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H.P. Lovecraft: The Ultimate Collection
H.P. Lovecraft: The Ultimate Collection (160 Works including Early Writings, Fiction, Collaborations, Poetry, Essays & Bonus Audiobook Links)
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." ~ H.P. LovecraftThis collection includes 160 of H.P. Lovecraft’s works. The collection is grouped (in chronological order) by Early Writings, Fiction, Collaborative Works, Poetry and Essays.
* Professional formatting, giving you full control over fonts, font sizes, and line spacing* Active table of contents accessed by the "go to" or "menu" button
* Links to download full-length audiobooks included FREE!
Early Writings:
The Little Glass Bottle
The Secret Cave
The Mystery Of The Graveyard
The Mysterious Ship
The Beast in the Cave
The Alchemist
Fiction:
The Tomb
Dagon
A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson
Sweet Ermengarde
Polaris
Beyond the Wall of Sleep
Memory
Old Bugs
The Transition of Juan Romero
The White Ship
The Doom That Came to Sarnath
The Statement of Randolph Carter
The Terrible Old Man
The Tree
The Cats of Ulthar
The Temple
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
The Street
Celephaïs
From Beyond
Nyarlathotep
The Picture in the House
Ex Oblivione
The Nameless City
The Quest of Iranon
The Moon-Bog
The Outsider
The Other Gods
The Music of Erich Zann
Herbert West—Reanimator
Hypnos
What the Moon Brings
Azathoth
The Hound
The Lurking Fear
The Rats in the Walls
The Unnamable
The Festival
The Shunned House
The Horror at Red Hook
He
In the Vault
The Descendant
Cool Air
The Call of Cthulhu
Pickman’s Model
The Silver Key
The Strange High House in the Mist
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Colour Out of Space
The Very Old Folk
The Thing in the Moonlight
A History Of The Necronomicon
Ibid
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness
At the Mountains of Madness
Discarded Draft of The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Dreams in the Witch House
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Evil Clergyman
The Book
The Shadow Out of Time
The Haunter of the Dark
Collaborative Works:
The Green Meadow
Poetry and the Gods
The Crawling Chaos
The Horror At Martin's Beach
Under the Pyramids
Two Black Bottles
The Last Test
The Curse Of Yig
The Electric Executioner
The Mound
Medusa's Coil
The Trap
The Man Of Stone
The Horror In The Museum
Through the Gates of the Silver Key
Winged Death
Out of the Aeons
The Horror In The Burying-Ground
The Hoard Of The Wizard-Beast
The Slaying of the
2218 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 6, 2011
1847 people are currently reading
2132 people want to read
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
6,039 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 47 reviews
November 2, 2016
I didn't read this collection all at once, of course. Lovecraft is my cure for reading slump. Even the stories I don't like can get me out of any reading lethargy.
Next, in a collection of this size there is no way you're going to love every single thing you read. And Lovecraft, one might argue, is an acquired taste.
Someone might wonder about the rating. It is simple really - I love Lovecraft. To be honest I don't give a damn what anyone thinks about him or his writing (even though there are stories I disliked too).
Next, in a collection of this size there is no way you're going to love every single thing you read. And Lovecraft, one might argue, is an acquired taste.
Someone might wonder about the rating. It is simple really - I love Lovecraft. To be honest I don't give a damn what anyone thinks about him or his writing (even though there are stories I disliked too).
May 31, 2015
That was a lot of book
Kids, do yourself a favor and only read Lovercraft in small doses. And really, you only need to read the stories people say you should read, there are very few hidden gems. Shadow Over Innsmouth is still the best.
Cthulu Fthagn!
What a wonderful phrase.
Kids, do yourself a favor and only read Lovercraft in small doses. And really, you only need to read the stories people say you should read, there are very few hidden gems. Shadow Over Innsmouth is still the best.
Cthulu Fthagn!
What a wonderful phrase.
November 7, 2017
This is mandatory reading for any horror fan. Check out some of his short stories at least!
January 4, 2019
Okay... I'm finally finished with this collection...
That doesn't mean I read everything in it; it means I'm finished with it. And finished with Lovecraft.
Probably.
But I'll get to that somewhere towards the end of this.
The book is divided into sections covering different types of Lovecraft's writings. Of course, what I was interested in was his "mainstream" fiction, not that anything Lovecraft wrote could have been considered mainstream, though it would come much closer to that today. Many of these I reviewed individually as I read through the collection, but some were too terrible to bother with, which is saying a lot because I reviewed some pretty horrible stories. However, I felt like if all I had to say about it was, "This story was shit," that I could probably skip saying anything about it. There were a few reviews toward the end that I just didn't get to, though, mostly because I didn't feel like it. Like The Shadow Out of Time, which was essentially the same story as At the Mountains of Madness but set in Australia rather than Antarctica. [The review would be helpful in explaining why they're the same story (because they don't seem so on the surface), but I'm super tired of Lovecraft and am not going to do it.]
My final evaluation of Lovecraft's fiction, if you haven't figured it out yet, is that it's not worth bothering with. Out of the 60+ stories he wrote, he has maybe, maybe, half a dozen worth looking at, and none of them were amazing. Or even great. They just weren't bad. He only had three or four different stories, and, basically, everything he wrote is some variation of one of those. The only story that really stands out amongst his work is "The Unnamable," a semi-autobiographical short story in which he defends his lack of descriptions of the monsters in his stories.
Speaking of which, Lovecraft is a lazy writer, rarely offering any kind of real descriptions for the monsters he imagined. He falls back on things like "unimaginable" and "too horrific for words." Doing that once or twice may have been okay, but it's every fucking story. Not to mention the fact that his descriptions of places and buildings are nearly always the same. If I never see the word "Cyclopean" again (other than in Magic), it will be too soon. Of course, then I look at his race of cone beings from The Shadow Out of Time (possibly the most ridiculous fictional creature ever imagined) and think it's probably better that he didn't try to give his jello monsters form; it would have turned every one of his stories into comedies.
Probably the most disappointing aspect to reading Lovecraft is that his writing never improved. In fact, I would say that the work he did early in his "career" was significantly better than what he did toward the end of his 20-year body of work. I suppose that's what happens when you only have a few stories that you keep recycling.
The collection also contains some his juvenile fiction, meaning things he wrote while he was a juvenile, not things he wrote for juveniles. I tried a few of these and... well... I tried them so that you don't have to. Being someone who has taught creative writing to middle schoolers, there's not one of these I wouldn't have handed back to a young Lovecraft and told him it needed more work.
I tried to read some of his essays, but they were worse then his fiction: long winded, blathering, pieces of trite.
And let's not even talk about the poetry.
Then there's the unexpectedly large body of works that he coauthored. I flipped through some of these and decided I didn't feel up to trying any of them out. These are the pieces I may come back to at some point, just to see how they compare to his own stories. The one I'm most intrigued by is the one that is supposedly coauthored by Houdini. I say supposedly because I find the idea that he co-wrote with Houdini to be somewhat unbelievable and will need to do some research to verify this. Some other time. I just don't feel like I can do any kind of further reading of anything to do with Lovecraft at the moment.
All of which still begs the question: How did such a no-talent, no-account writer have such a huge impact on current popular culture? Intellectually, I understand the string of events that made this possible, but... wow, I just don't get it. Nor do I get his current fan base. Maybe none of them have actually read his larger body of work? I don't know. It's weird... Weirder than fiction.
That doesn't mean I read everything in it; it means I'm finished with it. And finished with Lovecraft.
Probably.
But I'll get to that somewhere towards the end of this.
The book is divided into sections covering different types of Lovecraft's writings. Of course, what I was interested in was his "mainstream" fiction, not that anything Lovecraft wrote could have been considered mainstream, though it would come much closer to that today. Many of these I reviewed individually as I read through the collection, but some were too terrible to bother with, which is saying a lot because I reviewed some pretty horrible stories. However, I felt like if all I had to say about it was, "This story was shit," that I could probably skip saying anything about it. There were a few reviews toward the end that I just didn't get to, though, mostly because I didn't feel like it. Like The Shadow Out of Time, which was essentially the same story as At the Mountains of Madness but set in Australia rather than Antarctica. [The review would be helpful in explaining why they're the same story (because they don't seem so on the surface), but I'm super tired of Lovecraft and am not going to do it.]
My final evaluation of Lovecraft's fiction, if you haven't figured it out yet, is that it's not worth bothering with. Out of the 60+ stories he wrote, he has maybe, maybe, half a dozen worth looking at, and none of them were amazing. Or even great. They just weren't bad. He only had three or four different stories, and, basically, everything he wrote is some variation of one of those. The only story that really stands out amongst his work is "The Unnamable," a semi-autobiographical short story in which he defends his lack of descriptions of the monsters in his stories.
Speaking of which, Lovecraft is a lazy writer, rarely offering any kind of real descriptions for the monsters he imagined. He falls back on things like "unimaginable" and "too horrific for words." Doing that once or twice may have been okay, but it's every fucking story. Not to mention the fact that his descriptions of places and buildings are nearly always the same. If I never see the word "Cyclopean" again (other than in Magic), it will be too soon. Of course, then I look at his race of cone beings from The Shadow Out of Time (possibly the most ridiculous fictional creature ever imagined) and think it's probably better that he didn't try to give his jello monsters form; it would have turned every one of his stories into comedies.
Probably the most disappointing aspect to reading Lovecraft is that his writing never improved. In fact, I would say that the work he did early in his "career" was significantly better than what he did toward the end of his 20-year body of work. I suppose that's what happens when you only have a few stories that you keep recycling.
The collection also contains some his juvenile fiction, meaning things he wrote while he was a juvenile, not things he wrote for juveniles. I tried a few of these and... well... I tried them so that you don't have to. Being someone who has taught creative writing to middle schoolers, there's not one of these I wouldn't have handed back to a young Lovecraft and told him it needed more work.
I tried to read some of his essays, but they were worse then his fiction: long winded, blathering, pieces of trite.
And let's not even talk about the poetry.
Then there's the unexpectedly large body of works that he coauthored. I flipped through some of these and decided I didn't feel up to trying any of them out. These are the pieces I may come back to at some point, just to see how they compare to his own stories. The one I'm most intrigued by is the one that is supposedly coauthored by Houdini. I say supposedly because I find the idea that he co-wrote with Houdini to be somewhat unbelievable and will need to do some research to verify this. Some other time. I just don't feel like I can do any kind of further reading of anything to do with Lovecraft at the moment.
All of which still begs the question: How did such a no-talent, no-account writer have such a huge impact on current popular culture? Intellectually, I understand the string of events that made this possible, but... wow, I just don't get it. Nor do I get his current fan base. Maybe none of them have actually read his larger body of work? I don't know. It's weird... Weirder than fiction.
August 17, 2016
Gek eigenlijk, dat ik een wereld vol Lovecraftiaanse referenties zit (ik lees fantasy, ik luister metal, ik gooide ooit d20's en heb mijn jeugd lang adventuregames gespeeld), maar nooit eerder iets van hem las. Bij toeval kwam ik vorig jaar The Cats of Ultar tegen, wat enorm intrigeerde. Maar Lovecraft kende ik vooral van de jaren '90, toen hij vaak zijdelings genoemd werd door metalbands en fantasyschrijvers.
Dat ik hem nu echt ben gaan lezen, komt door de boeken van S.J. Parris, waarin onder meer (verzonnen) boeken en fenomenen van Lovecraft in voorkomen. Plus, wat ook helpt: dit boek kostte 1 euro.
Al snel kwam ik erachter dat Lovecraft voor fantasy is wat Mozart is voor blackmetal: de oersoep waar alles uit voort is gekomen. Opeens komen al die bizarre monsters en magische objecten van China Mieville een stuk logischer over, net als hoe Stephen King de werkelijkheid verweeft met een parallelle fantasiewereld.
Het is ook absurd hoe breed het schrijversspectrum is van Lovecraft: van gefabuleerde werelden tot demonische kelders, van impliciet geweld tot volslagen expliciete moordpartijen, van LSD-achtige universa tot het geheim in je achtertuin. De rode draad is daarbij te gek: overal in de wereld kan gekte zitten. Overal.
Dat dit specifieke boek geen 5 sterren krijgt, is omdat het te volledig is. Je kunt (en wilt) nooit alles lezen, en blijft dus met een onbevredigd gevoel achter. Ik had beter een best of-editie kunnen kiezen.
PS De beginnersfout die ik maakte, is om toch te proberen alles te gaan lezen. Dat kan natuurlijk niet. http://www.denofgeek.com/us/books-com... hielp me daarom enorm om een keuze te maken. Goede keuze ook: vooral The Call of Cthulhu en The Shadow Over Innsmouth zijn absoluut te gek.
Dat ik hem nu echt ben gaan lezen, komt door de boeken van S.J. Parris, waarin onder meer (verzonnen) boeken en fenomenen van Lovecraft in voorkomen. Plus, wat ook helpt: dit boek kostte 1 euro.
Al snel kwam ik erachter dat Lovecraft voor fantasy is wat Mozart is voor blackmetal: de oersoep waar alles uit voort is gekomen. Opeens komen al die bizarre monsters en magische objecten van China Mieville een stuk logischer over, net als hoe Stephen King de werkelijkheid verweeft met een parallelle fantasiewereld.
Het is ook absurd hoe breed het schrijversspectrum is van Lovecraft: van gefabuleerde werelden tot demonische kelders, van impliciet geweld tot volslagen expliciete moordpartijen, van LSD-achtige universa tot het geheim in je achtertuin. De rode draad is daarbij te gek: overal in de wereld kan gekte zitten. Overal.
Dat dit specifieke boek geen 5 sterren krijgt, is omdat het te volledig is. Je kunt (en wilt) nooit alles lezen, en blijft dus met een onbevredigd gevoel achter. Ik had beter een best of-editie kunnen kiezen.
PS De beginnersfout die ik maakte, is om toch te proberen alles te gaan lezen. Dat kan natuurlijk niet. http://www.denofgeek.com/us/books-com... hielp me daarom enorm om een keuze te maken. Goede keuze ook: vooral The Call of Cthulhu en The Shadow Over Innsmouth zijn absoluut te gek.
June 11, 2018
I had heard H.P. Lovecraft mentioned on a podcast recently and decided to read some of his work. I discovered that I could get this complete collection for 99 cents on my Kindle. So the price was right. I'm nowhere near to finishing this but will probably read a story here and there from time to time. His work seems to mostly be short horror stories with a sci-fi bent. This collection contains some of Lovecraft's most famous stories, e.g. "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", "At The Mountains of Madness", etc. This collection also contains Lovecraft's essays and poetry but I have not gotten to any of that yet.
Most of the stories I've read so far have the same common theme: discovery of or encounter with a race of beings that predate human history on earth. Lovecraft felt strongly that, if we discovered or encountered an alien race of beings from another planet, that they would likely be so different from humanity in values and appearance that we would have difficulty comprehending or accepting their existence without going mad. So madness brought on by these discoveries seems to be a common direction in his stories.
All in all, I've found these stories to be entertaining for the most part. However, I do get tired of reading variations on the same theme over and over again. The language is dated and I think his attempt at horror sometimes can be overwrought or just doesn't work. Like any prolific writer, some of his stories "work" and others don't. For me, I don't really have a strong feeling about H. P. Lovecraft one way or the other. If you like horror fiction or sci-fi, you should give Lovecraft a try, especially if you can get a collection of his stories for 99 cents.
Most of the stories I've read so far have the same common theme: discovery of or encounter with a race of beings that predate human history on earth. Lovecraft felt strongly that, if we discovered or encountered an alien race of beings from another planet, that they would likely be so different from humanity in values and appearance that we would have difficulty comprehending or accepting their existence without going mad. So madness brought on by these discoveries seems to be a common direction in his stories.
All in all, I've found these stories to be entertaining for the most part. However, I do get tired of reading variations on the same theme over and over again. The language is dated and I think his attempt at horror sometimes can be overwrought or just doesn't work. Like any prolific writer, some of his stories "work" and others don't. For me, I don't really have a strong feeling about H. P. Lovecraft one way or the other. If you like horror fiction or sci-fi, you should give Lovecraft a try, especially if you can get a collection of his stories for 99 cents.
August 11, 2013
Fantastic book at an awesome price.
Just buy it....!!
Just buy it....!!
November 30, 2025
"But I survived, and I know it was only a dream."
"To the truly imaginative he is a talisman and a key unlocking rich storehouses of dream and fragmentary memory; so that we may think of him not only as a poet, but as one who makes each reader a poet as well."
Lovecraft, H.P.. Complete Collection Of H. P. Lovecraft - 150 eBooks With 100+ Audiobooks (Complete Collection Of Lovecraft's Fiction, Juvenilia, Poems, Essays And Collaborations) . Ageless Reads. Kindle Edition.
"To the truly imaginative he is a talisman and a key unlocking rich storehouses of dream and fragmentary memory; so that we may think of him not only as a poet, but as one who makes each reader a poet as well."
Lovecraft, H.P.. Complete Collection Of H. P. Lovecraft - 150 eBooks With 100+ Audiobooks (Complete Collection Of Lovecraft's Fiction, Juvenilia, Poems, Essays And Collaborations) . Ageless Reads. Kindle Edition.
February 22, 2018
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." These famous words were first spoken by H.P. Lovecraft, and writers for the past century have been thriving off of our fears. My favorite, Stephen King, is an undisputed master at bringing our darkest fears to light, but Lovecraft was a master before the genre even was acknowledged as such.
Lovecraft is most famous for his Cthulhu Mythos, but this collection has every one of his works, and he can find the terror in even everyday occurrences. My two favorite stories are "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". For any horror fan, try some Lovecraft, and learn where your favorite author got their night terrors from when they were young.
Lovecraft is most famous for his Cthulhu Mythos, but this collection has every one of his works, and he can find the terror in even everyday occurrences. My two favorite stories are "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". For any horror fan, try some Lovecraft, and learn where your favorite author got their night terrors from when they were young.
March 21, 2018
Still in the process of reading the book but it's Lovecraft, whats not to love? I like being able to read it chronological order, a lot of his work tends to be messed with by republishers. I highly appreciate the way this book has been formatted.
Note to self: Don't read 4hrs of Lovecraft before bed ... dreams get very ... peculiar.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
Note to self: Don't read 4hrs of Lovecraft before bed ... dreams get very ... peculiar.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
June 8, 2015
Reading this was a monumental task. It was well worth it!
August 20, 2015
The fact that most of these were written over 100 years ago is just crazy! The author is crazy and demented and I loved it.
June 27, 2019
The juvenilia is uniformly terrible.
October 4, 2017
What is there to say about the writer that inspired Poe, King, Barker, and countless films? This anthology contains all of Lovecraft's major works and some that are not quite known by the masses. As a writer he is technically superior to many contemporary novelists. For any true horror fan, Lovecraft needs to be on your bookshelf! If you are particularly interested in where Lovecraft's inspiration came from, I highly recommend reading Algernon Blackwood's The Wendigo! Enjoy this book, you won't regret purchasing it!
August 10, 2024
H.P. Lovecraft can be difficult to read at times. Most of his stories are slow burns that build up tension and atmosphere. While reading this collection, I gained the opinion that Lovecraft's best stories are the longer ones. His shorter stories tended to be half-baked. While Lovecraft was a better writer than his pulp counterparts, characterization is not his strong suit. Most of his characters are interchangeable. Overall, the best Lovecraft stories are his most famous works. The rest of his stories are fair.
February 23, 2020
Complete Collection
This set has the most complete collection of his stories I have ever seen. It also includes short stories I didn’t even know he had written. I definitely would recommend this to horror fiction enthusiasts. A helpful feature I also found was the “highlight” for definition feature this app has since the vocabulary is pretty advanced.
This set has the most complete collection of his stories I have ever seen. It also includes short stories I didn’t even know he had written. I definitely would recommend this to horror fiction enthusiasts. A helpful feature I also found was the “highlight” for definition feature this app has since the vocabulary is pretty advanced.
September 22, 2021
Ignore the chronologically early stuff, most of it isn’t that entertaining. The way I recommend to read this book is to skip to stories you’ve heard of or are interested in and only read those. Not even story is interesting, frankly.
June 10, 2022
Stories of Indescribable Galactic Horror
Everything you could ever fear from the great HP Lovecraft is here. Plus audiobooks, if you can still access them. Along with Poe, Lovecraft is the grandfather of descriptive dread.
Everything you could ever fear from the great HP Lovecraft is here. Plus audiobooks, if you can still access them. Along with Poe, Lovecraft is the grandfather of descriptive dread.
May 11, 2017
I have always enjoyed the thrill of his wording. The author knows how to mesmerizing me into his story.
Read his stories over and over.
Read his stories over and over.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2018
H.P. Lovecraft haunts me with his imagination. I love his descriptive style. The next time I visit his stomping ground of Providence, RI, memories of his stories will be my creepy companions.
June 7, 2018
I Rather enjoyed this collection
This well worth the time to read. I enjoyed how things were organized. I think any one who may have an interest in the classics
This well worth the time to read. I enjoyed how things were organized. I think any one who may have an interest in the classics
May 30, 2019
Lovecraft rules.
December 24, 2019
Picked it up after a friend raved about this author. Enjoyed the stories I read, but wasn't compelled to read the entire book. Glad to have it in my collection and may read a different story one day.
March 6, 2020
Awesome! With audiobooks! Oldies but goodies (I mean both the audiobooks and the stories)!
January 31, 2021
Less talk more rock
July 14, 2024
I have read several of these stories but nowhere near the entire thing. Lovecraft is amazing when he's amazing. I am keeping this book on my to read in case I come back to read more later.
April 21, 2017
This may well be the last time I read a "The complete works of..." book, the 3 star rating I give is for it as a whole, there are definitely Lovecraft stories deserving 4-5 stars, some of the ones I liked:
• The Beast in the Cave
• The Alchemist
• Dagon
• Beyond the Wall of Sleep
• The Transition of Juan Romero
• The Statement of Randolph Carter
• The Cats of Ulthar
• The Temple
• The Colour Out of Space
• The Curse of Yig
• The Mound
• Medusa’s Coil
• The Shadow Over Innsmouth
• The Dreams in the Witch House
• The Man of Stone
• The Horror in the Museum
• The Haunter Of The Dark
• In the Walls of Eryx
I’ve liked Lovecraft’s writing since high-school, and still do… but think reading this much of him has actually been detrimental to my overall perception of him as a writer: there’s just so many times you can read words such as “abnormal”, “accursed”, “blasphemous”, “cyclopean”, “hideous” before they lose their significance, and his excessive use of “unnamable”, “indescribable”, and such adjectives, start to feel like a crutch for running out of ideas.
Rather than reading through this massive collection, I’d recommend to find a curated compilation that includes some (or all) of the stories on my list above.
• The Beast in the Cave
• The Alchemist
• Dagon
• Beyond the Wall of Sleep
• The Transition of Juan Romero
• The Statement of Randolph Carter
• The Cats of Ulthar
• The Temple
• The Colour Out of Space
• The Curse of Yig
• The Mound
• Medusa’s Coil
• The Shadow Over Innsmouth
• The Dreams in the Witch House
• The Man of Stone
• The Horror in the Museum
• The Haunter Of The Dark
• In the Walls of Eryx
I’ve liked Lovecraft’s writing since high-school, and still do… but think reading this much of him has actually been detrimental to my overall perception of him as a writer: there’s just so many times you can read words such as “abnormal”, “accursed”, “blasphemous”, “cyclopean”, “hideous” before they lose their significance, and his excessive use of “unnamable”, “indescribable”, and such adjectives, start to feel like a crutch for running out of ideas.
Rather than reading through this massive collection, I’d recommend to find a curated compilation that includes some (or all) of the stories on my list above.
September 18, 2016
To say I am a fan of HPL is akin to saying water likes wet and fire likes heat. It is an elemental fact that just is. No discussion needed. I can without a doubt say HPL is one of the core influences of my artist mindset and illustration career. It is great fun for me to revisit the pages of his work. This was indeed a complete and comprehensive collection. I have read tons of Lovecraft's work over the years, but this volume collected everything, and lo! I was able to find things I had never read. Incredible! Some of the collaborations were great as well. I finally read Herbert West: Reanimator! Ahh, returning to these old tales is like re-visiting a well loved old town, where everything is just as it you remember, and there are new and freaky things to discover with each visit. Recommended? Please! If you are not reading this, about to read this, or have just finished reading this, you better GET TO WORK!
June 19, 2011
This Kindle collection is a bit overwhelming. You have to wade through some cheesy, repetitive (what is up with 'gambrel roofs' in every. single. story? Apparently they are much creepier than any other kind of roof?), irredeemably racist stuff, but if you can manage that there are some real sci-fi/horror gems in here. Some of them would have made fantastic X-Files episodes. Overall, glad I read it; wish I had made notes of which stories were actually good in case I'd like to re-read them, because I don't want to wade through the whole thing again.
(I skipped the poetry at the end. Started the first poem and decided I just couldn't.)
(I skipped the poetry at the end. Started the first poem and decided I just couldn't.)
July 12, 2016
There is little I can say about the writing of HP Lovecraft that hasn't already been said by writers, readers and fans of the horrific and supernatural.
What I, personally appreciate is that Lovecraft managed to display characters of true humanity, people who were flawed and imperfect but striving to succeed none the less. It was this basic element that made all the events portrayed in his stories so terrifying; they were happening to flawed, ordinary people just like the reader. This was his greatest talent, I think, to make the unknown terrifying by making the characters the events happened to so utterly normal.
What I, personally appreciate is that Lovecraft managed to display characters of true humanity, people who were flawed and imperfect but striving to succeed none the less. It was this basic element that made all the events portrayed in his stories so terrifying; they were happening to flawed, ordinary people just like the reader. This was his greatest talent, I think, to make the unknown terrifying by making the characters the events happened to so utterly normal.
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