
De todos los relatos que incluye este volumen, me gustaron solamente dos, uno es el Caos Reptante, que tiene un estilo bien lovecraftniano, si es que existe el término, y que si no existe debería existir.
El resto, no tienen la magia de HPL y son textos mucho más convencionales e, incluso algunos, alejados del género del horror.
De todos los relatos que incluye este volumen, me gustaron solamente dos, uno es el Caos Reptante, que tiene un estilo bien lovecraftniano, si es que existe el término, y que si no existe debería existir.
El resto, no tienen la magia de HPL y son textos mucho más convencionales e, incluso algunos, alejados del género del horror.
December 12, 2019
"Of the pleasures and pains of opium much has been written. The ecstasies and horrors of De Quincey and the paradis artificiels of Baudelaire are preserved and interpreted with an art which makes them immortal, and the world knows well the beauty, the terror and the mystery of those obscure realms into which the inspired dreamer is transported. But much as has been told, no man has yet dared intimate the nature of the phantasms thus unfolded to the mind, or hint at the direction of the unheard-of roads along whose ornate and exotic course the partaker of the drug is so irresistibly borne."
July 19, 2020
Una recopilación muy recomendable. No solo abarca historias con el tinte monstruoso y cósmico que tanto caracteriza al autor; también se encuentran otras joyas muy destacables como el relato 'Cenizas' , el cual nos presenta posiblemente uno de los pocos momentos en que un personaje en un relato Lovecraftiano logra salir ileso del suceso.
También se debe hacer una mención especial al relato "Los amados muertos" , un homenaje al terror de Poe por cualquier lado que se le miré, es una demostración palpable para presentar un protagonista inquietante como sofisticado y tenebroso.
También se debe hacer una mención especial al relato "Los amados muertos" , un homenaje al terror de Poe por cualquier lado que se le miré, es una demostración palpable para presentar un protagonista inquietante como sofisticado y tenebroso.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 12, 2021
Strange, weird, and definitely dark, but not as messed up as I expected - or rather, hoped - it would be. I felt it was too fast paced and did not have enough of the classic, Lovecraftian fear-of-the-unknown.There is a little of it, and I think it's the perfect amount for some people. Kinda tame and labou lacking for my taste, however.
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