Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft

by H.P. Lovecraft

Paperback

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

[Bill Borre]

The Statement of Randolph Carter is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror
Through the Gates of the Silver Key is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror

[Joseph Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I imagine many others had a similar experience to my own. They had heard of Lovecraft's work, were vaguely familiar with Cthulhu through pop culture, and wanted to get a taste of the real thing. There's probably better (and shorter) books to read as a starter but I figured I wanted to get as much in as I could in one book, so I bought this compendium of his best stories. It took several stories to get into it but after reading The Color Out of Space story I was hooked and couldn't wait to read the rest. At The Mountains of Madness remains my absolute favorite. For the most part each story just gets better and better, more involved, expanding the world/universe and creating this immense playground for weird fiction and cosmic horror that countless authors have since added to through all forms of media. This is a fantastic collection of his most revered work that influenced essentially all modern horror going forward.