Stories of the Dreamlands

by H.P. Lovecraft

The Dream Cycle is a series of stories and novellas written between 1918 and 1932 and set in the "Dreamlands", an alternate dimension that could be entered through dreams. In this realm, Lovecraft's imagination was given full reign as he created an entire world full of wonder and terror. A group of "weak gods" stalk the Dreamlands, protected by the mysterious Nyarlathotep, as Lovecraft's protagonists navigate the alien landscape.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Lovecraftian, Fiction, Weird Fiction, Short Stories, Novels

367 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

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 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

Reviews

[Caleb Likes Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

More Lovecraft! I was really impressed by some of the stories in here. Of course not everything was great, but I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories.

There’s a good variety of stories in here, both in length and content. It includes some really quick reads along with what is, as far as I know, Lovecraft’s longest story which is basically a novella. As for the content, some of the stories are based in the fictional realm of the Dreamlands while others are set in the real world. I was surprised that only 2/3 of these stories at most are actually set in the Dreamlands, given the title of the book, but it’s not a bad thing.

One thing I really liked about some of these in particular was the more fantastical feel they had. Some of the Dreamlands-centric stories had a bit of a fantasy spin to them, which was really cool to see as a fantasy fan. It was a nice change of pace from the usual Lovecraft stories set in the real world. In addition to the Dreamlands stories, the others are generally good as well. There are even some allusions to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos in stories like Nyarlathotep and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, which is always nice.

Overall this was a very enjoyable read. Not every story was engaging, but quite a good number of them were. Definitely a recommendation from me, and I’m happy to have continued filling out my Lovecraft collection with this one.

Favorite stories:
The White Ship
Nyarlathotep
The Outsider
The Dreams in the Witch House
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

[Stuart Holland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had expected a larger collection of shorter stories to mean that I would blaze through this book more quickly - that with more mile markers I'd build up more of a pace. What actually happened was that because I was "starting afresh" so many times, I was monstrously slow in reading this book.

In the end, the final two stories (which occupy about half of the book) only took me a week or so to read, and I got a lot more out of them than all of the previous ones. The continuity of characters makes a big difference.

There's a lot more of what I expected of Lovecraft in this book than there was in the previous two. You can see that he's leaning into the otherworldly and unnameable horrors that he's so well known for.

It's again interesting to read a book that is close to modernity but more removed from the present day. The characters regularly talk about recognizing handwriting as though it were some incontrovertible proof of identity like a fingerprint match, and that anyone could make such a comparison with some amount of familiarity.

It's also clear (as his reputation indicates) that Lovecraft thought some kinds of people were incontrovertibly of a "higher quality" than others. There's racism in that and it's remarkably casual - not essential to the plot, just thrown in as if it's an obvious truth. He draws a bunch of lines between folks, about noble lineages and the like as well, as if that immediately set those people apart.

The out-of-time nature also shows up (or shews up) in the actual prose itself. Some of it is Lovecraft being from 100 years ago, but he clearly does it intentionally as well. Parts of the writing jump back farther into the past and then the language variation gets really thick. It was remarkably helpful to actually try to speak some of the olden-times quoted letter to understand them as they were written vaguely phonetically. (It's my understanding that that was common before widespread standardization of literacy, so I suspect Lovecraft was aiming to imitate that.)

Overall, I'm glad to be getting more into the meat of the cosmic horror that I started reading Lovecraft for. But this book struggled more than the previous ones with feeling directionless for the first half, until it focused in on the bigger stories in the latter half.

The latter half set up some groundwork that I hope will pay off later, not in specific events, but in the foundations of how the mythos works. There's just the one nod to our old friend Randolph Carter, who I believe we'll see again.

[Isaac Lambert · Rating 3 out of 5]

most of these stories (a handful of the good ones) were in the volume titled Necronomicon (👹). that I already read. so this was a quick half read. lots of repetition again, but some good feels. what are dreams??

[Dwight Etgen · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of these stories were just too thick.

[handsfeetlegs · Rating 5 out of 5]

*edition from the HP Lovecraft Collection*
4.5 stars. overall a really really great collection. there are definitely a few underdeveloped works in here that felt thrown in for the sake of completion, but they're short enough to not rly waste much of your time.
I really liked the last few stories in this collection (which take up more than half the pages of the book), so here's some quick thoughts about em:
The Color Out Of Space: really really fucking amazing. a medium length story that starts off just a tad slow but is quickly and completely engrossing. doesn't fully fit the Dreamlands collection imo but still a great one.
The Dreams in the Witch House: one of my new all time favorite Lovecraft stories. Lovecraft plays to his strengths the whole way through, with multiple climaxes, and just full throttle pussy popping HORROR STORY PERFECTION.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: apparently his longest short novel, at nearly 150 pages, it's a bit long lol. a large majority of the story writes almost like a detective case study, which can get a bit boring at times, especially cuz it's not in the rich style that I love Lovecraft for. the last chapter/part was quite great, but I'm not sure if the it was good enough for how absolutely LONG it took to get there. it's definitely a different one that's meant to be digested slowly, and piecing the gaps in the story via the clues left throughout, which I respect, but I'm just not a lore master like that.
special shout-out to these INCREDIBLE short stories that are included in this collection that I LOVE as well:
- From Beyond
- Cool Air
- Pickman's Model

[Hannah Spadafora · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prose in his storytelling is fantastically as gothic and descriptive as a reader could want stories of creepy occurrences and narratives to be. The stories mostly still feel timeless /like they could take place in the contemporary age despite being published a century ago. Most of them are riveting, suspenseful, and use the power of mystery and ineffable horror/things beyond or at the limits of human imagination to their advantage.

He definitely has a very characteristic style, though, and the somewhat repeated tropes do give some feelings akin to when you listen to a band who have songs that all kinda have the same sound, to the point that you really want them to throw in a little variety.

Beyond that, occasional referrals related to non white people aren't great - it's not anywhere near ubiquitous or center stage in the stories, nor gives any lengthy attention to such, at all (thankfully) (moreso, periphery descriptions of outlier minor characters) but definitely loses points there.

(I don't care about arguments of "it was a different time." Still deserves to be called out.)

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

After completing this book I've only one more to go in this collection.
Loved the stories. Some of them get quite involved and grow longer near the end of the book which is fine. Lovecraft was clearly writing about cutting edge events in his own time, bringing them alive with all the speculation he could muster with in his genre. A genre for which he was a trail blazer, if such be the proper term.

[Mandy Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5-This was a mixed bag for me. The authors imagination is amazing and his writing descriptive without being too much. The way he describes some places,I imagine Heaven to look like. I enjoyed most of the stories and the creepy ones gave me chills down my spine. One story ended so abruptly I thought I had turned two pages by mistake. A few stories were long and wordy and I struggled to stay interested.

[Mikaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second time trying to get into Lovecraft. Was a big fan of this collection, I did not realize how enjoying it is to read a collection of short stories. Those Lovecraft can be a bit outdated and he can go a little too into descriptions (which I’m not a fan of), this collection is receiving a 5 star simply for getting me back into reading after all these years.

[Benedikt Sender · Rating 4 out of 5]

The middle third made it less riveting than the first two books in the collection in my opinion, but "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" turned out to be just what I'd wished for, a feature-length Lovecraft story, which after a rather quaint beginning really captivated me by the last few chapters. So I'll turn a blind eye on the flaws and still give this four stars.

[Lucas Druley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was interesting, but it didn’t really seem as if there was any purpose behind any of the short stories.

[catharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like my brain has been liquified

[Jorre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wth are dreams?

[Phil K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a great collection.

[Finlay Munden · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars 😁

[Sam Canning · Rating 5 out of 5]

The case of Charles Dexter Ward is one of the best novels I have ever read.

[Adrianne Rosal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected more from this book but found it very confusing!

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

3

[Austin Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovecraft dedicated this story to his longtime friend Samuel Loveman, who featured in the dreams that inspired Lovecraft's "The Statement of Randolph Carter" and "Nyarlathotep". Loveman suggested it was the best thing Lovecraft had ever written up to that point in time, as mentioned by Lovecraft in a letter.

The plot-germ of the story is found in Lovecraft's commonplace book, in an early entry (#23) reading, "The man who would not sleep--dares not sleep--takes drugs to keep himself awake. Finally falls asleep--& something happens."

As in many of Lovecraft's writings, the terror and the world are unknowable. This fits into Lovecraft's common themes as to the alien and hostile nature of the universe, infinity, and the futility of everything. Even at the end of the story, the fate and the narrator's relations themselves are left up to question, again, in keeping with Lovecraft's standard modus operandi.

Connections
The story ties into other stories by Lovecraft and associated writers:

The connection between the stars and a person, is also featured in Lovecraft's "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" and "Polaris."
A few of the references to Greek sculpture also appear in his previous story "The Tree."
The use of a drug to venture through a barrier is also used in Lovecraft's "Ex Oblivione."
The use of drugs to experience strange worlds (to the detriment of the user) is also featured in Clark Ashton Smith's "Chain of Aforgomon" and Frank Belknap Long's "The Hounds of Tindalos".