H.P. Lovecraft: Great Tales of Horror

by H.P. Lovecraft

H.P. Great Talesof Horror features twenty of horror master H.P. Lovecrafts classic stories, among them some of the greatest works of horror fiction ever written, "The Rats in the Walls," "Pickmans Model," "The Colour out of Space," "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Dunwich Horror," "The Shadow over Innsmouth," "At the Mountains of Madness," "The Shadow out of Time," and "The Haunter of the Dark."

Genres: Classics, Horror

Kindle Edition

Published December 17, 2013

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

[Robert Mock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd always heard of H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos, but I had never actually read anything by him. As such, it was very cool to see where classic sci-fi/fantasy ideas such as the Old Ones and Eldritch Horrors come from. His writing can come across as a little superfluous, and a lot of the stories blur together, but overall I enjoyed reading these horror classics. The world building and sci-fi concepts in a couple of these stories are unmatched and feel different than anything else I've ever read.

Here are some notes on all of the stories in this compendium, I wouldn't recommend reading all of them if you don't absolutely love his writing (or you hate DNFing like me), but the ones I rated 4 and 5 stars are definitely worth it.

A couple points:
-some of my judgments are heavily biased as a 21st century reader, some concepts that would have been astonishing to HPL's audience tended to bore me
-these ratings are relative to each other, I probably wouldn't rate any of these 1 or 5 stars based on my normal rating system

Call of Cthulhu (4/5)
-classic

The Color Out of Space (5/5)
-eldritch horror = color, very creative

The Lurking Fear (3/5)
-typical ghost story

The Music of Erich Zann (5/5)
-short and haunting
-gives no answers

Dagon (2/5)
-not much to it

Pickman’s Model (1/5)
-pretty standard monster story
-not much happened

The Dunwich Horror (2/5)
-creepy witchcraft

The Statement of Randolph Carter (4/5)
-short and terrifying

In the Vault (2/5)
-simple supernatural story

Cool Air (1/5)
-a little creepy

The Thing on the Doorstep (4/5)
-good sci fi ideas

The Dreams in the Witch House (5/5)
-good story, very creepy

The Shadow Over Innsmouth (3/5)
-great prose and descriptions
-average story, not much happened

At the Mountains of Madness (4/5)
-great prose, descriptions, and ideas
-just explained history all at once

Herbert West - Reanimator (3/5)
-episodic, short stories with connecting plot
-average Frankenstein story, good twists

The Rats in the Walls (4/5)
-creepy, a little confusing

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (2/5)
-interesting ideas
-didn’t justify its page count

The Haunter of the Dark (3/5)
-good, creepy story

The Shadow out of Time (4/5)
-great sci fi and world building concepts
-too much info given at one time

The Whisperer in Darkness (3/5)
-decent sci fi/ alien concepts
-a little slow

[Dylan R. Nix · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a monstrous body of work. Been a long time coming reading the works of Lovecraft. Didn’t disappoint. A few stories were overlong or repetitive, such as ‘The Case of Charles Dexter Ward’ which I found quite tedious for such little a payoff.

However these stories were positively chilling and marvelous:

1) The Call of Cthulhu
2) The Thing on the Doorstep
3) The Shadow over Innsmouth
4) The Whisperer in the Darkness
5) At the Mountains of Madness
6) Pickman’s Model
7) The Rats in the Walls

[Bella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not that good. Very boring. I know this is a old book when this stuff was “normal” but I have to say this is one of the most raciest books I’ve ever read. At least I will know what people (media and tv and other books) are referring to when talking about H.P’s story’s

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took a long time to get through. Great creatures, but the sexism and racism rampant in these stories made them hard to enjoy at times. All of the characters felt the same across the stories. Glad I read this due to Lovecraft's influence on the genre, but highly problematic in a modern lens.

[Jordan Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge H.P. Lovecraft reader and I own many collections of his work and this is one of my favorites.

[Brad Sanderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first taste of Lovecraft, a great compilation with some of the biggest titles in an order that helps to build your understanding of the shared universe. A great place to start.

[Garrett Emile · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s hard to judge early horror stories that were the basis of horror nowadays by the same standards, but I personally think this is far from an amazing collection. I still enjoyed reading it as classic literature, but it wasn’t my favorite.
And then there’s the rampant racism.