The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror

by H.P. Lovecraft

Vintage paperback

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Classics, Lovecraftian, Science Fiction

255 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

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

[Belén · Rating 5 out of 5]

No puedo creer que haya estado 21 años sin leer a Lovecraft.

Este libro está conformado por una serie de cuentos organizados según el año de publicación
Dagón (1917) (que fue mi favorito)
La maldición que cayó sobre Sarnath (1919)
Del más allá (1920)
En la cripta (1925)
y finalmente la novela La sombra sobre Innsmouth (1931)

Lo único que puedo decir es que de este hombre no me vuelvo a desprender en la vida. Con Howard Phillips me volví a enamorar.

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3* of five

Wow, what a ride. There's a great story in there, but it keeps sinking under Lovecraft's prolixity. Pages and pages of street names and descriptions of lighting conditions and geometric shapes so vague as to be useless stacked against much more concrete and, in fact, borderline overdone evocations of people and artifacts.

The underpinnings of the story are, though, really solid. The main character is a surprise. I can't in good conscience tell you why. He is, though, and the surprise he provides is genuinely worth making the trip. Though I strongly suggest that you start skimming as the narrator checks into the Gilman House.

The Mythos has many detractors in today's world, though in my view they're quite wrong-headed to howl about Lovecraft's personal squickiness. Whatever his attitudes towards other ethnic groups and towards women, his writing can fairly be criticized (dialect spelling: DON'T!) and fault can be found without going there. The purpose of attacking him as a reprehensible human being seems to be to discourage modern storytellers from delving into the fantabulously rich tapestry of the Lovecraft Mythos with its Deep Ones and Elder Gods and its other races (like Neanderthal not like African American) of human beings. What a titanic waste of great stuff that is. And writers of quality, Ruthanna Emrys and Victor LaValle and Matt Ruff among them, are doing what I think is the most sensible and most effective countermeasure of them all in repurposing the Mythos to comment on modern conditions and events.

There is a flourishing subgenre of weird fiction that engages with racism, that defies demonization of the other, by reaching into the Mythos for "real" other races (I mean, people, we're all the same race here!) and "actual" demons to bear or supply persecution while pointing up, by the very choice of victim or victimizer, how much hate we spew on auto-pilot. Choosing Innsmouth's Deep Ones allows Emrys, in Winter Tide, to make a pointed comment on the Japanese internment camps of World War II without needing to beat it up again...the US Government had the camps in place for the Innsmouth people they rounded up after the events in this novella! Nice work, Ms. Emrys, deepen the Mythos and broaden the social commentary in one stroke.

I'd say the modern sensibilities trodden upon by Lovecraft himself would do best to emulate Emrys and use his own worlds against him.

[Ignacio Senao f · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agradable reencuentro tras años en que leí la magnifica obra completa de Valdemar.

Encontramos 3 relatos de los más representativos de su obra y 2 más, junto su mujer y el otro con un amigo. Finaliza con algunas cartas escritas por él elegidas desde mi punto de vista aleatoriamente. Pero todo esto comienza con una breve introducción del genial Javier, que no necesita escribir 60 páginas para ponernos en situación y con el motor arrancado.

Lo más reseñable y que diferencia de la multitud de ediciones posibles es su traducción, mimo, y tener un libro humilde que perfectamente podría ser el que tu harías con pocos medios como amante de los libros y de este autor. Queriendo hacerlo lo mejor posible.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection has three particularly fine H. P. Lovecraft tales - The Colour Out of Space, The Festival, and The Shadow over Innsmouth. These three stories alone are worth the price of admission, and I believe showcase Lovecraft at his finest, and are also good examples of why no one can utilize the Mythos like its creator. The other stories are much weaker, with the science fiction collaboration with fan Kenneth Sterling, is particularly weak, and overlong. The three best stories, are however, magnificent and must reads if you are interested in Lovecraft.

[Alexandra Taco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es de los primeros libros de terror que leo y me gustó mucho. La forma de escribir de Lovecraft es increíble.
Lo único malo fue que al inicio es confuso pero después te atrapa y puedo decir que si me asusté.

El estilo de escritura es como si estuvieras frente al protagonista y te platica sobre la aterradora historia.
Mis historias favoritas fueron la sombra sobre Innsmouth y el retrato de Pickman, pues me desplazaron por completo a un mundo oscuro y tenebroso.
La historia de Hipnos fue mayormente confusa y El intruso fue ligera a comparación de las otras.

[Akasha Moon · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.7

Atrapante, me sentí en la piel del protagonista, incertidumbre variante en emociones.

[Las lecturas de Hanshichi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este mes he hecho relectura de, quizás,  mi novela corta de terror favorita.

Es indudable, en mi opinión, la genialidad y buena pluma de Lovecraft para narrar historias de terror que te mantien en vilo, ese terror cósmico que tan bien supo plasmar en su obra.

Sin embargo en "La sombra sobre Innsmouth" se aleja de ese terror tan característico en su obra y su maestria narrativa nos traslada a un lúgubre y apartado rincon de Nueva Inglaterra.

Movido por la curiosidad, un joven decide viajar al pueblo de Innsmouth y descubrir por sí mismo si es verdad lo que cuentan de él y sus habitantes. Un secreto ancestral que puede con su curiosidad.

No solo va a verse sorprendido por esto si no que su estancia en este paraje será mucho más espeluznante de lo que nunca llegó a imaginar.

Nadie como el genio de Providence para hacernos compartir  ese horror que sentirá el joven,  su angustia, miedos y terrores saldrán a la luz poco a poco mientras avanza la narración y vamos paseando y conociendo con una narrativa excelsa y una ambientación magnifica este pequeño pueblo costero y como el mal que en el se esconde surge una vez más para satisfacer sus oscuros deseos.

Será difícil para el lector olvidarse de Innsmouth y su oscura"sombra".

Una muy recomendable lectura de un gran clásico del terror.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nightmarish tales of horror by the true master of creeping, brooding terror, Lovecraft surpasses Poe for otherworldly horror. The collection of short stories which includes the bizarre Outsider and Lovecraft's only science fiction horror, "In the walls of Eryx", culminates with the tour de force of horror in the eponymous "Shadow Over Innsmouth", adark, threatening tale involving the followers of Cthulhu. Not to be missed if horror is your thing.

[Seb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Color Out Of Space
5/5

The Outsider
3/5

Imprisoned With The Pharaohs
1/5

The Transition of Juan Romero
3/5

The Walls of Eryx
4/5

The Festival
3/5

The Shadow Over Innsmouth
5/5

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

pickman’s model: 4.5 ⭐️
the picture in the house: 2 ⭐️
polaris: 2.5 ⭐️
the quest of iranon: 3.5 ⭐️
the rats in the walls: 2.5 ⭐️
the shadow out of time: 4.5 ⭐️
the shadow over innsmouth: 3 ⭐️
the shunned house: 2.5 ⭐️

what did i learn? lovecraft is obsessed with racial slurs and more backstory than, well, actual story that i cannot enjoy most of his writing

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very creepy story that has you wondering how he can escape the awfulness of it all. The main character finds out the strange people of Innsmouth are not that different from him after a harrowing night being stuck in the town. I hoped he would escape but there's no real escape for him because of his genetics.

[Sergio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un relato apasionante, con un ritmo vertiginoso.
Sin duda alguna, un libro que disfrutará todo el que se acerque a el.
Cien por cien recomendable.

[Juan Esteban Mayor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Escalofriante, por no decir más, es esta propuesta de recopilación de las novelas escritas por un grande de la literatura del terror. H.P. Lovecraft sabe muy bien como ambientarte en paisajes desoladores, en donde tus miedos más innombrables aparecen y toman forma de deidades nunca antes imaginadas, ni descritas por algún ser humano.

Debido a lo mismo, estas historias se desarrollan a partir de los miedos del ser humano: la soledad, el mar, lo desconocido, la locura. Todo envuelto y materializado en mundos paralelos al nuestro, en donde la aparición de extrañas criaturas son sólo la punta del iceberg de algo mayor: el descubrimiento de una civilización que existió antes de la existencia del ser humano y que descansan en las profundidades, esperando ser despertados para fagocitarlo todo.

"La sombra sobre Innsmouth" relata la historia de un pueblo solitario situado en la costa del Océano Atlántico. El pueblo no goza de buena reputación, debido al misterio que se encierra en sus habitantes, los cuales poseen una anomalía bastante particular: "el cariz de Innsmouth", ojos que miran fijo y no parpadean, piel escamosa y falta de pelo en la cabeza son sólo algunas de las características de la gente de Innsmouth. Eso, sumado a la reputación de "pueblo maligno" (ya que se instaura una Orden Sectaria destinada a rendir tributo a Dagón), hace de Innsmouth un pueblo que nadie quiere siquiera nombrar. No es posiblemente un pueblo al cual te gustaría ir de vacaciones.

Por otro lado, otro texto llamado "La sombra más allá del tiempo" habla acerca de un profesor de economía política de una universidad, el cual sufre una repentina amnesia, y que después de unos cuantos años vuelve a la "normalidad". Pero en el tiempo en el que tuvo amnesia, este profesor había realizado estudios acerca de algunos vestigios dejados por una civilización anterior a la del ser humano. En realidad, es como si hubiera sido otra persona antes de que volviera a la "normalidad". De allí que este profesor tiene sueños relacionados con esta civilización extraña, llamada la Raza Excelsa, el cual guarda celosamente los secretos del tiempo del universo. Metafísico, amaterial, fuera de las leyes naturales. Es así como denomino esta novela.

Así que mi recomendación es la siguiente: no lean estas novelas, a no ser que sea Invierno (u Otoño), sea de noche y hayan ráfagas de viento (o, en su defecto, haya lluvia). Es allí en donde sentirán el horror en su máxima expresión.

[Alberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Con Lovecraft tengo una relación de amor-odio. Me encanta cómo genera esas atmósferas angustiosas, pero al mismo tiempo tengo la sensación de que es un poco pesado. Me gusta su visión del hombre como algo pequeño insignificante dentro del cosmos, pero cuando le leo en las cartas me cae gordo.
En fin, salvando la distancia con el personaje, en este recopilatorio hay un par de sus obras más famosas (e imprescindibles), La llamada de Cthulhu y La sombra sobre Innsmouth, así como cuatro relatos más, de los cuales solo conocía Dagón y de los cuales destaco El templo, un cuento muy divertido y recomendable. También hay un par de poemas sobre Innsmouth y una selección de cartas donde podemos leer al Lovecraft friki que habla de monstruitos con sus colegas y que se queja de los lectores de Weird Tales, mientras que mantiene una correspondencia llena de pedantería con el editor de la revista. Las cartas seleccionadas me han gustado, y además muchas tienen relación con la publicación de Cthulhu por lo que vienen muy a cuento.
En resumen, un buen recopilatorio para aquellos que quieran conocer al escritor de Providence y también para los amantes del mismo que tengan un afán completista/coleccionista.

[Joe Sander · Rating 3 out of 5]

*The edition I read contained more stories than the ones listed here*

Lovecraft is hard to rate for me. Even today he remains ridiculously influential, but so much of his work is formulaic and cliché (not to mention racist/classist). He had fantastic ideas but really wasn't a technically solid writer so his stories can be difficult for modern readers. His best work (things like The Color Out of Space, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Outsider) is practically required reading for horror fans while much of his lesser fiction (The Transition of Juan Romero, Man of Stone) is basically a waste of your time. Still, Lovecraft knew how to scare people and that is really the nicest thing you can say about an author in this genre. His characters lived in a world filled with horrors both unknowable and wrong. A happy ending was not guaranteed, nor was it likely.

A bad horror movie will cheat and “scare you in your ears” with the loud noise of something going bump in the night. Lovecraft attempts to scare you in your spine, the place where your body processes primal fear. He doesn't always succeed but when he does the results are impressive.

[David Stoneking · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't have the whole book. Just the Shadow Over Innsmouth public domain story. This book is classic, highly recommended reading.

It's the story of a traveler heading to the fictional New England town of Arkham to do some genealogical research. On his way, he finds a detour heading through Innsmouth that should speed up the trip. But the townspeople don't seem to care much for Innsmouth.

It becomes a topic of morbid curiosity for the traveler, as he slowly finds more information, and decides to visit the town. In what he hopes to be a quick stay he finds malevolent forces at work within.

The writing itself starts slow, and I found myself more interested in the plot than the actual words used to describe it. Certain conversations were difficult to decipher as Lovecraft tended to write spoken words as they are pronounced instead of how they're spelled.

But the pace in which plot points were discovered, and the way the plot escalated in excitement was very well done. This was one of the best written books I've read involving an investigatory plot line.

[Darcofi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gran recopilatorio de relatos marinos del colega HPL. No solo imprescindibles individualmente sino que guardan una coherencia especial, formando una gran historia gracias al orden escogido. Muy chulo el detalle de los poemas y las cartas del final, aunque algunas ilustraciones y dibujos tienen una especie de pixelado algo molesto. Aun así, es una edición imprescindible tanto para veteranos en la obra del genio de Providence como para novatos que no saben por dónde hincarle el diente.

[Dane Lamont · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad I got around to it

I wanted to get into Lovecraft, and this story was a great intro. Perfect way to learn the major themes and motifs of the greater works.

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was my first introduction to H. P. Lovecraft. If I recall correctly, I initially read only two of the stories, the titular "Shadow over Innsmouth" and the first offering, "The Colour out of Space." I then moved to the annotated collections published by Penguin. I pulled this collection off the shelf after reading a biography of Lovecraft, and read through the whole thing.

The reason I don't give it a higher rating is not for dislike of Lovecraft, but because of the oddity of the stories in the collection. Many of his classics aren't here. Perhaps the idea was to give a sampling, but in truth, Lovecraft didn't have great literary range. He was good at a particular type of story and those that move beyond this zone suffer. For example, his ghostwritten Houdini tale, "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs," isn't one of his best. It is, in the end, a little hokey. "In the Walls of Eryx," likewise, shows that science fiction wasn't Lovecraft's strong suit.

Those who collect other writers' stories into gathered volumes have their own logic for including what they do. This collection appeared before Lovecraft reached the level of stardom and fandom that he currently enjoys. There are many other collections from which to choose. Still, this was my introduction to Lovecraft. I like this little book because of that. Nostalgia has a way of doing that to a person.

For those interested I say a little more about it here: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room in the form of Lovecraft’s concerning personal beliefs. I’m of the opinion that you can separate the art from the artist, especially when the artist is dead, but I also know that that’s not true for everyone.

I’ve only read one Lovecraft book before and so I’m still relatively new to his work, and I can’t quite decide what I think of him. There are times when his stories are fantastic and they more than live up to the hype, and then there are times when… well, maybe not so much.

For example, there’s a story here that Lovecraft ghostwrote for Harry Houdini, and while the story behind the story is pretty interesting, the story itself isn’t great. I think if you didn’t know it was ghostwritten, you’d believe that Houdini wrote it – but then, Houdini wasn’t known for being a writer.

The title story in this collection was fantastic though, and it was made even more interesting because I was talking to somebody about it and they’d done an adaptation of it. There are only around six stories in here and so you could probably ask for more, but they are at least pretty chunky and so there’s a bunch for you to enjoy here. I’d definitely recommend this one if you’re interested.

[Andre' Delbos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Containing one of Lovecraft's most enduring works, The Color of Space, this collection improves with each read. The author's powers of description allow this reader, a former denizen of the shores of Massachusetts, the setting to several of these stories here, to imagine I know exactly the terrain in which the events unfold.
Each story's narrator, with the exception of "The Color of...", bear witness in first person to the unspeakable horrors which inhabit Lovecraft's environs. The fear felt by each narrator is infectious and makes for a thrilling, light read.
The world of Lovecraft is populated with weird creatures, ancient things which vary in size and shape though are unified in their malicious designs. They are creatures which appear time and again in his many stories. Here too, the figures of Cthulu and Shoggoth appear though only in passing reference, which serves to affirm the singular and sinister universe the author has created.

[Patrick Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through the decrepit New England houses and the distant crashing of an inhuman ocean, Lovecraft gave us an ideal setting for a pretty unnerving storyline. Sadly, this short story also falls under his typical pitfalls: poor environmental descriptions, a boring protagonist, and a fairly unsophisticated story structure. Dismissing my detractions, the pitiless antagonists and endlessly fascinating lore bring this story to a shambling triumph at its conclusion. Admittedly, I actually felt the story was way too brief for what Lovecraft was trying to tell, and I couldn't help but sigh when I finished the last page. There should have been more characters, more pages on the history and scene of Innsmouth, and more suspense!

[Terry Mulcahy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the seven stories, including In The Walls of Eryx, perhaps the only Science Fiction story written by Lovecraft, I found that only The Shadow over Innsmouth was really gripping. The story had me rooted to my chair until I finished it, even though my internet music had paused without my noticing, and I kept meaning to get up to restart it. There was real suspense in that story, even knowing how it might turn, or twist, or end. Well worth reading, either within this book, or another Lovecraft collection.

[Shahan Salim]

Having never read Lovecraft before but managing (somehow) to enjoy Our Lady of Darkness, I was pleasantly surprised that Shadow Over Innsmouth feels effortless and atmospheric. Working backwards from Fritz Leiber to this I can confidently say that Leiber's writing has the core spirit of weird but his prose is what let's him down. I wish I had read this when I was a laddie, it would have given me really cool nightmares.

[Ioannis Georgoulis · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it

I am totally unable to resist anything Lovecraft wrote. This one with a surprisingly developed survival horror element that I haven’t seen in others of his books. But he will usually make use of a specific genre here and there even if unintentionally, since back then I guess it all was horrors, like that unforgettable sci-fi in the whisperer in darkness. Read more Lovecraft.

[Zaida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tengo sentimientos encontrados con este autor, pues todas las historias son bastante lentas hasta que en las ultimas dos páginas se descubre la verdad. Sin embargo, algunas de ellas me han gustado al terminar, lo cual es positivo.

No negaré de todas formas que no sé hasta qué punto me gusta su manera de escritura.

[Emilio Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the perfect introduction to Lovecraft and lovecraftiang genre; the precise descriptions and not only for places, items and people, but also to emotion, the unthinkable and horrify creatures, the tension of the narrations, etc.

[Matías Eyras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesantísimo.
Me siento medio boludo, pero no imaginé el giro del final.
Dagón es un ente muy interesante, y que ya conocía de antes, pero no sabía que venía de acá, así que me llevé una grata sorpresa.

[Kika · Rating 5 out of 5]

<3

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

THANK YOU SCHOLASTIC BOOKS, FOR WARPING MY CHILDHOOD WITH THIS

One of my most prized possessions.