The Essential Tales of H.P. Lovecraft

by H.P. Lovecraft

Discover the true meaning of fear with these classic horror stories.The Essential Tales of H.P. Lovecraft collects one of the author's most popular novellas, "At the Mountain of Madness," and six of his most famous short stories, including "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Shadow Out of Time," "The Dunwich Horror," "The Colour of Space," "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," and "The Whisperer in the Darkness." These hair-raising tales have inspired generations of authors and filmmakers, including Stephen King, Alan Moore, Guillermo del Toro, and Neil Gaiman. This elegantly designed clothbound edition features an elastic closure and a new introduction by Peter Cannon.The Knickerbocker Classics bring together the essential works of classic authors from around the world in stunning editions to be collected and enjoyed.

Genres: Classics, Horror, Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction, Collections, Thriller

444 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

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

[Jasper · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I expected, Lovecraft was a great world-builder; his mythos is brilliant and horrifying. No wonder many modern authors are inspired by his works. But, where he excels in world-building he lacks in storytelling. Most of the stories in this collection are more of a setup of a greater tale or description of his monsters and worlds than a proper narrative with a beginning and end. There is some charm in that – being thrown into this universe for a short while to experience madness through the eyes of one of its inhabitants – but it stays a bit too much on that level. Nonetheless, the mythos and world that he did build is absolutely wonderful and I love it for that!

Ranking
1. At the Mountains of Madness (★★★★)
2. The Shadow Out of Time (★★★★)
3. The Colour Out of Space (★★★★)
4. The Dunwich Horror (★★★)
5. The Shadow Over Innsmouth (★★★)
6. The Call of Cthulhu (★★★)
7. The Whisperer in Darkness (★★★)

[Kristie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know Lovecraft is one of the most influential sci-fi/horror writers of all time, but I didn't enjoy this collection of stories very much. Really annoyed at how often "too horrible to put in writing," or "too awful for words," was used to describe scenarios. It leaves a lot up to the reader's imagination, but I feel like it's just lazy writing on the author's part, and he used it in every single story. Also, can we talk about his love-affair with the word "Cyclopean?" I am so sick of that word, he used it in every story, usually many times! The concepts for most of the stories were interesting, but too wordy when describing the scenery, not wordy enough describing the horror and aliens. Probably won't read anything else by Lovecraft, but glad to check him off my to-read list.

[Hanley Makene · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the Mountains of Madness: 5
The Call of Cthulhu: 5
The Colour Out of Space: 4
The Dunwich Horror: 3
The Shadow Out of Time: 5
The Shadow Over Innsmouth: 4
The Whisperer in the Darkness: 3

[Diego · Rating 3 out of 5]

“It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth's dark, dead corners and unplumbed depths be left alone; lest sleeping abnormalities wake to resurgent life, and blasphemously surviving nightmares squirm and splash out of their black lairs to newer and wider conquests.”

[Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kept hearing about Lovecraft so when I found this on display in B&N I was like "Eh, that will be fun for Halloween".
I didn't know much about Lovecraft as a person until I read the intro (which sugarcoats the racism a little bit) and it helped explain a few...quirks...to his writing. He's not the best at writing characters, despite all but one of the stories in the collection being written in first person. The thought processes of the characters made me think that either he totally underestimated the intelligence of other people, he's not good at understanding other people, or that the trope of characters losing all sense in horror settings was older than I thought. i.e. "Whisperer in the Darkness", when the correspondent suddenly writes positive things about the monsters that threaten him and asks the narrator to come see him and bring all the incriminating evidence with him. The narrator gets a bad feeling about it but decides to give the whole thing the benefit of the doubt and does as instructed without making copies of said evidence. "Shadow Over Innsmouth" has a reverse issue with the innkeeper taking the bolt out of the narrator's door but then leave it in the room (even with the assumption that no one carries tools around with them, leaving a bolt in the room would certainly raise some suspicions or at least warrant a complaint from the guest).
The language he uses in the stories takes a while to get used to. That might be a given since the stories are around 90 years old, but it's hard to get through so many large words and little dialogue in what were pulp horror stories.
Then there is the racism.
The intro made me think that he used some non-PC words, had his only non-white characters be servants to the protagonists, or have the "black dude dies first" trope in a handful of the stories. "The Call of Cthulhu" made it very clear to me exactly how racist Mr. Lovecraft was. Reading that and all the stories that followed made me want to go back in time and smack him upside the head.
I do enjoy his world-building and how he brings all his stories together into one mythos. I can appreciate how his lore has contributed to pop-culture, introducing cosmic horror into the cultural consciousness and paved way for other horrors. I believe if I were to pick a favorite out of this selection it would be "Shadow Out of Time". The idea of a race of what are essentially time traveling, body-hopping nerds amuses me greatly.

PS - What is Lovecraft's problem with penguins?

[Alex Strong · Rating 2 out of 5]

Los años de vida de Lovecraft transcurridos en Nueva Inglaterra son claramente detectables en cada una de las historias contenidas en este compendio. A través de sus palabras es fácil ver los campos abiertos de Massachusetts y las pequeñas montañas de Vermont. Fuera de eso, el libro tiene muy poco de rescatable. A excepción de "At the Mountains of Madness" y "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", las historias que los editores incluyeron en el libro son cansadas y tediosas. Lovecraft abusa en el uso de la palabra Cyclopean y en la repetición del estado mental de los narradores, que invariablemente tienen algún tipo de relación con el imaginario pueblo de Arkham y con Miskatonic University. Aunque algunas historias son entretenidas y cautivantes, Lovecraft no es un digno sucesor de Poe.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I honestly found this collection to be kind of a mixed bag. The world Lovecraft creates in this story is well established and his creativity is amazing. Lovecraft is skilled at making rich descriptions that allowed me to really see what he is describing. The best stories are haunting and I found myself thinking about them long after I finished reading them. However, there were a good amount of stories in this collection that just didn't grab me and that I could barely remember after I finished them. All of the stories in this collection are longer than the typical short story and in many of the stories the length is justified and Lovecraft makes every word matter, but some of the stories seemed to drag on.

[Prudence · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was one of the hardest I’ve ever had to slog through, but I forced myself because Lovecraft has been so influential. I won’t make that mistake again.

The stories themselves are okay, but the writing is awful. Lovecraft had a pretty interesting premise for each story, but there was no character development at all, the same predictable formula in every single story, and the book could have been at least 25% shorter and not a single story would have suffered. Of all the stories in this book, I only truly enjoyed 2 of them, and even then I had some harsh critiques.

All this is to say nothing of the racist remarks throughout the book.

If you’re toying with the idea of reading something by Lovecraft, save yourself the trouble and don’t.

[Emajekral · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review is for the hardcover Chartwell Classics edition. Good quality printing, love the dust jacket.

This is a collection of essential Lovecraft Mythos tales. I had read only two of his stories prior to reading this. The introduction to the author by Peter Cannon was helpful without being too overwhelming and timeline at the back was a nice touch. Each story has a different enough tone that you get a taste of Lovecraft's range with only a few hints of his worse tendencies. Didn't find it boring or repetitive. Will probably be the only volume of his works in my library, some nice background to go with The Book of Cthulhu II.

[Brittany Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Halloween approaching I was feeling like something creepy. Although there were some problematic moments, such as Lovecraft being racist and those were moments I winced at, the atmosphere and overall creepiness of the stories were things I appreciated. Lovecraft inspired cosmic horror and science-fiction.
I've also been listening to a podcast about him that helped me to realize moreso that one word does not define a person.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classics for a reason. The world building and sense of dread in some of the stories is so good. Some of the horror requires some visualization legwork on the reader's part, but it's darn good if you're willing to enter your mind palace.
It's a shame this edition glossed over the less savory aspects of Lovecraft's life. One sentence essentially saying "he had some conservative views" is exceptionally underselling it

[Matteen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vastly different style of writing than I am accustomed to, but that is not to say that is a bad thing! Lovecraft has clearly influenced so many facets of horror and fiction, so it was an absolute treat to read his works for myself. My largest gripe with his storytelling is that almost everything is buildup, to the point that it is redundant and boring at times. When it works, however, it's amazing! I would definitely recommend fans of horror to at least give it a chance!

[Jackson Brogan · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I actually finished this like a week and a half ago but I didn't have a chance to update.) Y'know? I had high hopes for this book, and it utterly disappointed me. The worldbuilding was really cool, but the writing was mind-numbingly slow. It was so, so boring. And since there wasn't a female character in the book, I ended up just imagining the guys with ambiguous names to be women. So yeah.

[Ghosty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been meaning to read H.P Lovecraft for some time since getting into cosmic horror.
I found this to be a good start for beginners.
His imagination and stories are a good read and well worth it, if you can get past some of his painful views lol.
A good selection of short stories, while I definitely preferred some to others, there's something for everyone who wants to get into cosmic horror.

[Atlantis · Rating 1 out of 5]

HP Lovecraft is not going to be a favorite of mine. His overly wordy writing and penchant for choice words and phrases was not compelling to me at all. I checked this out via my digital loan library and I just cannot see what all of the hype is about. Someone left me a 2 volume set biography of Lovecraft in my LFL which is what prompted me to check out his works.

[Zakira · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ovu knjigu sam samo uzela jer me neki lik pitao jesam li citala lovecrafta i mene je ubilo sto je odgovor ne, nisam ikad cula za njeg. Takodjer lovecraft kao ime zvuci kul pa sam htjela dati sansu. BZS!!! Prepotencije i rasizma ja ne mogu. U njegovim pricama nema JEDNA stvar koja me zaintregirala. Navodno je Lovecraft rekao da lynchovanje cranaca je najgenijalniji izum covjecanstva. Overall, smor

[Rob Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stories, gripping. But the structure is always the same, the narrative style is always the same. The stories can be long-winded, and the author's style of writing can occasionally feel a bit exhausting.

I liked the most:
- The Shadow over Innsmouth
- The Whisperer in Darkness

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

#RIP

[Mellissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection.

[Adrian Salgado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good cosmic horror. Great stories. Some of them better than others, but I guess this was the best selection possible.

[Jesus · Rating 4 out of 5]

classic. Although I'm not particularly fond of "The Mountains of Madness"

[John Zirpolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Great short stories. It's always a go to between big novels!

[Matt Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF. His imagination is so creative and influential, but his prose is dense and obtuse, feels like a chore to get through at times.

[Luke Nadeau · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of these are pretty enjoyable.

[rayray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horror 😭

[Braybould · Rating 5 out of 5]

“We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”
- H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”

[Bone2Pick · Rating 3 out of 5]

~3.5. Stars~

[Mikaela s · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a fever dream tbh, it was good just densely worded.

[RhS · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good ideas tossed into word salad. Had a hard time getting through it.

[Christopher Struck]

Underrated as a writer likely because his themes are repetitive and his settings earthbound, but he actually puts you into the action and imagines the cosmic horrors that reach out toward earth.