From mysterious hounds and dank dark caves, to strange family ties and a spectral ship.
* The Beast in the Cave * Beyond the Wall of Sleep * Cool Air * The Festival * Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn & His Family * The Alchemist * From Beyond * The Hound * The Descendant * The White Ship
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.
Reflections and lessons learned: “This is the last rational act I ever performed…”
Was I drawn to this due it being on sale… or am I watching too much Inside no 9… or is it simply that when life is full of fun again, that I have the room and need for a set of creeps to remind me not to get too comfortable… terror indeed…! May have been better not listened to in Spring day light - one to save for a halloween next time
Lovecraft is the OG for speculative fiction. He even has a subgenre of horror named after him — “lovecraftian horror.” So obviously his writing is fabulous and renown and incredible. And this specific audiobook was an excellent, eerie read for October/Halloween!
However…. I did not realize that Lovecraft was SUCH a racist in real life. I’m not sure how I didn’t realize that. So that was incredibly disappointing to learn…
"Gave vent to a simultaneous ejaculation of wonderment"
Rupert Degas reads these really well, his voice is perfectly suited to the creeping, unimaginable horror present in most of these short stories. They are a mixed bag, but none are terrible, and some, like The White Ship, are beautifully written and evocative. This is also one of the few stories in the collection that doesn't end in death and misery, which is a nice change of pace.
I also found that Lovecraft's rather backwards and bigoted views were more apparent here than in his longer stories. It's still fairly background level and doesn't detract too much from the stories themselves, just be warned.
There's quite a lot of variety to the tales, if not a whole lot of depth, and it's well worth listening to.