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The Dunwich Horror And Other Stories
Wilbur Whateley is born in strange circumstances in the small, isolated village of Dunwich. He is shunned by the local community and turns to shadowy rituals and the study of witchcraft. When a ghastly monster is released, it is not just the people of Dunwich who are threatened, but the very existence of the human race...
This collection includes three other works of terrifying genius in "The Whisperer in Darkness," "The Shadow Out of Time," and "The Haunter of the Dark." Both nightmarish and ingenious, these tales are sure to keep every reader up all night.
ABOUT THE The Arcturus Classics series brings together high-quality paperback editions of classics works, presented with contemporary graphic cover designs. Together they make a wonderful collection which is perfect for any home library.
This collection includes three other works of terrifying genius in "The Whisperer in Darkness," "The Shadow Out of Time," and "The Haunter of the Dark." Both nightmarish and ingenious, these tales are sure to keep every reader up all night.
ABOUT THE The Arcturus Classics series brings together high-quality paperback editions of classics works, presented with contemporary graphic cover designs. Together they make a wonderful collection which is perfect for any home library.
237 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2020
38 people are currently reading
191 people want to read
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
6,202 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 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 7, 2026
A small collection of short stories/novellas by Lovecraft, which, based on the too brief introduction, were “first published in either Weird Tales or Astounding Stories” and “blend science fiction and horror into terrifying tales as estra-terrestrial creatures and ancient monstrosities roam across the world”. It contains
The Dunwich Horror
, which is also said to be “one of the core stories of the Cthulhu Mythos”. I noticed that the dreaded Necronomicon was mentioned several times in these tales, in addition to Miskatonic University and the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred.
Having mostly read stories in his dream cycle up until this point, it was nice to finally read some classic Lovecraft as well. If you’d like to know what he’s all about, I suggest you read my favorite from this collection, which is Shadow Out of Time . It’s one of the most ambitious and visionary Lovecraft tales I’ve read so far, and one of my favorites in terms of scope and ideas. I think some of his Dream Cycle stories surpass it, like The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath , but very few of them. It’s pretty awesome, to be honest and archetypical Lovecraft because of the aforementioned ancient monstrosities.
My least favorite was the last story, The Haunter of The Dark , which isn’t too shabby, but I think the editor did it a disservice by putting it at the end. It got overshadowed by all the others and felt very underwhelming by comparison. Shadow Out of Time should’ve been the grand finale instead, if you wanted to create a narrative crescendo.
Here are my ratings alongside a brief description and some favorite quotes.
The Dunwich Horror - ★★★★
Someone called Wilbur Whateley is born February 2nd in 1913. He’s a “dark, goatish-looking infant” with an unusual physical and mental growth. And “he would sometimes mutter an unfamiliar jargon, and chant in bizarre rhythms which chilled the listener with a sense of unexplainable terror”. (19)
There’s an excess of foreshadowing here with unpleasant odors wafting about and strange hill noises and fires and morbidly chirping birds. Mentions of Necronomicon, Miskatonic University, Yo-Sototh, the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred and “fantastic references to some plan for the extirpation of the entire human race and all animal and vegetable life from the earth by some terrible elder race of beings from another dimension” and “some vague realm or dimension outside our material universe; some vague abyss out of which only the most accursed rites of human blasphemy could ever have called”.
I deducted a star because there were several longer paragraphs of speech by several passing characters in an odd dialect that was close to impossible to read, which disrupted the flow of reading, but I enjoyed most of everything else. Especially how the power of friendship was needed destroy the ultimate evil, Dracula style! One could also say that the savior of the world was a dog! A very, very good boy! Haha😊
The Whisperer in Darkness - ★★★★
An instructor of folklore and literature at Miskatonic University tells the story of Henry Akeley and his disappearance, Complete with a backdrop of legends, folktales, superstitions and myths.
Yes, horrifying! It all starts with sightings of strange, organic things floating in rivers, and then people start disappearing, while instead appearing some “queer footprints or claw-prints in the mud of brook-margins and barren patches, and curious circles of stones, with the grass around them worn away, which did not seem to have been placed or entirely shaped by Nature” and then some mysterious men, a black stone, a creepy recording, things only dogs can sense. Things that are creatures with “a sort of huge, light-red crab with many pairs of legs and with two great bat-like wings in the middle of the back. They sometimes walked on all their legs, and sometimes on the hindmost pair only, using the others to convey large objects of indeterminate nature”, so that the “dense, unvisited woods on those inaccessible slopes seemed to harbour alien and incredible things, and I felt that the very outline of the hills themselves held some strange and aeon-forgotten meaning, as if they were vast hieroglyphs left by a rumoured titan race whose glories live only in rare, deep dreams». (109)
What is going on out there!?
Shadow Out of Time - ★★★★★
An economics professor doesn’t remember five years of life, and when he starts having these weirdly familiar dreams, his internal conflict takes him on a mind-blowing adventure and disturbing discoveries. He might be possessed by an ancient alien race from out of time and space, who despite their power, fears another, obscure, more powerful alien threat.
Lovecraft mentions Smith’s Hyperborean worshipers of Tsathoggua, Robert E. Howard’s fabled kingdom of Valusia, by the way, which is fun!
The Haunter of The Dark - ★★★
Someone named Robert Blake died. He was “a writer and a 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”, and the story is basically a rendition of his diary to summarize the chain of events leading up to his death. Like I said, I think this story feels underwhelming coming right after Shadow Out of Time . It’s less interesting, less terrifying in its cryptic clues and vague horror because of it. . I’m less impressed, less curious. I know there are more powerful stuff out there now, you know. I do like the idea of a haunted tower where some kind of light-hating monster lurks, but not much else grabs me.
Having mostly read stories in his dream cycle up until this point, it was nice to finally read some classic Lovecraft as well. If you’d like to know what he’s all about, I suggest you read my favorite from this collection, which is Shadow Out of Time . It’s one of the most ambitious and visionary Lovecraft tales I’ve read so far, and one of my favorites in terms of scope and ideas. I think some of his Dream Cycle stories surpass it, like The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath , but very few of them. It’s pretty awesome, to be honest and archetypical Lovecraft because of the aforementioned ancient monstrosities.
My least favorite was the last story, The Haunter of The Dark , which isn’t too shabby, but I think the editor did it a disservice by putting it at the end. It got overshadowed by all the others and felt very underwhelming by comparison. Shadow Out of Time should’ve been the grand finale instead, if you wanted to create a narrative crescendo.
Here are my ratings alongside a brief description and some favorite quotes.
The Dunwich Horror - ★★★★
Someone called Wilbur Whateley is born February 2nd in 1913. He’s a “dark, goatish-looking infant” with an unusual physical and mental growth. And “he would sometimes mutter an unfamiliar jargon, and chant in bizarre rhythms which chilled the listener with a sense of unexplainable terror”. (19)
There’s an excess of foreshadowing here with unpleasant odors wafting about and strange hill noises and fires and morbidly chirping birds. Mentions of Necronomicon, Miskatonic University, Yo-Sototh, the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred and “fantastic references to some plan for the extirpation of the entire human race and all animal and vegetable life from the earth by some terrible elder race of beings from another dimension” and “some vague realm or dimension outside our material universe; some vague abyss out of which only the most accursed rites of human blasphemy could ever have called”.
I deducted a star because there were several longer paragraphs of speech by several passing characters in an odd dialect that was close to impossible to read, which disrupted the flow of reading, but I enjoyed most of everything else. Especially how the power of friendship was needed destroy the ultimate evil, Dracula style! One could also say that the savior of the world was a dog! A very, very good boy! Haha😊
The Whisperer in Darkness - ★★★★
An instructor of folklore and literature at Miskatonic University tells the story of Henry Akeley and his disappearance, Complete with a backdrop of legends, folktales, superstitions and myths.
“It is true—terribly true—that there are non-human creatures watching us all the time; with spies among us gathering information. “ (71)
Yes, horrifying! It all starts with sightings of strange, organic things floating in rivers, and then people start disappearing, while instead appearing some “queer footprints or claw-prints in the mud of brook-margins and barren patches, and curious circles of stones, with the grass around them worn away, which did not seem to have been placed or entirely shaped by Nature” and then some mysterious men, a black stone, a creepy recording, things only dogs can sense. Things that are creatures with “a sort of huge, light-red crab with many pairs of legs and with two great bat-like wings in the middle of the back. They sometimes walked on all their legs, and sometimes on the hindmost pair only, using the others to convey large objects of indeterminate nature”, so that the “dense, unvisited woods on those inaccessible slopes seemed to harbour alien and incredible things, and I felt that the very outline of the hills themselves held some strange and aeon-forgotten meaning, as if they were vast hieroglyphs left by a rumoured titan race whose glories live only in rare, deep dreams». (109)
What is going on out there!?
“To shake off the maddening and wearying limitations of time and space and natural law—to be linked with the vast outside—to come close to the nighted and abysmal secrets of the infinite and the ultimate—surely such a thing was worth the risk of one’s life, soul, and sanity!” (104)
Shadow Out of Time - ★★★★★
An economics professor doesn’t remember five years of life, and when he starts having these weirdly familiar dreams, his internal conflict takes him on a mind-blowing adventure and disturbing discoveries. He might be possessed by an ancient alien race from out of time and space, who despite their power, fears another, obscure, more powerful alien threat.
If the thing did happen, then man must be prepared to accept notions of the cosmos, and of his own place in the seething vortex of time, whose merest mention is paralysing. (138)
In the dreams I now moved bodily among the other unknown entities, reading terrible books from the endless shelves and writing for hours at the great tables with a stylus managed by the green tentacles that hung down from my head. (165/166)
Dream, madness, and memory merged wildly together in a series of fantastic, fragmentary delusions which can have no relation to anything real. There was a hideous fall through incalculable leagues of viscous, sentient darkness, and a babel of noises utterly alien to all that we know of the earth and its organic life. (206)
Lovecraft mentions Smith’s Hyperborean worshipers of Tsathoggua, Robert E. Howard’s fabled kingdom of Valusia, by the way, which is fun!
The Haunter of The Dark - ★★★
Someone named Robert Blake died. He was “a writer and a 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”, and the story is basically a rendition of his diary to summarize the chain of events leading up to his death. Like I said, I think this story feels underwhelming coming right after Shadow Out of Time . It’s less interesting, less terrifying in its cryptic clues and vague horror because of it. . I’m less impressed, less curious. I know there are more powerful stuff out there now, you know. I do like the idea of a haunted tower where some kind of light-hating monster lurks, but not much else grabs me.
“There are references to a Haunter of the Dark awaked by gazing into the Shining Trapezohedron, and insane conjectures about the black gulfs of chaos from which it was called. The being is spoken of as holding all knowledge, and demanding monstrous sacrifices.” (226)
February 18, 2023
The Dunwich Horror
Published in 1929 when the author was nearly 40, this 1928 novella represents Lovecraft in his fully-fledged antiquarian horror mode, set in one of his preferred New England locales and in the university town of Arkham, Massachusetts.
Sparsely settled as parts of Essex County were in the early 20th century, folks there kept pretty much to themselves, leading to some families becoming inbred. And then there’s this one branch of the Whateleys, consisting of the decidedly strange and reclusive Lavinia, her eccentric father known as Wizard Whateley, and her very strange infant Wilbur, father unknown.
The nearby settlement of Dunwich is spooked by odd lights and disturbing rumblings in and around Sentinel Hill, and by the strange foetid smells that emanate from the Whateley homestead. Still, Wizard Whateley pays out good gold for the succession of cattle that are led to the farm though, curiously, the herd never gets any larger.
But when building works at the farm change the house’s internal layout it rouses more than their mild interest, as does the rapid growth and precocious behaviour of young Wilbur, who shares his grandfather’s predilection for ancient arcane knowledge. That predilection leads Wilbur to consult old tomes in centres of academic excellence – including Arkham – but unfortunately his last visit to Arkham triggers a series of incidents soon known as the Dunwich Horror.
Those new to Lovecraft’s literary style may baulk at the first few pages, with its accumulation of adjectives and adverbs designed to set an atmosphere warning of horror to come: gorges and ravines of problematical depth … raucous, creepily insistent rhythms of stridently piping bullfrogs ... rotting gimbrel roofs … the broken-steepled church harbors the one slovenly mercantile establishment. But luckily the narrative proper soon gets going and we start to get a better understanding of why Dunwich and surrounds deserved its reputation as a place to be shunned.
Over the years since Wilbur’s birth in 1913 his atypical physical development has not only attracted notice locally but also further afield, as when for example he visits Dr Armitage, Miskatonic University’s librarian, and Armitage’s colleagues Professor Rice and Dr Morgan. The obscure and sinister volumes that Wilbur consults, and later the seemingly indecipherable notebooks he leaves behind, all provide clues to the secrets that the Whateleys have been concealing in their isolated home. Will the academics be able to deal with what they surmise is the extra-dimensional menace that emerges as the autumnal equinox of 1928 approaches?
This long short story, virtually a novelette, is regarded by aficionados as a key text in his Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, introducing Massachusetts – particularly the Miskatonic river and, on its banks, the town of Arkham – as a nexus of latent horror and the scene of around a dozen of the author’s tales. As a narrative The Dunwich Horror is more satisfying than many of Lovecraft’s works which I’ve read over the years: rather than the climax of the action being the final denouement (often when the terrified protagonist comes rudely face to face with the nameless but expected horror) there is instead a satisfying resolution as well as a final explanatory revelation.
This was surprisingly more of a pleasure to read than I was expecting from past experience. But then I am now a lot older, much less dismissive and, hopefully, a bit more appreciative of such pulp fiction than was my wont. Now if only those creepily insistent bull-frogs and, especially, whippoorwills could give it a rest…
________
The other tales in this edition are ones I've read in times past, more than a half century ago. The deserve reconsideration but I'll add comments as and when I get to them.
The Whisperer In The Darkness
The Shadow Out Of Time
The Haunter Of The Dark
Published in 1929 when the author was nearly 40, this 1928 novella represents Lovecraft in his fully-fledged antiquarian horror mode, set in one of his preferred New England locales and in the university town of Arkham, Massachusetts.
Sparsely settled as parts of Essex County were in the early 20th century, folks there kept pretty much to themselves, leading to some families becoming inbred. And then there’s this one branch of the Whateleys, consisting of the decidedly strange and reclusive Lavinia, her eccentric father known as Wizard Whateley, and her very strange infant Wilbur, father unknown.
The nearby settlement of Dunwich is spooked by odd lights and disturbing rumblings in and around Sentinel Hill, and by the strange foetid smells that emanate from the Whateley homestead. Still, Wizard Whateley pays out good gold for the succession of cattle that are led to the farm though, curiously, the herd never gets any larger.
But when building works at the farm change the house’s internal layout it rouses more than their mild interest, as does the rapid growth and precocious behaviour of young Wilbur, who shares his grandfather’s predilection for ancient arcane knowledge. That predilection leads Wilbur to consult old tomes in centres of academic excellence – including Arkham – but unfortunately his last visit to Arkham triggers a series of incidents soon known as the Dunwich Horror.
Those new to Lovecraft’s literary style may baulk at the first few pages, with its accumulation of adjectives and adverbs designed to set an atmosphere warning of horror to come: gorges and ravines of problematical depth … raucous, creepily insistent rhythms of stridently piping bullfrogs ... rotting gimbrel roofs … the broken-steepled church harbors the one slovenly mercantile establishment. But luckily the narrative proper soon gets going and we start to get a better understanding of why Dunwich and surrounds deserved its reputation as a place to be shunned.
Over the years since Wilbur’s birth in 1913 his atypical physical development has not only attracted notice locally but also further afield, as when for example he visits Dr Armitage, Miskatonic University’s librarian, and Armitage’s colleagues Professor Rice and Dr Morgan. The obscure and sinister volumes that Wilbur consults, and later the seemingly indecipherable notebooks he leaves behind, all provide clues to the secrets that the Whateleys have been concealing in their isolated home. Will the academics be able to deal with what they surmise is the extra-dimensional menace that emerges as the autumnal equinox of 1928 approaches?
This long short story, virtually a novelette, is regarded by aficionados as a key text in his Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, introducing Massachusetts – particularly the Miskatonic river and, on its banks, the town of Arkham – as a nexus of latent horror and the scene of around a dozen of the author’s tales. As a narrative The Dunwich Horror is more satisfying than many of Lovecraft’s works which I’ve read over the years: rather than the climax of the action being the final denouement (often when the terrified protagonist comes rudely face to face with the nameless but expected horror) there is instead a satisfying resolution as well as a final explanatory revelation.
This was surprisingly more of a pleasure to read than I was expecting from past experience. But then I am now a lot older, much less dismissive and, hopefully, a bit more appreciative of such pulp fiction than was my wont. Now if only those creepily insistent bull-frogs and, especially, whippoorwills could give it a rest…
________
The other tales in this edition are ones I've read in times past, more than a half century ago. The deserve reconsideration but I'll add comments as and when I get to them.
The Whisperer In The Darkness
The Shadow Out Of Time
The Haunter Of The Dark
November 7, 2021
The Cats of Ulthar - 4 Stars
Celephais - 4 Stars
The Colour Out of Space - 5 Stars
Dagon - 5 Stars
The Descendant - 3 Stars
The Doom That Came to Sarnath - 4 Stars
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath - 5 Stars
The Dunwich Horror - 5 Stars
Celephais - 4 Stars
The Colour Out of Space - 5 Stars
Dagon - 5 Stars
The Descendant - 3 Stars
The Doom That Came to Sarnath - 4 Stars
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath - 5 Stars
The Dunwich Horror - 5 Stars
February 5, 2025
Worked well as an introduction for me to Lovecraft's writing style and lore.
The Dunwich Horror in particular was a good introduction, one of Lovecraft's more famous works which touches on different aspects of the mythos, including cultists, remote locations and cosmic horror all at once to get a real taste of what can be included in his stories. I feel it gave me a foundation for
The Whisperer In Darkness was my favourite of the collection. Having the narrative delivered mostly through correspondence to the protagonist really heightened the eerie nature of the tale, and built suspense for what would come.
The Shadow Out of Time was in all honesty a bit of a slog despite the actual length of the tale. It may be due to me reading it immediately after The Whisperer In Darkness, but I really felt the first half was constantly reiterating the same point, and then when it felt like the narrative was truly starting over halfway through, I didn't feel there was much payoff. It's the reason I'm going for 4/5 rather than 5/5.
Finally, The Haunter of the Dark was a fantastic, concise foray that showed how the occult can afflict a community over an extended period, even when the immediate danger appears to have left.
I've only really read lengthy novels or series so having such depth in world-building and characters within these works was a joy to read, particularly The Haunter in the Dark which managed to pull me in with only 27 pages.
The Dunwich Horror in particular was a good introduction, one of Lovecraft's more famous works which touches on different aspects of the mythos, including cultists, remote locations and cosmic horror all at once to get a real taste of what can be included in his stories. I feel it gave me a foundation for
The Whisperer In Darkness was my favourite of the collection. Having the narrative delivered mostly through correspondence to the protagonist really heightened the eerie nature of the tale, and built suspense for what would come.
The Shadow Out of Time was in all honesty a bit of a slog despite the actual length of the tale. It may be due to me reading it immediately after The Whisperer In Darkness, but I really felt the first half was constantly reiterating the same point, and then when it felt like the narrative was truly starting over halfway through, I didn't feel there was much payoff. It's the reason I'm going for 4/5 rather than 5/5.
Finally, The Haunter of the Dark was a fantastic, concise foray that showed how the occult can afflict a community over an extended period, even when the immediate danger appears to have left.
I've only really read lengthy novels or series so having such depth in world-building and characters within these works was a joy to read, particularly The Haunter in the Dark which managed to pull me in with only 27 pages.
September 5, 2022
Lovecraft again demonstrates his genius in generating clear imagery as well as evoking abstract cosmic horror within the mind of the reader. However, some stories are more gripping than others. The Dunwich Horror is intriguing and easier to follow because it incorporates a more modern narrative through a group of heroes assembling. The Whisperer In The Darkness was creepy and mysterious albeit slightly predictable in its ending. The Shadow Out Of Time was boring, I think Lovecraft gets a bit carried away here in simply describing one of his imagined worlds rather than telling an actual story. The Haunter Of The Dark was my favourite and shortest of the stories, suspenseful and gripping.
January 6, 2023
What you cannot see can hurt you
We are introduced to a Massachusetts backwater community where families are inbred and may have spawned wizards. A strange and very ugly young man is trying to obtain a rare unabridged Latin version of the Necronomicon for what looks like a nefarious project. Something smells funny about his place.
I never saw the movie. However, I was surprised at how well this book is written by the inverter of modern horror. Originally published in the summer of 1926 however it is a timeless tale about being your brother's keeper.
We are introduced to a Massachusetts backwater community where families are inbred and may have spawned wizards. A strange and very ugly young man is trying to obtain a rare unabridged Latin version of the Necronomicon for what looks like a nefarious project. Something smells funny about his place.
I never saw the movie. However, I was surprised at how well this book is written by the inverter of modern horror. Originally published in the summer of 1926 however it is a timeless tale about being your brother's keeper.
August 13, 2021
The stories here are a bit shorter in comparison with “At The Mountains of Madness”, overall I liked the variety of the stories though some of the longer ones tended to drag along, many of the attempts to set the atmosphere with lengthy descriptions of the surroundings didn’t really click for me and instead felt flat with it overbearing descriptions. Lovecraft tends to over play his hand, always giving the protagonist a “feeling” something eldritch or an ancient evil way before giving any actual reason to suspect that. My other gripe is how usually he tends to spoil his big shocking reveal, so by the time it arrives it feels flat instead of leaving you with a final sense of dread. I do recognize how creative and interesting the world building is, and in that regard I can see why many people where captivated by Lovecraft’s tales, particularly at the time, his influence is definitely felt horror genre to this day. Of course the general racist descriptions are sprinkled in many of the stories, but you know what you’re getting into when you’re reading Lovecraft.
The Dunwich Horror felt fairly unremarkable to me, as it’s one of the most straightforward stories without much twists or turns.
Overall I really liked most of the Whisperer in Darkness, particularly how the narrative slowly evolves in a exchange of letters, that really worked in its favor to build the suspense.
Shadow Out of Time is definitely the most ambitious one of the collection, though I felt the story was disjointed at times and it definitely ran a bit longer than it needed to.
Finally Hunter of the Dark benefits greatly from the shorter format, keeping a good pace that keeps you engaged into the end.
The Dunwich Horror felt fairly unremarkable to me, as it’s one of the most straightforward stories without much twists or turns.
Overall I really liked most of the Whisperer in Darkness, particularly how the narrative slowly evolves in a exchange of letters, that really worked in its favor to build the suspense.
Shadow Out of Time is definitely the most ambitious one of the collection, though I felt the story was disjointed at times and it definitely ran a bit longer than it needed to.
Finally Hunter of the Dark benefits greatly from the shorter format, keeping a good pace that keeps you engaged into the end.
March 12, 2025
Honestly not the great read I hoped it would be.
This collection contains four stories and none of them are bad, but none - or maybe just one - is truly great.
‘The Dunwich Horror’ was honestly disappointing. Again, not bad, but it didn’t do much for me and of the few Lovecraft stories I’ve read so far, I’d say it’s got the weakest prose.
‘The Whisperer In Darkness’ was my favorite of them all. A great mystery with some real good tension and intrigue. It’s a bit dull in the way that the protagonist act like an idiot towards the end, but I’ll allow it. Really good story.
‘The Shadow Out Of Time’ was great too. Love the first half a whole lot and the second one is still good, although it turns into a lesser version of ‘At the Mountains of Madness’.
‘The Haunter of the Dark’ was fun, but ultimately kinda whatever.
My ranking:
1. The Whisperer In Darkness
2. The Shadow Out Of Time
3. The Haunter of the Dark
4. The Dunwich Horror
None of these stories are as fantastic as ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ or even ‘The Color Out of Space’ tho.
This collection contains four stories and none of them are bad, but none - or maybe just one - is truly great.
‘The Dunwich Horror’ was honestly disappointing. Again, not bad, but it didn’t do much for me and of the few Lovecraft stories I’ve read so far, I’d say it’s got the weakest prose.
‘The Whisperer In Darkness’ was my favorite of them all. A great mystery with some real good tension and intrigue. It’s a bit dull in the way that the protagonist act like an idiot towards the end, but I’ll allow it. Really good story.
‘The Shadow Out Of Time’ was great too. Love the first half a whole lot and the second one is still good, although it turns into a lesser version of ‘At the Mountains of Madness’.
‘The Haunter of the Dark’ was fun, but ultimately kinda whatever.
My ranking:
1. The Whisperer In Darkness
2. The Shadow Out Of Time
3. The Haunter of the Dark
4. The Dunwich Horror
None of these stories are as fantastic as ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ or even ‘The Color Out of Space’ tho.
October 18, 2022
this is my first time reading Lovecraft. I can understand why people say he's the father of modern horror. However, I was a little disappointed. The prose was a bit of a slog. My favorite out of these was The Whisper in the Darkness, as I felt closest to the characters here and I didn't feel the story lag, whereas the others, especially The Shadow Out of Time, the story tended to lag in some spots.
Not sure after these if I'd read Lovecraft again, but now I can at least say I have.
Not sure after these if I'd read Lovecraft again, but now I can at least say I have.
Want to read
September 20, 2023I found this book while working and the name of the author sounded familiar then I remembered we talked about some of these stories during high school. “The whisperer in the darkness” was the story that I liked and it was included in this book.
I will not be rating it simply because it was not necessarily a “read” since I was familiar with the stories that were included.
I will not be rating it simply because it was not necessarily a “read” since I was familiar with the stories that were included.
March 17, 2024
Turns out I can genuinely enjoy every other subgenre of horror (Gothic and psychological are my faves) except this one (eldritch… Lovecraftian). Picked this up for a dollar at a bargain bin in Katy a year ago.
Read
December 21, 20251. The Whisperer In Darkness - forest, dogs, brain machines
2. The Dunwich Horror - invisible giant cow murderer
3. The Shadow Out Of Time - past / future body snatching
4. The Haunter of the Dark - evil church
2. The Dunwich Horror - invisible giant cow murderer
3. The Shadow Out Of Time - past / future body snatching
4. The Haunter of the Dark - evil church
Read
January 22, 2022Set on at least two continents
April 24, 2023
Talented storyteller for sure, but not a genre I enjoyed
Read
January 7, 2025Cthulhu gets a lot of love in pop culture, but I want to see more Nyarlathotep. He's sick asf and a great concept for a Lovecraft god
The Shadow Out of Time ✅
The Haunter of the Dark ✅
The Shadow Out of Time ✅
The Haunter of the Dark ✅
March 18, 2025
This is a great collection of short horror stories. The best being "The Dunwich Horror", "The Dreams in the Witch house" and my personal favourite "The thing on the doorstep".
April 30, 2024
This is a collection of 4 short horror stories; The Dunwich Horror, The Whisperer in Darkness, The Shadow out of Time, and The Haunter of the Dark. The author Howard Phillips Lovecraft is a talented author with unique ideas, and an interesting style of writing. This is a compelling collection, it definitely has some of my favourites by Lovecraft.
Genre: Horror, Classic, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Trigger Warnings: death, gore
Genre: Horror, Classic, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Trigger Warnings: death, gore
August 4, 2020
I read this collection of stories shortly after completing 'The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories' (TCOCAOS) from the same imprint, you can read that review here.
I found this collection of four stories much more enjoyable overall than TCOCAOS, possibly in part because this collection of stories, what with it's inclusion of travel both temporal, inter-galactic, and inter-dimensional felt more Science Fiction orientated rather than the Horror orientation of the other collection and therefore more in-line with my general personal preferences. Also, while there is still an undercurrent of racism in places in these stories (and while still acknowledging that racism is always unacceptable and problematic) I found it less confrontational than in TCOCAOS.
As this book contains fewer stories, correspondingly they are longer stories, and they are the better for it. Of the stories contained, the first three, The Dunwich Horror, The Whisperer In The Darkness, and The Shadow Out Of Time are perhaps the strongest. The final story, The Haunter Of The Dark was also enjoyable however it appears to have been written as a 'gift' to Robert Bloch (he of Hitchcock's 'Psycho' fame) and features a thinly disguised Bloch as the central character ("Robert Blake") and so feels a little too 'chummy' as a result. Of note here is Lovecraft's tendency to include contemporary news stories at time of writing into the tales, presumably to add some veneer of possiblity to the readers of the pulp magazines in which these tales first appeared. So it is that the newly discovered Pluto is designated as the possible origin of the malign alien forces that wish to dominate Earth in one tale, and that the catastrophic floods in Vermont in 1927 act as a point of entry for another - although it is hard to see how the survivors or families of victims of similar tragedies would take to someone trying to use a similar tactic today.
I would offer a qualified recommendation on this book, the qualifier being that any potential reader needs to be aware of Lovecraft's race and class politics before picking up one of his books.
I found this collection of four stories much more enjoyable overall than TCOCAOS, possibly in part because this collection of stories, what with it's inclusion of travel both temporal, inter-galactic, and inter-dimensional felt more Science Fiction orientated rather than the Horror orientation of the other collection and therefore more in-line with my general personal preferences. Also, while there is still an undercurrent of racism in places in these stories (and while still acknowledging that racism is always unacceptable and problematic) I found it less confrontational than in TCOCAOS.
As this book contains fewer stories, correspondingly they are longer stories, and they are the better for it. Of the stories contained, the first three, The Dunwich Horror, The Whisperer In The Darkness, and The Shadow Out Of Time are perhaps the strongest. The final story, The Haunter Of The Dark was also enjoyable however it appears to have been written as a 'gift' to Robert Bloch (he of Hitchcock's 'Psycho' fame) and features a thinly disguised Bloch as the central character ("Robert Blake") and so feels a little too 'chummy' as a result. Of note here is Lovecraft's tendency to include contemporary news stories at time of writing into the tales, presumably to add some veneer of possiblity to the readers of the pulp magazines in which these tales first appeared. So it is that the newly discovered Pluto is designated as the possible origin of the malign alien forces that wish to dominate Earth in one tale, and that the catastrophic floods in Vermont in 1927 act as a point of entry for another - although it is hard to see how the survivors or families of victims of similar tragedies would take to someone trying to use a similar tactic today.
I would offer a qualified recommendation on this book, the qualifier being that any potential reader needs to be aware of Lovecraft's race and class politics before picking up one of his books.
December 3, 2023
The Dunwich Horror and Other Stories is a collection of short stories from the master of cosmic horror, HP Lovecraft. It contains some of his most famous works, such as The Call of Cthulhu (where the narrator slowly uncovers the mysteries of a powerful and malevolent entity), The Colour Out of Space (where the narrator investigates a blasted heath rendered barren by an extra-terrestrial meteorite strike years earlier), The Shadow Over Innsmouth (where the narrator visits the strange and menacing inhabitants of a deserted fishing town), and the titular The Dunwich Horror (where the narrator deals with the evil offspring of otherworldly entitites unleashing a nightmarish terror on the community). The stories can feel a little bit same-y after a while - Lovecraft often repeats similar tropes and language in different tales - but I found them all enjoyable enough that I didn't really mind them being repetitive. 7/10
May 15, 2025
3.5/5
Otherworldly horror and frightful tales that are sure to shock. I’m glad that I read them, though it’s difficult to imagine revisiting in the future. The best one was the second one. The entirety of the book can best be synthesized by my first chosen quote.
Quotes:
“The quaint, sightly village of Newfane, reached in less than an hour, was our last link with that world which man definitely call his own by virtue of conquest and complete occupancy. After that we cast off all allegiance to immediate, tangible, and time-touched things, and entered a fantastic world of hushed unreality …” (109)
“Their actions, though harmless, horrified me even more than their appearance - for it is not wholesome to watch monstrous objects doing what one has only known human beings to do.” (164)
Otherworldly horror and frightful tales that are sure to shock. I’m glad that I read them, though it’s difficult to imagine revisiting in the future. The best one was the second one. The entirety of the book can best be synthesized by my first chosen quote.
Quotes:
“The quaint, sightly village of Newfane, reached in less than an hour, was our last link with that world which man definitely call his own by virtue of conquest and complete occupancy. After that we cast off all allegiance to immediate, tangible, and time-touched things, and entered a fantastic world of hushed unreality …” (109)
“Their actions, though harmless, horrified me even more than their appearance - for it is not wholesome to watch monstrous objects doing what one has only known human beings to do.” (164)
April 16, 2024
My first foray into Lovecraft and lemme tell ya: when that mfer was cooking? He was COOKIN.
Would recommend to any fan of horror
Would recommend to any fan of horror
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