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H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction
This collection contains an active table of contents (HTML), which makes reading easier to make it more enjoyable. The Stories included -The Nameless City -The Festival -The Colour Out of Space -The Call of Cthulhu -The Dunwich Horror -The Whisperer in Darkness -The Dreams in the Witch House -The Haunter of the Dark -The Shadow Over Innsmouth -Discarded Draft of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" -The Shadow Out of Time -At the Mountains of Madness -The Case of Charles Dexter Ward -Azathoth -Beyond the Wall of Sleep -Celephaïs -Cool Air -Dagon -Ex Oblivione -Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family -From Beyond -He -Herbert West-Reanimator -Hypnos -In the Vault -Memory -Nyarlathotep -Pickman's Model -The Book -The Cats of Ulthar -The Descendant -The Doom That Came to Sarnath -The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath -The Evil Clergyman -The Horror at Red Hook -The Hound -The Lurking Fear -The Moon-Bog -The Music of Erich Zann -The Other Gods -The Outsider -The Picture in the House -The Quest of Iranon -The Rats in the Walls -The Shunned House -The Silver Key -The Statement of Randolph Carter -The Strange High House in the Mist -The Street -The Temple -The Terrible Old Man -The Thing on the Doorstep -The Tomb -The Transition of Juan Romero -The Tree -The Unnamable -The White Ship -What the Moon Brings -Polaris -The Very Old Folk -Ibid -Old Bugs -Sweet Ermengarde, or, The Heart of a Country Girl -A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson -The History of the Necronomicon
1342 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 18, 2020
164 people are currently reading
118 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 23, 2024
I read the first few stories on my lunch breaks. Might pick at a few more as my moods permit. Mostly not for me though and cutting my first foray into Lovecraft’s body of short stories short.
Lovecraft wrote for people who thought good writing was telling ornately, rather than showing.
Lovecraft wrote for people who thought ghosts were real and who shivered as a general fear response. Here is my single biggest problem with his writing: how are his characters so deeply terrified, so profoundly emotionally moved, while not shitting themselves? There’s 0 pants-shitting for people who find themselves impacted down at the level of their spinal reflexes. If he was alive today he’d need a token brown friend to prove he isn’t racist when he complains that “there’s nothing wrong with reforms, it’s just their pacing”—and I could be that friend, for no other reason than to give him notes to include new and numerous ways to make sure his cast of one dimensional protagonists shit their own pants in public. These are characters who can’t see a regular house with old wooden boards and old paint without relinquishing all bowel control as a first resort, and no one in his world seems to acknowledge it.
The first few stories I read were rescued to arrive at a position of mediocrity by the unquestionable death metal of imagining a cosmos of malevolent, oppressive gods 60 years before death metal existed. He also has the ability to deliver some great turns of phrase.
I mainly find myself wishing he saw the folly in the creative choice to leave descriptions of key nouns up to the reader’s imagination. The subjects of his stories have all made this tacit agreement that terrifying things shouldn’t be spoken of, so they can only offer such lazy descriptions of things as being “indescribably terrible.” For this reason I see Lovecraft as being rightly excluded from greatness; he was a guy with very cool ideas and some natural talent with a pen, and that’s unfortunately all. A shame that he managed to write about the timeless terror of learning that god is actually a malicious demiurge in a way that wasn’t timeless.
Lovecraft wrote for people who thought good writing was telling ornately, rather than showing.
Lovecraft wrote for people who thought ghosts were real and who shivered as a general fear response. Here is my single biggest problem with his writing: how are his characters so deeply terrified, so profoundly emotionally moved, while not shitting themselves? There’s 0 pants-shitting for people who find themselves impacted down at the level of their spinal reflexes. If he was alive today he’d need a token brown friend to prove he isn’t racist when he complains that “there’s nothing wrong with reforms, it’s just their pacing”—and I could be that friend, for no other reason than to give him notes to include new and numerous ways to make sure his cast of one dimensional protagonists shit their own pants in public. These are characters who can’t see a regular house with old wooden boards and old paint without relinquishing all bowel control as a first resort, and no one in his world seems to acknowledge it.
The first few stories I read were rescued to arrive at a position of mediocrity by the unquestionable death metal of imagining a cosmos of malevolent, oppressive gods 60 years before death metal existed. He also has the ability to deliver some great turns of phrase.
I mainly find myself wishing he saw the folly in the creative choice to leave descriptions of key nouns up to the reader’s imagination. The subjects of his stories have all made this tacit agreement that terrifying things shouldn’t be spoken of, so they can only offer such lazy descriptions of things as being “indescribably terrible.” For this reason I see Lovecraft as being rightly excluded from greatness; he was a guy with very cool ideas and some natural talent with a pen, and that’s unfortunately all. A shame that he managed to write about the timeless terror of learning that god is actually a malicious demiurge in a way that wasn’t timeless.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 14, 2022
It took me a fairly long time to complete this book.Its a genre I hadn't really explored much (barring a handful of Stephen King's works,Poe,Bram Stoker..).Discovering Lovecraft was a happy accident.I had read a couple of his stories which I liked immensely ('The Call of Cthulu' and 'The Colour out of Space').Then a few months ago I chanced upon this extraordinarily beautiful volume.It was his complete collection and it cost a bomb.Truth be told I had bought it out of sheer instinct thinking that I would eventually get to reading it after a few years!:-) However,once I started reading one of his longer novellas ('The Whisperer in Darkness')I got so hooked that I couldn't put this book aside.His stories just took me in.Then I moved on to The Shadow over Innsmouth,The Outsider,Pickman's Model,The Music of Erich Zann..I couldn't stop..I didn't want to stop.It was such a magical experience.I just kept reading him..during long metro rides..binge reading during weekends.
He is such a gifted writer,his prose style is so mesmerizingly pellucid and his plots are so enthralling and intense.This is clearly one of the best books I have read in a while. So i say this with utmost sincerity and conviction - Lovecraft is a genius.
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."
― H.P. Lovecraft
He is such a gifted writer,his prose style is so mesmerizingly pellucid and his plots are so enthralling and intense.This is clearly one of the best books I have read in a while. So i say this with utmost sincerity and conviction - Lovecraft is a genius.
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."
― H.P. Lovecraft
February 2, 2021
Influential, But Overrated
H.P. Lovecraft is undoubtedly one of the best-known and influential horror writers of all time, and among the most famous American authors. However, I was quite disappointed. The almost complete lack of dialogue (there is little to none in any of the stories) does these works a disservice. Lovecraft relies heavily on "describing" his eldritch terrors as "indescribable," something he admittedly addresses in "The Unnamable." The self-awareness is appreciated. A highlight of this collection is "Ibid" which demonstrates that despite being known for horror, H.P. Lovecraft has a sense of humor. Overall, I was not impressed, but if you are looking for a complete collection of Lovecraft's fiction, this is certainly that.
H.P. Lovecraft is undoubtedly one of the best-known and influential horror writers of all time, and among the most famous American authors. However, I was quite disappointed. The almost complete lack of dialogue (there is little to none in any of the stories) does these works a disservice. Lovecraft relies heavily on "describing" his eldritch terrors as "indescribable," something he admittedly addresses in "The Unnamable." The self-awareness is appreciated. A highlight of this collection is "Ibid" which demonstrates that despite being known for horror, H.P. Lovecraft has a sense of humor. Overall, I was not impressed, but if you are looking for a complete collection of Lovecraft's fiction, this is certainly that.
May 6, 2024
There was once a spooky thing. It was so spooky, I don't have the words to tell you how spooky it was, despite my keen interest in spooky things as a professional moody poet and/or sceptical university academic. (This, by the way, is the full extent of my characterisation, except in the one story where I'm a psychopathic German submarine captain).
I shall describe, in melodramatic prose that ever toes the line between poetic and purple, how I made an increasingly stupid sequence of decisions in my investigations into the spooky thing. The tension will rise, often quite effectively, before inevitably falling a bit flat in the denouement.
I may be rather racially insensitive in the process, because other races are spooky.
The whole spooky vibe will at times be genuinely effective, but at other times will come across as cheesy and predictable.
Sometimes, I will forego the entirety of the above and just waffle on about my dreams a bit.
Spooky.
I shall describe, in melodramatic prose that ever toes the line between poetic and purple, how I made an increasingly stupid sequence of decisions in my investigations into the spooky thing. The tension will rise, often quite effectively, before inevitably falling a bit flat in the denouement.
I may be rather racially insensitive in the process, because other races are spooky.
The whole spooky vibe will at times be genuinely effective, but at other times will come across as cheesy and predictable.
Sometimes, I will forego the entirety of the above and just waffle on about my dreams a bit.
Spooky.
August 19, 2024
Well at last I've got to see what H. P Lovecraft is all about. I was quite disappointed when I ran across some romance in the Tome but then quite surprised at the pleasure, quality of other parts of the book. Which justifies my never DNF policy. Sadly the romance is why it didn't get a perfect 5/5 score.
May 29, 2025
Classic , for good. Should be Required reading in schools for sure
October 29, 2020
Lovecraft has a large and devoted following due to the popularity of his mythos. However, he is a writer of inconsistent quality and much given to the overuse of hyperbolic adjectives (e.g. eldritch, cyclopean, etc.). In his best work, he is a writer who excels at creating an atmosphere of horror, though if you are expecting plot-driven or character-driven horror stories, you will be disappointed. Like Poe, Lovecraft's stories are mostly first-person narratives. Unlike Poe, his approach is highly impressionistic. Since he is attempting to portray extra-dimensional horrors for which the human mind has no schema for or language to describe, he allows the reader's imagination to wander into dark realms of the unthinkable and create its own sense of unease, revulsion, and terror. The worst of his work is discursive to the point of tedium, and will have you constantly checking to see how many pages you have left to wade through. The way this particular volume is arranged, his best fiction appears in the first half, which is where you'll find the stories that develop his unique mythos of Chthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Azathoth, and the other Old Ones.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews