The Lurking Fear and Other Stories

by H.P. Lovecraft

Stark horror stalks a universe of fantasy

• The Lurking Fear
A demon, ratlike scurrying from pits remote and imaginable... a loathsome night-spawned flood of - what?

• In the Vault
A dark and dank crypt where bodies waiting for burial wreak a terrible vengeance on the undertaker...

• The Unnamable
A vile and terrible being that claws its human victims and gouges them with its horns...

These and other marrow-chilling delights await the connoisseur of the horror story in this collection by the master of the macabre and malevolent.

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

182 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1923

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

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've wanted to read H.P. Lovecraft's stuff for a long time now. Very much a bucket list sort of thing because there are just so many references to his work all over the place.
Anyway, I saw this on the Hoopla bonus borrows audiobook list and grabbed it.
I wanna LOVE Lovecraft!



After listening, however, I don't think Lovecraft is for me.
None of these were spooky at all. And it often seemed as though the whole point of the story was for the author to find new ways of describing things. It was more an exercise in being lyrical than in being scary or interesting.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's something I personally hate in a book.
To each his own.



One story was just about these two dudes getting fucked up on hallucinogens (or whatever they managed to get their hands on) in order to explore the outer limits of the mind and find out what was on the other side of consciousness. It didn't end well.
But I imagine it doesn't end well for a lot of people who eat that much acid for years and years. Important shit tends to slip through the cracks when you're in a stupor and making decisions based on paranoia.



There was also a story about a group of 'terrifying' subterranean apes that would pop up out of the ground during thunderstorms and eat people.
The big twist? The were the descendants of a weird family that thought inbreeding was the way to go. So. If you fuck your sister your kids will become cannibal monkeys. That's just science, my friend.



Another story was about some magician/escape artist who got hogtied & dropped down into a tomb in Egypt while on vacation. While there he saw a bunch of weird stuff related to some long-forgotten death god who looked like a Hippo with tiny hands. <--or something? To be honest, it was really a longwinded story and I zoned in and out a lot. There was a whole bunch of garbage about all the sightseeing and whatnot he and his wife did before we get to the death god stuff, and it was pretty dull unless you're just really into travelogues.



Again, like a lot of books, the same reason that I didn't like it will be the same reason Mr. Lovecraft has so many fans. There are folks out there that love it when authors go out of their way to add in extra blah, blah, blah stuff. I'm not that reader, but if you are then please understand that I'm not calling your preferences stupid.



Blackstone Publishing
Unabridged
read by Stefan Rudnicki <--this dude did a great job!

[Diana Stoyanova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Много живо въображение и новаторски стил на писане. Възхитена съм от способността на Лъвкрафт да надскача рамките на ума и да размива времевите ограничения. Изключителен. Не се изненадвам, че е вдъхновявал такива автори като Кинг и Бредбъри!

" Дебнещият страх" включва в себе си три новели, във всяка една от които "ужасът" е поднесен елегантно:

-  В " Цветът от Космоса" се разказва за един метеорит, който пада на Земята и какво въздействие оказва върху територията и хората наоколо. Страхотно изпипана новела.

- " Безименният град" - разказва се за едно прокълнато арабско селище, където се срещат едновременно страхът, приключенския дух и мистичната ориенталска атмосфера, а героят се промъква в тайнствен храм със страховити коридори и помещения.

- " Сянка над Инсмут" е най - дългата от трите новели. В нея главният герой всъщност е един мрачен, западнал и рушащ се град, в който се прокрадват призрачни и зловещи сенки на отколешни предания и суеверия.


В историите на Лъвкрафт няма ужасяваща бруталност, както си мислех, напротив- той прониква на пръсти в психиката и останалото оставя на фантазията на читателя.
От новелите, които прочетох, останах с усещането, че Лъвкрафт е имал интереси към Древните цивилизации. Забележително, ярко и запомнящо се перо!

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is dark, foreboding, 'lurking' horror at its best. Lovecraft writes like no other.

[Theo Logos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gift from a college chum back in the 1980s introduced me to the work of H.P. Lovecraft. He gave me his collection of Lovecraft paperbacks, a set published in 1973 that featured the distinctive cover art of John Holmes. Each volume displayed a grotesque head, each more horrific than the last. Though far more handsome and expensive volumes of Lovecraft’s work have been published over the years, the eldritch creepiness of these old paperbacks continues to affects me, and all these years later I still proudly display them in my library.

The Lurking Fear, while being a pretty cool title for a book of horror fiction, is not the premiere story of this collection. Two of these tales are simply outstanding, and I recommend far above all the rest: The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Outsider. The first of these in a novella length story, a significant piece of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, and a brilliant example of his storytelling at its most mature. The second, a much shorter story, lacks an obvious connection to the mythos, but is a perfect example of terrifying, nightmare logic.


The Lurking Fear: A slaughtered village, a local legend, an abandoned estate on a thunderous mountain, and an investigation leading to stormy, cannibalistic madness
”A burst of multitudinous and leprous life, a loathsome night spawn flood of organic corruption, more devastatingly hideous than the blackest congregations of mortal madness and morbidity…Shrieking, slithering, torrential shadows of red, viscous madness chasing one another through endless ensanguined corridors of purple, fulgurous sky, formless phantasms and kaleidoscopic mutations of a ghoulish, remembered scene”
3 1/2 ⭐️

Dagon: A castaway sailor lands on an island newly heaved up from the ocean floor on which are monstrous monuments carved with hideous depictions of fish-like humanoids. But it was the gigantic thing which emerged from the waves that sent him screaming in mindless terror, and that would drive him toward self destruction by its very memory.
”I cannot think of the deep sea without shuddering at the nameless things that may, at this very moment, be crawling and floundering on its slimy bed, worshipping their ancient stone idols and carving their own detestable likenesses on submarine obelisks.”
3 1/2 ⭐️

Beyond the Wall of Sleep: A fascinating story idea, but the execution of that idea failed to capture me. An unnamed intern in a mental hospital secretly experiments with a criminally insane patient, a mad, hillbilly murderer, to prove that his dreams exists in a wholly separate realm where he is a being of light.
”From my experience I cannot doubt but that man, when lost to terrestrial consciousness, is indeed sojourning in another and incorporeal life, a far different nature from the life we know, and of which only the slightest and most indistinct memories linger after waking.”
3 ⭐️

The White Ship: In this early tale, when Lovecraft was still writing Lord Dunsany type ethereal fantasies, a mystical White Ship which appears only when the moon is full picks up a hereditary lighthouse keeper and sails him through lands of Dream.
”For Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time.”
”The Land of Zar, where dwell all the dreams and thoughts of beauty that come to men once, and then are forgotten”
3 ⭐️

Arthur Jermyn: A tale of hereditary, generational madness, traced back a century and a half to the African explorations of the progenitor of the Jermyn house, and the mysterious marriage he made there. Unfortunately, similar to The Horror at Red Hook, this is a story where the author’s reprehensible racism is clearly evident.
”Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer demoniacal hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousandfold more hideous.”
”If we knew what we are we should do as Sir Arthur Jermyn did, and Arthur Jermyn soaked himself in oil and set fire to his clothing one night.”
2 ⭐️

From Beyond: An ominous mad scientist story. When the protagonist’s friend makes a machine that eliminates the barriers between worlds, the consequences are catastrophic.
”Remember, we’re dealing with a hideous world in which we are practically helpless. Keep still!”
”Indescribable shapes, both alive and otherwise, were mixed in disgusting disarray, and close to every known thing were whole worlds of alien, unknown entities.”
”You see them! You see them! You see the things that float and flop about you and through you every moment of your life!”
”My pets are not pretty, for they come out of places where aesthetic standards are very different.”
3 ⭐️

The Temple: A manuscript, sealed in a bottle and cast into the sea, chronicles the curious madness that afflicted a German U-boat crew, leading to the deaths of its crew and its sinking to sea bottom. Manuscript was written by the boat’s captain (a grossly stereotyped Prussian officer), its last survivor. Though the story climaxes in the discovery of a sunken city and its central temple, this story seems to have no actual connection to the Cthulhu Mythos or the other tales Lovecraft wrote of submerged cities.
”What I have seen cannot be true, and I know that this madness of my own will at most lead only to suffocation when my air is gone. The light in the temple is a sheer delusion, and I shall die calmly, like a German, in the black and forgotten depths. This demoniac laughter which I hear as I write comes only from my own, weakening brain.”
2 ⭐️

The Moon-Bog: A wealthy American reclaims his ancestor castle in Ireland to restore it. But when he ignores the warnings and superstitious dread of the locals and goes ahead with his project to drain the bog on the property said to hide ancient ruins he invites an eerie doom.
”Yet still there came that monotonous piping from afar, wild, weird airs that made me think of some dance of fauns…it would not let me sleep.”
”And upward along that pallid path my fevered fancy pictured a thin shadow, slowly writhing, a vague, contorted shadow struggling as if drawn by unseen demons. Crazed as I was, I saw in that awful shadow a monstrous resemblance, a nauseous, unbelievable caricature, a blasphemous effigy of him who had been Dennis Barry.”
3 1/2 ⭐️

The Hound: A truly macabre tale of a pair of decadent artistic connoisseurs turned grave robbers to build an exquisitely grotesque collection, and the terrible fate they brought upon themselves.
”Our museum was a blasphemous, unthinkable place, where with the satanic tastes of neurotic virtuosi we had assembled a universe of terror and decay to excite our jaded sensibilities.”
”The predatory excursions on which we collected our unmentionable treasures were always artistically memorable events. We were no vulgar ghouls, but worked only under certain conditions of mood, landscape, environment, weather, season, and moonlight. These pass times were to us the most exquisite form of aesthetic expression, and we gave their details a fastidious technical care.”
4 ⭐️

The Unnameable: This clever tale does a lot of work. A writer of weird tales narrates a conversation in a churchyard with a skeptical critic of his writing, as the two sit upon an ancient grave slab. Lovecraft manages to defend his writing and humorously tweaks his critics, all while telling another of his weird tales of the indescribable.
”We know things,” he said, “only through our five senses, or our religious intuitions. Wherefore it is quite impossible to refer to any object or spectacle which cannot be clearly depicted by the solid definitions of fact, or the correct doctrines of theology, preferably those of the Congregationalist with whatever modifications tradition and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may supply.”
”Common sense, in reflecting on these subjects,” I assured my friend with some warmth, “is merely a stupid absence of imagination and mental flexibility.”
4 ⭐️

The Outsider: A perfect little horror story — a masterpiece of dream logic. The strange, first person narrator has no memories other than always living alone in a crumbling, twilit castle in the middle of a foreboding, dark forest, without companion or caretaker. Determined to see the light that never penetrates, he climbs endlessly the tallest, decaying tower and at its top finds a stone trap door that opens, not onto tower top, but onto the floor of a tomb. Things just get creepier, stranger, and more nightmarish from there.
5 ⭐️

The Shadow Over Innsmouth: The God-forsaken, shunned town of Innsmouth isn’t your typical tourist spot. It and its secretive and ill-favored residents have an evil reputation, and outsiders are not welcome. But our young and curious protagonist is drawn to its strange reputation, charmed by its decaying architecture, and fascinated by its disturbing folklore. That is, until he got trapped there for the night, and then things got dangerously fishy. An exciting and desperate flight for his life ensues. Yet all that pales before what he learns about Grandma Marsh.
”Furtiveness and secretiveness seemed universal in this hushed city of alienage and death, and I could not escape the sensation of being watched from ambush on every hand by sly, staring eyes that never shut.”
5 ⭐️

[Mizuki · Rating 3 out of 5]

some random thoughts in the reading progress:

3.5 stars or 3.8 stars I guess?

'Nyarlathotep' is one of the Lovecraft's short stories that I keep reading and re-reading. Now in this third or fourth time re-read, I noticed this accused city in the short story actually has subway and electricity, so can this city be....New York? And did the Nyarlathotep send those foolish people who laughed at him to an alternative world where the city lays in ruins or.....Mr. N sent them to the future!

I admit I didn't read this whole book from start to end, I also didn't finish reading all the short stories because let's face it, Lovecraft's short stories collections are always a chore to finish due to the guy's long description of things and the lack of dialogues and all those heavy stuffs, but the stories I managed to finish are pretty good! Though Lovecraft's racist attitude toward POC and other cultures is really difficult to swallow from time to time. I feel really uncomfortable when he hinted that some groups of people in Africa are no better than apes (well, you actually need to read the story to know what I mean here). Yuck! Totally not cool.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mental images conjured up by Lovecraft’s prose are a hundred times more disturbing than any CGI laden film adaptation could ever hope for. The best (most frightening) horrors are the ones we don’t see.

[Rosemarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shadow over Innsmouth is a truly creepy story.

[Сибин Майналовски · Rating 5 out of 5]

Първото нещо, което четох на Лъвкрафт. И още любимото. „Цветът от космоса“ — нямам думи! Толкова красиво и ужасяващо нещо може да напише само още един човек — Донко Найденов :) Както и Бранимир Събев — в Нощно острие, разбира се :)

[Валентин Попов · Rating 5 out of 5]

Завладяваща и дебнеща.

[Inkworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pick up this copy for "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." This story alone makes this book worthy to read. It is quite possibly the best Lovecraft story I've read. "The Lurking Fear" and "The Hound" stood out as well.

[Mark Pedigo · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Audible released a bunch of free kids audio books during the Covid-19 epidemic while the schools were closed down at audible.stories. This book appeared under the "teens" section. Read by Stefan Rudnicki. 2 hours, 34 minutes.)

This is a collection of his early pre-Cthulhu mythos stories: "Hypnos," "What the Moon Brings," "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs," "Memory," and the "Lurking Fear." To a modern reader, I think Lovecraft is mainly interesting because he is referenced so often in other books, TV, movies, etc. The stories seem pretty tame by today's standards. Typically, the characters are confronted by the weird and overwhelming incomprehensibility of space and time and go mad, which makes me think that the young, impressionable Lovecraft must have had a particularly traumatic experience with an math exam. The language, with its odd Poe-inspired vocabulary (for example, the word "eldritch" appears unusually often) is either richly evocative or anachronistically purple, depending on your reading.

Depending on who you are, either horrifying, campy, or old-fashioned, or some strange mix of the three.

[Ренета Кирова · Rating 4 out of 5]

И трите произведения на Хауърд Лъвкрафт, подбрани в "Дебнещият страх", бяха много интересни. Много описателно пише за мистериите, буквално усещаш ужасите. Не мога да преразкажа сюжетите, но те са фантастични и сякаш излезли от някой кошмар. Усещането за този автор зависи от въображението на човека. Ако се филмират книгите му, вероятно ще бъдат доста по-ужасяващи от написаното.

[Gareth Is Haunted · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another attempt at reading Lovecraft. This time I thought I would try an audiobook and see if my experience is improved. Sadly this was not the case and I have to admit that his writing is just not for me. Sorry, don't hate me.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't seem to find the third Wordsworth volume on Goodreads, so this will be a combined review of The Haunter of the Dark and The Lurking Fear.

There is a law of diminishing returns in the Wordsworth volumes, with each volume containing fewer good stories than the last one, and exposing more of Lovecraft's weaknesses. His racism and conservative views become somewhat repugnant at times - Lovecraft was not entirely condemning of Hitler.

Lovecraft also faces the difficulty of how to convincingly convey horror. Traditional wisdom has it that the best way to capture horror is through suggestion rather than outright scares. However, in an age where we are used to being given some 'reward' for our patience and seeing the horror, there is a risk that too much suggestion will frustrate the reader as being all tease, and no substance. Then again, if the horror is revealed, there is always the fear of disappointing the reader if it's not as good as the build-up leads one to hope. Lovecraft therefore has a difficult balance to keep.

Volume 3 contains many of Lovecraft's dream stories, and there are about as interesting as listening to anyone's dreams. 'The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath' ingeniously ties many of the stories together, and even some of the Cthulhu Mythos, but I'm not very enthusiastic about fantasy, and some of it was rather silly.

There are still a number of enjoyable horror stories, including the ghoulish fun of 'Herbert West: Reanimator', and some of Lovecraft's more pessimistic horror works.

The volume also contains some of Lovecraft's most autobiographical work. In one story, 'The Unnameable', he describes a friend who is criticising his work for using too many vague words like 'unnameable' in his art, when nothing cannot be named. At this point, the friend and narrator are assaulted by an evil force, which his friend is finally forced to weakly acknowledge was indeed 'unnameable'. Naturally, the sceptical friend receives the bigger drubbing from the mysterious evil force. Serves him right for criticising the author.

It's also tempting to see Randolph Carter as being Lovecraft. Too craven to actively participate in horror, sharing many of Lovecraft's views on life, Carter retreats (as Lovecraft did) into a dreamworld.

Onto Volume 4, The Lurking Fear. The volume has a lot of very brief stories that fail to really capture the reader's interest, though there are some nastily effective tales like 'The Rats in the Walls'. The theme of this volume is claustrophobia. Many tales involve threats from underground (and in one case underwater), or even from the claustrophobia of heredity where people are trapped by the legacy of their ancestors.

Lovecraft gives free rein to his conservative views, berating the value of learning and knowledge, and condemning city life as being a place just as suited to horrors as the rural world in which so many of his stories are set.

All in all, the stories demonstrate Lovecraft's strengths and failings. Some of the stories are probably of more interest to the aficionado or completist, but there are enough good tales to keep the volumes readable.

[Elmarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously the concept of Lovecraftian horror is full of potential and can be found all over modern pop culture, and while some of these stories had interesting concepts, others were downright boring. The glaring racism doesn't do it any favours either.

[Pixelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not his best

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every year at this time, I return to HPL. It always gives me pleasure, although at this many re-readings, there isn't the same thrill of newness and discovery, nor does the imagery fire my dreams as much as it once did.

This collection is solid, although not necessarily cohesive. Most of the stories are straight-forward horror, and mostly outside of the mythos cycle, although there is one Dreamworld story ("The White Ship") and the longest story ("The Shadow over Innsmouth") is fairly well part of the mythos. With no editorial commentary, it's difficult to guess why these stories were combined in one book, moreover why it was named for "The Lurking Fear," neither the best nor the best-known of the selections included. It may have been a semi-random choice of the publisher. Nevertheless, it's good to have all of them, and few will disappoint.

I'm going to give short discussions of each tale, since reviewing the whole volume will avail little.

"The Lurking Fear" itself is a grisly tale of physical and moral degeneracy, and a cursed house, with similarities to "The Rats in the Walls," and a curiously homo-erotic undertone. It is especially effective on a first reading, because Lovecraft successfully obscures the denouement, and springs it as an effective surprise.

"Dagon" is arguably Lovecraft's "first" story, and one which hints at later mythos developments, without really establishing them.

"Beyond the Wall of Sleep" is an early horror tale that hints at coming Dreamworld developments. It is also a foray into the eugenic theories of degeneracy which influence much of Lovecraft.

"The White Ship" is a more developed Dreamworld tale of a young man who forsakes reality for the more interesting world he can visit by traveling the path of imagination, and the error which hubris leads him to.

"Arthur Jermyn" is another story of the cursed degeneration of a noble line of scholars. It uses contemporary theories of Darwinism to offer an element of realism to the fantastic theme.

"From Beyond" is the well-known story of a scientist with an obsessive drive to see what lies beyond the visible spectrum. Too late he learns that He Who Sees may also Be Seen. Of the shorter tales in this book, this is probably the strongest.

"The Temple" is a favorite of mine in which a brutal U-Boat captain leads his crew to doom by refusing to heed superstitious warnings. In the process he visits Atlantis and learns that ancient civilizations harbor Ancient Horror.

"The Moon-Bog" is a somewhat fanciful and traditional Gothic horror tale, which puts a nasty twist on stories of the "little people" of Ireland.

"The Hound" is a story of the haunting of two libertines who cross the bounds of good taste and reason.

"The Unnamable" is a short story which warns against excessive skepticism. Apparently Lovecraft never intended it to be published or read.

"The Outsider" is an unusually Gothic tale with a rather predictable twist ending. It is all atmosphere, no action, and the atmosphere is excellent.

"The Shadow over Innsmouth" is the longest and probably the best-known of the lot (really, this should have been the title of the collection). It is a story of a small New England town that comes to worship pagan Sea-Gods and makes a deal with dark forces that lead to it's degeneracy and gradual loss of humanity. The story is told from the point of view of a young student on a walking tour of the area, whose genealogical inquiries connect him to his own greatest fear.

[Patrick Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delectable sampling from the lord of loathing. I've always thought Lovecraft's influence arose from his single-mindedness - he didn't allow anything as paltry as good writing to get in the way of his metaphysical disquietude.

This collection is a real mass-market mishmash, but that's part of the fun. We have "Arthur Jermyn," which by far is the most blatant testament to Lovecraft's racism. The eponymous Arthur basically discovers - to his horror - his African heritage, and naturally is driven to take his accursed life. Somehow this manages to go so far beyond offensive that it winds up in the realm of the ridiculous.

But don't feel excluded, whoever you are; if Howard met you on a bus, he'd probably find you repulsive too. "The Shadow over Insmouth" is the holy bible of misanthropy, in which the shambling grubby monstrosity of Strangers erupts into the nightmarish confrontation every shut-in dreads when they walk out the door.

There are two perfectly wonderful stories in this collection, though. "From Beyond," I'd argue, is one of his purest, best stories. What if, squirming through the interstices of the comfortable space around us, is some otherworldly, glistening horror, just waiting for its moment to devour us? Rather than trying to locate the monsters in the ever-shrinking blank spots in the map (which even in his day were few; now the very idea seems quaint), situate the horror everywhere - in some pervasive, perverse dimension.

"The Temple" is another Lovecraft classic. I can't remember him ever writing a particularly memorable protagonist to his stories (and in all fairness its tough for misanthropes to create likable characters). But this story dispenses with the idea altogether and gives us a murderous martinet of a Nazi U-boat commander, Karl Heinrich. As his crew is driven insane by a cursed artifact he kills them with an impeccable punctiliousness. Eventually, he is trapped alone as his crippled submarine is drawn ever further into the depths, as he logs the increasingly alien sights surrounding him. The great benefit of an evil narrator (as a horror author) is that you don't have to even offer the suggestion that they will escape the doom that closes in around them. And for that reason they can penetrate further into the preternatural beyond than, say, a likable protagonist. Its a good gimmick, and makes this story one of his most striking.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

И в трите части на сборника ("Цветът от Космоса", "Безименният град" и "Сянка над Инсмут") има достатъчна доза класен хорър, съчетан с изтънчена проза.

“Цветът от космоса”, писан през далечната 1927 г., много прилича на зловещо предсказание. Трагедията на Наюм Гарднър и семейството му, опустошенията по животните и растенията около фермата му и "ожарените", лишени от живот и сякаш прокълнати земи, са неизбежен паралел с аварията в Чернобил.

Адмирации за Любомир Николов, превел и съставил един чудесен сборник, който бих препоръчала с удоволствие на всеки.

[Stasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely should've paid more attention to my reading, but my mind just wasn't there. I did really liked the prose and the descriptions were good - I just didn't spend time imagining it all in my head, so there wasn't much of an impact. This is definitely a "me" problem, so I can't fault the stories for that. I could sense the potential, yet still, it went over my head. Maybe a different mood is the key.

[Zornitsa Rasim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Това е мисля първата ми среща с автора,но като първа книга не бях много впечатлена,разказите ми харесаха, особено втори и трети. Това е така може би, защото не си падам много по разкази,но ще прочета негов роман по нататък и ще видим. Само ако може за препоръка някой да ми даде с кой роман да продължа,ще съм благодарна 🙂.

[Gabriela · Rating 4 out of 5]

its weird, but you have to have a hell of imagination to write something like that

[Tessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Guys… guys, you must be joking… there’s no way so many of you rated this 5 stars.

[Elle]

DNF

here's the thing. This is my first lovecraft, and I don't actually think I have a big problem with his writing! however, I think I might have a problem with this collection.
I've currently read the first four stories, and only enjoyed ONE (on a singular basis, I probably would have rated that particular one 4*). this doesn't seem to me like a collection of his best works, but a collection OF his works, including some of his worst. The title story, the lurking fear, offered some promise when you sat back and contemplated the actual storyline but felt very rushed and clunky to me and wasn't a great starting tale. on researching, it seems like this one in particular was an early work written commercially which would absolutely explain it. I also felt a little bit put off by some details about lovecraft's life and worldviews which were mentioned in the introduction, ( I TRY NOT TO READ IT FIRST BUT I FELT COMPELLED THIS TIME) looks like we have an overt racist, but I cannot comment on that fully until I've read one of the stories that fully mentions it. the examples I saw were pretty shocking however: (A character called nigger man which he named after his real life pet?? seriously??) I'm not 100% bowled over by what I've read so far, even contemplating writing style I haven't been completely hooked in. Maybe short stories like roald dahl's are more my kind of thing as each and every one of his I have consistently loved, but I definitely see promise. One little bugbear that was also starting to get at me was the use of the final line being the shocking thing that created the highest point of fear for each story. It was VERY easy to spoil yourself before you finished reading each story, and it felt a bit off in terms of pacing for me (almost a bit like rushing to create tension)

I'm just really not sure about this precise collection. Therefore, I think I will leave this book, maybe read a few if I find out they're worth reading, and find another book that is a bit more carefully selected. The alchemist was certainly chilling to me, and I do hope to someday see the best of what he has to offer.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

H.P. Lovecraft was a Master of the Macabre, but wrote mostly from a first person narrative; a voice that was rarely different in timbre, delivery, grammatical style, or vocabulary, and pointedly avoided characters engaging in dialogue exchange. The lone exception in this collection is (and what should have been the title book's best featured story): "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Here, the reader will cull over an extended and dramatic soliloquy, complete with creative slang wording that is unique and entertaining . Not only is this tale the most lengthy of these selections, but also best represents his favored and most repeated creative themes: humans mutating / evolving into anthropomorphic nightmares.

"The Lurking Fear" ****
"Dagon" ***
"Beyond The Wall Of Sleep ****
"The White Ship" ***
"Arthur Jermyn" ****
"From Beyond" *****
"The Temple" ***
"The Moon Bog" ***
"The Hound" ****
"The Unnamable (sic)" ****
"The Outsider" *****
"The Shadow Over Innsmouth" *****

[Dimitra Hellsing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Προς το τέλος θυμίζει λίγο όλη αυτή τη κινηματογραφικη περιγραφή την αμερικανια την κλαδική του κινγκ που είναι άλλος ένας τρόπος να το αγαπώ . Ενας δημοσιογράφος πηγαίνει σε αποστολή να εξερευνήσει ένα καταραμένο σπίτι μαζί με τους συναδέλφους του από τη πρώτη σελίδα μέχρι την τελευταία το διήγημα είναι ένας εφιαλτης που αξίζει να διαβάσεις ο τρόμος σε διαπερνά και η κινηματογράφικη αφήγηση σε κάνει να θες κ άλλο. Η ατμόσφαιρα είναι τόσο σκοτεινή που το ζεις στο μυαλό σου. Αν και με κουράζει η τόσο πολύ περιγραφή και πληροφορία το διήγημα ήταν αριστούργημα!!!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

my first lovecraft read!!
I took this slow, reading one story every few days to savor his style of writing... I mean, with such precision in his word choice and detail, Lovecraft is the king of description. He has a way of weaving a story that draws you in, makes you feel a sort of unnerving suspense from the first word, and as much as you may guess the direction a story is being taken, he runs with it, going even deeper, making every twist, every revelation that much creepier 😍

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lurking Fear - 5 Stars
Dagon - 5 Stars
Beyond the Wall of Sleep - 5 Stars
The White Ship - 3.5 Stars
Arthur Jermyn - 4 Stars
From Beyond - 4.25 Stars
The Temple - 4.5 Stars
The Moon-Bog - 4 Stars
The Hound - 5 Stars
The Unnamable - 3 Stars
The Outsider - 4 Stars
The Shadow Over Innsmouth - 5 Stars

[Rodrigo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to like Lovecraft a lot when I was a kid but reading him as an adult.... I mean some parts are good but overall I find him a bit boring. I guess I've realized that no cosmic horror can be greater than a human one. I'm not afraid of god I am afraid of men

[svir · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Never read Lovecraft before.

This was kind of like if Rod Serling’s intros lasted the entire Twilight Zone episode.