Ar-I-E'ch and the Spell of Cthulhu: An Informal Guide to Robert E. Howard's Lovecraftian Fiction

by Fred Blosser, Bob McLain (Editor)

Robert E. Howard's correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft inspired the two-fisted creator of Conan the Barbarian to pit his square-jawed modern heroes against cosmic horrors, colossal beasts, and cannibalistic children of the night, in a short-lived effort to open new markets for his fiction. In this book, the first in the "Informal Guide to Robert E. Howard" series, Howard scholar Fred Blosser analyzes each of REH's Cthulhu Mythos stories, unpacking their plots, their themes, and their unexpected linkages to Howard's other works. Along with his stories set in the Cthulhu Mythos, REH also wrote tales inspired by Lovecraftian themes, but not part of the Mythos itself. Blosser looks at each of these stories as well. Though Howard couldn't match Lovecraft's dreamy, sinuous prose, nor did he much care for the timid Lovecraftian "hero", his small canon of Cthulhu fiction expanded the Mythos and gave us men (and sometimes women) not afraid to challenge the cosmic terrors that threatened their sanity and their souls. With Blosser as your guide, you'll shake loose from Conan and experience an important but often overlooked facet of Robert E. Howard's storytelling genius. The book includes a selected reading list, a study of elder horrors in the Kull stories, and an examination of a trio of tales that REH set in a most unlikely locale (for him): the haunted seaport.

124 pages, Paperback

Published May 18, 2018

Reviews

[Vincent Darlage · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a longtime admirer of Fred Blosser’s work, I was thrilled to dive into Ar-I-E’ch and the Spell of Cthulhu, and it did not disappoint. Blosser has a gift for blending scholarship with readability: his essays never feel stuffy or academic, but instead crackle with the same sense of dark wonder that makes Robert E. Howard’s fiction so enduring. Here, he traces the Lovecraftian threads running through Howard’s stories, illuminating how cosmic dread weaves into the raw vitality of sword-and-sorcery. Even as someone who has read Howard for years, I found myself seeing familiar tales with new eyes, noticing connections and nuances I’d overlooked before.

What I especially appreciated is that Blosser doesn’t present Howard as a derivative writer imitating Lovecraft. Instead, he shows how Howard absorbed those ideas and transformed them into something uniquely his own. The book is welcoming enough for casual fans but deep enough for dedicated scholars, striking that rare balance that makes it both informative and enjoyable. This is an indispensable guide, and one I’ll be revisiting alongside my next reread of Howard’s weird fiction. For fans of Conan, Lovecraft, or pulp in general, this is a must-have.

Fred Blosser’s introduction spells out the relationship between Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft, and (perhaps most importantly) spells out his standards on what stories to include as a Howard “Cthulhu” story. For him, REH must have either actively contributed to the Cthulhu cycle and/or display a strong Lovecraft influence. I thought his approach was commendable.

The next part of the book is for the first part of his approach, the active contributions to the Cthulhu cycle. Blosser gives a summary of the stories he includes, then gives an essay of not only why it is included, but how it contributed to the overall Cthulhu mythos, including how others took his contributions and ran with it.

The next part of the book is about Howard's Lovecraft-influenced work outside the mythos, stories that reflect Lovecraft's themes or styles, but are not Cthulhu stories because they don't mention anything of the mythos. This includes a Solomon Kane story, and one of my favorite stories, "The Cairn on the Headland."

He includes an essay on Cthulhu and Conan, and how Lovecraft's influence basically gave REH the final ingredient for the Hyborian age stories, with Cthuluoid monsters and a sense of horror throughout. Honestly, it's that sense of horror that most Conan pastiches outside of de Camp and Carter's miss.

Blosser then gives a wonderful reference section, where he lists out all of Howard's defining additions to the mythos. After this, are three appendices, "Kull and the Elder Horrors," "An Argument of Dates in the Life of Solomon Kane, Foe of Demons and Dastards," and "Horrors from the Deep: Howard's Stories of Haunted Seaports."

This is an excellent set of summaries, arguments, and essays. If you are a fan of Lovecraft and/or Howard, I highly recommend this book.