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

[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.