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The Whisperer In Darkness, The Haunter Of The Dark
I have seen the dark universe yawning
Where the black planets roll without aim,
Where they roll in their horror unheeded,
Without knowledge or luster or name.
Cautious investigators will hesitate to challenge the common belief that Robert Blake was killed by lightning, or by some profound nervous shock derived from an electrical discharge. It is true that the window he faced was unbroken, but nature has shown herself capable of many freakish performances. The expression on his face may easily have arisen from some obscure muscular source unrelated to anything he saw, while the entries in his diary are clearly the result of a fantastic imagination aroused by certain local superstitions and by certain old matters he had uncovered. As for the anomalous conditions at the deserted church of Federal Hill—the shrewd analyst is not slow in attributing them to some charlatanry, conscious or unconscious, with at least some of which Blake was secretly connected.
For after all, the victim was a writer and painter wholly devoted to the field of myth, dream, terror, and superstition, and avid in his quest for scenes and effects of a bizarre, spectral sort.
Where the black planets roll without aim,
Where they roll in their horror unheeded,
Without knowledge or luster or name.
Cautious investigators will hesitate to challenge the common belief that Robert Blake was killed by lightning, or by some profound nervous shock derived from an electrical discharge. It is true that the window he faced was unbroken, but nature has shown herself capable of many freakish performances. The expression on his face may easily have arisen from some obscure muscular source unrelated to anything he saw, while the entries in his diary are clearly the result of a fantastic imagination aroused by certain local superstitions and by certain old matters he had uncovered. As for the anomalous conditions at the deserted church of Federal Hill—the shrewd analyst is not slow in attributing them to some charlatanry, conscious or unconscious, with at least some of which Blake was secretly connected.
For after all, the victim was a writer and painter wholly devoted to the field of myth, dream, terror, and superstition, and avid in his quest for scenes and effects of a bizarre, spectral sort.
- GenresHorrorShort Stories
85 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 23, 2016
5 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
6,111 books19.3k 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 8, 2024
***SPOILERS***
"Ah yes, it seems I overreacted to the evidently violent population of interdimensional crab-men who have been assailing me for months on end. They are perfectly friendly, please come in for a visit so we can discuss them. Oh! And bring every bit of proof of their existence that I've sent you over the course of our correspondence and don't tell anyone you're coming. Nothing suspicious going on here, nothing at all."
"Ah yes, it seems I overreacted to the evidently violent population of interdimensional crab-men who have been assailing me for months on end. They are perfectly friendly, please come in for a visit so we can discuss them. Oh! And bring every bit of proof of their existence that I've sent you over the course of our correspondence and don't tell anyone you're coming. Nothing suspicious going on here, nothing at all."
September 11, 2023
The Haunter in the Dark is a great story. Sometimes the descriptions are overdone. On the whole, it is a peak of mysteriousness and descriptiveness. The masterly world-building reminded me of Kafka. And, of course, of Dagon by the same author in the same series. Moody, mysterious, urging the reader to curiousness. The Whisperer in Darkness, however, was a disappointment. There is a lot to love about that story too. The oppressive atmosphere of siege. The feeling of immanent danger, moving ever closer. Expert in both style and method, Lovecraft uses scenes as well as rhetoric to paint an intricate picture. Especially the use of the dogs, dying faster and faster, barking more and more, to indicate the encroaching danger.
But it is also longwinded. Repetitive at times. As the protagonists discover more, repetition increases. But not as much as science babble. A tiring mix of mysticism and science fiction. It meant nothing to me. Did a chant really have to be repeated so many times in a few pages? It doesn’t help either that Lovecraft draws out the story with prose as repetitive as overly hyperbolic. Are creeks in Vermont truly that scary? I listened to a narration so I can’t give the exact quotes but I can swear Vermont creeks are called ‘terrible’, ‘mysterious’, ‘damnable as if chanting mysterious that should not be known to man’ and a myriad of other things. Cut it off! Creeks and trees and roads are not truly so interesting. Not even when they are in Vermont! Though hyperbolic, I am fine with one such description. But a dozen or more? In such a short story! No thank you. Keep in mind that these descriptions encompass all of Vermont. The trees, streams, roads and nature of all kinds. As such, they’re a paragraph or longer. Nor exactly the height of fiction. I got the feeling it was to reinforce the mood. The extremity to compensate for the lack of actual events. But it should not have been so overdone.
The entire story has a hyperbolic tone. Sometimes because Lovecraft describes mundane things as if they are terrible, even interning. At other times because the story takes sudden, insane cosmic turns. I, for one, did not need an interesting story about a man besieged by mysterious monsters to turn into (in the last third!!!) a pontification about limits to Einstein’s relativity, time travel, the discovery of Pluto and the possibilities of surgery. Suddenly, the mysterious crab monsters defeated by dogs turn out to be a race of time-traveling, telepathic surgeon fungi from behind space and time. What an unneeded twist! It is almost incredible how the author turned such a promising, curious tale into an absurdity so fast. Nonetheless, even this part has much to love about it. It is a fine story one its own, though it does not fit together comfortably with its own first half. But it is multifaceted, gut-crampingly awful. It has such an oppressive feel. It reveals just enough about the situation of move the plot, to inspire many many thoughts. Thoughts I hoped would not be confirmed. It kept me curious to the end.
5/5 for Haunter in the Dark
2/5 for Whisperer in Darkness
That is 2.75 overall as Whisperer takes up 3/4ths of the book.
But it is also longwinded. Repetitive at times. As the protagonists discover more, repetition increases. But not as much as science babble. A tiring mix of mysticism and science fiction. It meant nothing to me. Did a chant really have to be repeated so many times in a few pages? It doesn’t help either that Lovecraft draws out the story with prose as repetitive as overly hyperbolic. Are creeks in Vermont truly that scary? I listened to a narration so I can’t give the exact quotes but I can swear Vermont creeks are called ‘terrible’, ‘mysterious’, ‘damnable as if chanting mysterious that should not be known to man’ and a myriad of other things. Cut it off! Creeks and trees and roads are not truly so interesting. Not even when they are in Vermont! Though hyperbolic, I am fine with one such description. But a dozen or more? In such a short story! No thank you. Keep in mind that these descriptions encompass all of Vermont. The trees, streams, roads and nature of all kinds. As such, they’re a paragraph or longer. Nor exactly the height of fiction. I got the feeling it was to reinforce the mood. The extremity to compensate for the lack of actual events. But it should not have been so overdone.
The entire story has a hyperbolic tone. Sometimes because Lovecraft describes mundane things as if they are terrible, even interning. At other times because the story takes sudden, insane cosmic turns. I, for one, did not need an interesting story about a man besieged by mysterious monsters to turn into (in the last third!!!) a pontification about limits to Einstein’s relativity, time travel, the discovery of Pluto and the possibilities of surgery. Suddenly, the mysterious crab monsters defeated by dogs turn out to be a race of time-traveling, telepathic surgeon fungi from behind space and time. What an unneeded twist! It is almost incredible how the author turned such a promising, curious tale into an absurdity so fast. Nonetheless, even this part has much to love about it. It is a fine story one its own, though it does not fit together comfortably with its own first half. But it is multifaceted, gut-crampingly awful. It has such an oppressive feel. It reveals just enough about the situation of move the plot, to inspire many many thoughts. Thoughts I hoped would not be confirmed. It kept me curious to the end.
5/5 for Haunter in the Dark
2/5 for Whisperer in Darkness
That is 2.75 overall as Whisperer takes up 3/4ths of the book.
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September 2, 2021Haunter in the dark is one of my less favourite Lovecraft books, at least the not-so-hidden bigotry is marginally more hidden. Whisperer in the darkness is better in comparison, but leaves almost too much to the imagination towards its end.
January 28, 2022
The first story of Lovecraft i have ever read and, in my opinion, probably the best to be used as an intro to his work.
Cannot recommend it enough!
Cannot recommend it enough!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews