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The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft #3
The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, Vol 3
Howard Phillips Lovecraft, has been hailed by literary critics as the inventor of modern horror, and a cultivating force behind such modern writers as Robert Bloch (Psycho), Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street) and Stephen King (Pet Semetary), just to name a few. His fame rests largely on his Cthulhu Mythos stories, referring to a "race who, in practicing black magic, lost their foothold and were expelled, yet live on outside ever ready to take possession of this earth again." Volume 3 includes "The Horror at Red Hook," "Herbert West: Re-animator," "The Outsider," and "The Statement of Randolph Carter."
3 pages, Audio CD
First published January 1, 2006
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About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
6,111 books19.2k 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 48 reviews
July 29, 2019
I'd always heard that Lovecraft was horribly racist, but for some reason, I'd been under the impression that he'd restricted his expressions of open hatred to his journals and private correspondences. I hadn't thought that it polluted his published writings in more than the sneering judgment of anyone who isn't British which he always seems to have. In this volume though, the story of Herbert West: Reanimator has a sequence of such vile virulence as to leave me speechless as I listened to it in dumbfound horror far more profound than anything he managed to invoke in me with the story itself. The man clearly was basically a nazi.
All of which makes it all the more difficult to praise the underlying concepts which populate the stories. There are ideas and questions posed which are fascinating even now a century later, and I'm tempted to recommend these stories in spite of what I know they contain. I could only possibly do so in good consciousness though provided such a recommendation also carried with it a heavy disclaimer that Herbert West: Reanimator, in particular, is both the most fascinating and the most offensive story in this collection, so do with that information what you will.
All of which makes it all the more difficult to praise the underlying concepts which populate the stories. There are ideas and questions posed which are fascinating even now a century later, and I'm tempted to recommend these stories in spite of what I know they contain. I could only possibly do so in good consciousness though provided such a recommendation also carried with it a heavy disclaimer that Herbert West: Reanimator, in particular, is both the most fascinating and the most offensive story in this collection, so do with that information what you will.
September 16, 2024
Wayne June again is very suited to reading Lovecraft's works. This volume had one of my favorite Lovecraft shorts, The Statement of Randolph carter. It was lovely to listen to.
December 6, 2022
The Horror at Red Hook: Reading Lovecraft is always a balancing act. The question for me is usually: Does the horror outweigh the racism that underlies much of his work? The answer is usually yes. Here, it is unfortunately no. It is an interesting detective story and there are a few good scares but the racism is just so over the top that it wasn't a super enjoyable read.
Herbert West: Re-animator: This is a story that suffers due to the structure inherent in the initial publication. It's broken up into six parts and was published over six different issues of a magazine. The climax of each is interesting enough but then feels largely ignored by the following story. The time jumps feel jarring and unnecessary. I wish he had written it as one piece.
The Statement of Randolph Carter: A short story about a guy who tries to enter the center of the Earth (where there are monsters) but he takes a HUGE amount of telephone wire so he can tell his buddy on the surface what is happening. Spoiler: it doesn't go great for that guy.
Herbert West: Re-animator: This is a story that suffers due to the structure inherent in the initial publication. It's broken up into six parts and was published over six different issues of a magazine. The climax of each is interesting enough but then feels largely ignored by the following story. The time jumps feel jarring and unnecessary. I wish he had written it as one piece.
The Statement of Randolph Carter: A short story about a guy who tries to enter the center of the Earth (where there are monsters) but he takes a HUGE amount of telephone wire so he can tell his buddy on the surface what is happening. Spoiler: it doesn't go great for that guy.
December 23, 2019
It's Lovecraftian, but more grotesque than that is the disgusting racism sprinkled throughout. Hard to rate something for its other contents when it's so uselessly bolstered by bigotry at random points.
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August 23, 2024TRIGGER WARNINGS: Body Horror, Confinement, Death, Racism, Xenophobia
I don’t feel comfortable rating Lovecraft stories because the racism and xenophobia of the author shows on his work. But do I like his kind of atmospheric, out of this world Horror? Yes. The man could write bleak, gloomy atmosphere with touches of madness. However, I cannot recommend his stories without making it clear that at some points in his text you do see his racist and Xenophobic inclinations. There is no denying it. So BIG Trigger Warnings for those, though in recent editions of his works I can see the effort from editors to “clean” the offensive language.
I don’t feel comfortable rating Lovecraft stories because the racism and xenophobia of the author shows on his work. But do I like his kind of atmospheric, out of this world Horror? Yes. The man could write bleak, gloomy atmosphere with touches of madness. However, I cannot recommend his stories without making it clear that at some points in his text you do see his racist and Xenophobic inclinations. There is no denying it. So BIG Trigger Warnings for those, though in recent editions of his works I can see the effort from editors to “clean” the offensive language.
September 19, 2017
For those of you just joining us, this is the third volume of H.P. Lovecraft's work read by the incomparable Wayne June. Reviews for volumes two, four, and five are already up on Goodreads, and they all say basically the same thing: Lovecraft is great, Wayne June is fantastic, and the two go together like a wink and smile. Since I've already been pretty clear on that stance, I'm going to go ahead and give a brief synopsis and review of each story, followed by a review of the volume as a whole. Here goes.
The Horror at Red Hook
Detective Malone knows better than to speak of his fears, but he's convinced that something supernatural lies behind the recent rash of kidnappings, the consolidation of the Red Hook neighborhood's worst gangs, and the eccentric anthropologist who seems to be at the center of it all. This story reads like the outline of the greatest horror movie you've never seen. It's got it all: smugglers, street gangs, hard-bitten detectives, midnight raids, grisly murders, secret passages, kidnapped children, and, because this is Lovecraft after all, cosmic horror. The problem is that it reads like just an outline. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that this is yet another of Lovecraft's stories that he intended to write into a novella or even a full-length novel but never did for whatever reason. As is, it's a catalog of really cool ideas that ended up only half-baked.
The Outsider
The story of a child who yearns to see the sun again. I'm not going to tell you any more about this particular story because its value lies in its originality. It's a sad, lonely little story that surprised me with its sympathetic tone more than with its plot. Sadly, modern audiences will see the twist ending coming miles away, but it's still worth a quick read.
Herbert West, Re-animator
Herbert West tries to reanimate corpses. It's not exactly a thrilling synopsis, but there's not much to this story that hasn't been imitated, rehashed, and rehearsed endlessly in the ninety-six years since its original publication. Ever seen a zombie movie? Then you know exactly what to expect. The really sad thing is that I can see how cool it must have been. I can imagine myself as a kid in the 20's, eagerly awaiting the next issue of Home Brew to find out what happens next. But that was nearly a century ago. Besides that, the story really suffers in the conversion from serialization to short story. There's also some really solid character work as the main character becomes more and more callous about things the deeper he and West delve into their experiments. This is both good and bad: good because it's the one big redeeming factor of the story; bad because he comes to see people, especially people of different races, as mere objects, leading to some passages that are going to upset modern readers. And no, it doesn't have much to do with the 80's B-movie.
The Statement of Randolph Carter
The official statement of a man accused of murdering his best friend, Harley Warren, and hiding his body in the swamp. According to Carter, though, something else took his friend, something unspeakable. The really upsetting thing about this story is that it is almost a direct transcript of a dream Lovecraft had. Really makes you wonder about ol' Howard, doesn't it? Anyway, this is a bite-sized little story, and a favorite of mine for reading around a campfire. It's quick, to the point, and fairly unsettling, despite the fact that its central shtick has since become industry standard.
So, let's talk about the volume as a whole. I would call this one, "The Worst of the Best". I'm usually eager to recommend Lovecraft to people, but there is just not much here to catch someone's interest. At best, it's been picked over and imitated to death. At worst, it gives fuel to the self-congratulatory prigs who decry Lovecraft's racism. There is a lot of regrettable stuff in these stories. I really do think that there's more blatant racism in this one volume than in all the others combined. Really a strange choice to put all these together.
A quick note on that: It's common knowledge by now that H.P. was radically xenophobic, besides being everything-phobic that is, but condemning historical figures for failure to observe modern standards of enlightenment and tolerance is masturbatory self-aggrandizement, and I think it deserves as much credence as the imbeciles who blame their Jewish neighbors for the crucifixion of Christ, which is to say none at all. All clear? Good. Moving on.
So, let's talk about my recommendation. This series as a whole is fantastic, but you wouldn't be missing anything by skipping this volume entirely. For hardcore Lovecraft junkies, there are some goodies here that you'll want to read through just for the exposure, but for everyone else, this is a terrible place to start your exploration of Lovecraft.
The Horror at Red Hook
Detective Malone knows better than to speak of his fears, but he's convinced that something supernatural lies behind the recent rash of kidnappings, the consolidation of the Red Hook neighborhood's worst gangs, and the eccentric anthropologist who seems to be at the center of it all. This story reads like the outline of the greatest horror movie you've never seen. It's got it all: smugglers, street gangs, hard-bitten detectives, midnight raids, grisly murders, secret passages, kidnapped children, and, because this is Lovecraft after all, cosmic horror. The problem is that it reads like just an outline. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that this is yet another of Lovecraft's stories that he intended to write into a novella or even a full-length novel but never did for whatever reason. As is, it's a catalog of really cool ideas that ended up only half-baked.
The Outsider
The story of a child who yearns to see the sun again. I'm not going to tell you any more about this particular story because its value lies in its originality. It's a sad, lonely little story that surprised me with its sympathetic tone more than with its plot. Sadly, modern audiences will see the twist ending coming miles away, but it's still worth a quick read.
Herbert West, Re-animator
Herbert West tries to reanimate corpses. It's not exactly a thrilling synopsis, but there's not much to this story that hasn't been imitated, rehashed, and rehearsed endlessly in the ninety-six years since its original publication. Ever seen a zombie movie? Then you know exactly what to expect. The really sad thing is that I can see how cool it must have been. I can imagine myself as a kid in the 20's, eagerly awaiting the next issue of Home Brew to find out what happens next. But that was nearly a century ago. Besides that, the story really suffers in the conversion from serialization to short story. There's also some really solid character work as the main character becomes more and more callous about things the deeper he and West delve into their experiments. This is both good and bad: good because it's the one big redeeming factor of the story; bad because he comes to see people, especially people of different races, as mere objects, leading to some passages that are going to upset modern readers. And no, it doesn't have much to do with the 80's B-movie.
The Statement of Randolph Carter
The official statement of a man accused of murdering his best friend, Harley Warren, and hiding his body in the swamp. According to Carter, though, something else took his friend, something unspeakable. The really upsetting thing about this story is that it is almost a direct transcript of a dream Lovecraft had. Really makes you wonder about ol' Howard, doesn't it? Anyway, this is a bite-sized little story, and a favorite of mine for reading around a campfire. It's quick, to the point, and fairly unsettling, despite the fact that its central shtick has since become industry standard.
So, let's talk about the volume as a whole. I would call this one, "The Worst of the Best". I'm usually eager to recommend Lovecraft to people, but there is just not much here to catch someone's interest. At best, it's been picked over and imitated to death. At worst, it gives fuel to the self-congratulatory prigs who decry Lovecraft's racism. There is a lot of regrettable stuff in these stories. I really do think that there's more blatant racism in this one volume than in all the others combined. Really a strange choice to put all these together.
A quick note on that: It's common knowledge by now that H.P. was radically xenophobic, besides being everything-phobic that is, but condemning historical figures for failure to observe modern standards of enlightenment and tolerance is masturbatory self-aggrandizement, and I think it deserves as much credence as the imbeciles who blame their Jewish neighbors for the crucifixion of Christ, which is to say none at all. All clear? Good. Moving on.
So, let's talk about my recommendation. This series as a whole is fantastic, but you wouldn't be missing anything by skipping this volume entirely. For hardcore Lovecraft junkies, there are some goodies here that you'll want to read through just for the exposure, but for everyone else, this is a terrible place to start your exploration of Lovecraft.
August 23, 2025
Racism jump scare.
June 12, 2020
OOF... Racist. Sexist. But interesting stories. I know that people wonder if you can separate the artist from the work. I don't think so. His choice of language is more than problematic in that it pulls you out of the narrative when he, the author, chooses certain terms for description. It is not the "voice" of the character speaking, but the "voice" of the author that is commenting on the narrative. As such, Lovecraft enters the narrative through these lingual choices and places his thoughts and feelings into the stories.
November 10, 2017
I really liked The Statement of Randolph Carter.
January 18, 2020
3.5 stars
January 29, 2019
Not as good as the volume with Dagon and Innsmouth I just listened to but pretty entertaining.
October 28, 2023
Wayne June remains one of my favorite narrators of Lovecraft. This audiobook continues that streak.
Now...how 'bout what he reads.
Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag.
The Horror at Red Hook is one of my least favorite Lovecraft stories, and its inclusion as the first part of this recording is interesting as it will definitely turn some folks away as it demonstrates why some people find Lovecraft's work to be "problematic". However, in my opinion at least, even if you work your way past this, it isn't that great of a story.
The rest are pretty good. The Outsider is probably familiar to many (I think I read it in high school English but that was long enough ago that I am no longer sure), and Herbert West: Re-Animator is the headliner for this volume. The Statement of Randolph Carter is another story one and is pretty good, but with the addition of atmospheric music which might turn off some listeners just here to be read a story.
Now...how 'bout what he reads.
Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag.
The Horror at Red Hook is one of my least favorite Lovecraft stories, and its inclusion as the first part of this recording is interesting as it will definitely turn some folks away as it demonstrates why some people find Lovecraft's work to be "problematic". However, in my opinion at least, even if you work your way past this, it isn't that great of a story.
The rest are pretty good. The Outsider is probably familiar to many (I think I read it in high school English but that was long enough ago that I am no longer sure), and Herbert West: Re-Animator is the headliner for this volume. The Statement of Randolph Carter is another story one and is pretty good, but with the addition of atmospheric music which might turn off some listeners just here to be read a story.
March 27, 2019
Another collection of 4 Lovecraft horror tales. All creepy. Much of the credit goes to the narrator, who at times struck me as a fellow with a chest wound having a hard time putting much air into his deep and croaking voice, drawing you closer and closer…. The longest story, “Herbert West: Re-Animator”, must have been written for serialization. It consists of 5 short chapters, and each chapter begins with some repeating of earlier bits. The subject of this one is reanimating corpses. The other, shorter stories cover different topics, gruesomely described, but not as gruesome as the previous books in this series. Some racial ���insensitivity” in evidence here. Lovecraft would not have won any PC awards.
November 24, 2025
Read this after reading The Ballad of Black Tom and being curious about its origins. I'd never read any Lovecraft before and now I definitely understand what there is to like: my favorite kind of horror stories are those in which we never actually see the source of the horrors, or if we do it's not until the final moments of doom. That is what Lovecraft does best. I'd also always heard Lovecraft was racist as hell, and yep. The first two stories in this collection place that racism at the forefront, and I did not really enjoy them. "The Outsider" was a surprise favorite for me, even though the supposed twist was fairly obvious from early on—I just really enjoyed the flipped narrative perspective, as well as that classic gothic style.
December 7, 2025
This was... such a weird collection of his stories. Or maybe a fitting collection? I don't know. The Horror At Red Hook was so racist that I literally couldn't pay attention to the plot. Herbert West Reanimator was also unbelievably racist. Between that, we're gifted with The Outsider, my favorite Lovecraft stories and, I would argue, one of his best, and then it ends with The Statement of Randolph Carter, which was short and came with a horror backing track. Like... what the heck was this collection.
I am so compelled by the concepts Lovecraft explores in his work, but racism is not a good horror plot, and it's hard to ignore all the subtle comments, let alone the absolutely blatant ones.
I am so compelled by the concepts Lovecraft explores in his work, but racism is not a good horror plot, and it's hard to ignore all the subtle comments, let alone the absolutely blatant ones.
April 22, 2018
The Horror of Red Hook - The progenitor of sci-fi horror mysteries like The X-Files, this tale combines detective work with supernatural causes.
The Statement of Randolph Carter - A creepy story in an official court statement.
The Outsider - One of Lovecraft's more well-known tales, it touches on interesting themes like loneliness and solitude. You can see its influence for years to come in such shows like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.
The Statement of Randolph Carter - A creepy story in an official court statement.
The Outsider - One of Lovecraft's more well-known tales, it touches on interesting themes like loneliness and solitude. You can see its influence for years to come in such shows like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.
July 31, 2020
As usual, this a disconcerting amount of overt racism in Lovecraft's work. However, if you're ready to drudge though that (and a fairly boring first story), the two remaining stories are great. One is a short rumination on what makes a monster, and the other is the classic Re-Animator, which was made into the delightful 80's horror comedy. That was certainly a treat, and made revisiting Lovecraft once again worth it.
October 12, 2021
to be clear, the only reason why this volume gets 3 stars instead of 2 is that i liked the last story, The Statement of Randolph Carter. the other stories are somehow more racist than those of the first two volumes which is appallingly impressive. also the reanimator story was just homeboy looking at frankenstein and thinking “now how can i mansplain this and also make it hideously xenophobic and racist?” like i said before, rip (rest in piss) hp lovecraft, you would have loved ICE.
October 25, 2025
Hoo boy, the racism is on full display here. Usually we get something like the fish people as a stand-in for non-wasps, but HP is right in your face here. Not to mention, he gets in a jab at every possible non-white he can think of.
I would like to imagine that, under different circumstances, people like Lovecraft, Riefenstahl, or Griffith could have demonstrated their artistic skill in such a way that it isn't awkward to acknowledge, but here we are.
I would like to imagine that, under different circumstances, people like Lovecraft, Riefenstahl, or Griffith could have demonstrated their artistic skill in such a way that it isn't awkward to acknowledge, but here we are.
November 18, 2019
Reanimator je bla grozna zgodba - od enga k je poskušal trupla ljudi in živali oživet nazaj in kako ga je potem čist obsedlo da je šel v vojno zato da bo imel zadosti svežih trupel za svoje poskuse.
In zadnja zgodbo od dveh k gresta v neko jamo na pokopališču in samo slišmo kako se unmu notr zmeša od grozot, ko kliče da naj zapre luknjo da ne pride noben več notr...
In zadnja zgodbo od dveh k gresta v neko jamo na pokopališču in samo slišmo kako se unmu notr zmeša od grozot, ko kliče da naj zapre luknjo da ne pride noben več notr...
October 28, 2020
4.5 stars
Enjoyed all the stories in this volume. I've now listened to Herbert West, Reanimator three times in two weeks. Shame that Wayne June doesn't convey the humor in it, instead going for a dead serious tone. I recommend the audio version narrated by Peter Coates.
Yet Wayne June brings the laughs -- and the terror -- to The Statement of Randolph Carter, a kind of proto-Reanimator.
Enjoyed all the stories in this volume. I've now listened to Herbert West, Reanimator three times in two weeks. Shame that Wayne June doesn't convey the humor in it, instead going for a dead serious tone. I recommend the audio version narrated by Peter Coates.
Yet Wayne June brings the laughs -- and the terror -- to The Statement of Randolph Carter, a kind of proto-Reanimator.
May 10, 2024
This collection of stories was not quite as engaging as the previous two volumes, with the exception of reanimator, that one while written as a sort of journal with weird gaps in the story definitely kept me at the edge of my seat and was vaguely along the lines of some of the early pages of Frankenstein. All of the other stories were mediocre at best
August 14, 2018
I have no problem re-using my review of volume five: I always enjoy revisiting the source material, and reaffirming why I love Lovecraft's work. Spectacular. Additionally, the narrator, Wayne June, made the tales come alive with a growling delivery full of dark portent and menace. Well done!
October 17, 2019
The narrator of these stories is fantastic. These stories are probably the best in this series so far. The story Herbert West: Reanimator is great--horrific but satisfyingly just. The final very short story also is done well, esp. the narrator's final words.
August 23, 2018
Lots of fun...for those who like it on the Weird side...
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars...
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars...
February 18, 2020
The Horror of Red Hook - 4 stars
The Outsider - 3 stars
Herbert West: Reanimator - 5 stars
The Statement of Randolph Carter - 3 stars
The Outsider - 3 stars
Herbert West: Reanimator - 5 stars
The Statement of Randolph Carter - 3 stars
November 3, 2021
Took me longer to get through this one, although I'm not SURE that's the work's fault. The narrator is excellent. It's just...you know, Lovecraft. A bit slow at times!
March 7, 2023
The first person narration of these stories is very effective. Still could do without all the racism.
March 18, 2023
82%
Some really cool stories but HOLY SHIT there was some HEAVY racism here, like, blatantly attempting to be offensive and focus on race, it was weirder than some of the content.
Some really cool stories but HOLY SHIT there was some HEAVY racism here, like, blatantly attempting to be offensive and focus on race, it was weirder than some of the content.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews