Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

At the Mountains of Madness is our second short story selection. It was originally published as a serialized story in the periodical "Astounding Stories" it ran during the months of February, March, and April of 1936.

It's genre is listed as Science Fiction/Horror so not a bad selection for October.

I think this is a perfect October read. I'm pushed for time and have far too many book commitments for the month, but I'll try and get to this. Plus it's available to read for free here on goodreads!

I finished this a few days ago, and I wish I had liked it better. It was my first time to read any of H.P. Lovecraft's work, so I don't know if the style is typical. But this novella could have been a very short story. It almost seemed like he was trying to impress the reader with vast amounts of technical information and long convoluted paragraphs. I have a decently large vocabulary, but some of the terms he used were either arcane or beyond my educational background. The suspense was palpable throughout about the horrible things they witnessed, but the end was a let down to me after such a build up.

I hope others readers enjoy this more. From what I see of reviews, it is a mix of love or hate with very few in the middle.

I fear I have the same feeling as you. Many detailed for not such a great suspense. It was my first time too reading H.P. Lovecraft. I am not giving up on him yet but this short story wasn't as interesting as i thought.

I want to read it in a few days or so. I think this novella is one of the longer ones H.P. Lovecraft has written, so maybe you'd like the short stories better. I read some of them and enjoyed the experience, so am looking forward to this one.

Thank you for the advice! I will try another one sometimes later. I have the Necronomicon so maybe one in it will please me! As I said I am not giving up this fast!

This is my first go at Lovecraft. So far it is very technical. Will plough on, though

Something to remember about this story is Lovecraft was plagued with lots of nightmares as a child. He started writing in this style because he had the dreams about the creatures coming to him. They are not surrounding their story throughout but only a small part and gets stronger as it goes.

Also, Lovecraft was a huge fan of Poe and wrote like Poe in his earlier works including this story. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Poe is what influenced this story a lot and Douglas Mawson exploration in Antarctica. That was harsh conditions to be in.

Lovecraft also read a lot of Jules Verne, who also liked Poe and wrote a story that was highly influenced by The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pum of Nantucket. Verne's story is An Antarctic Mystery. If you read that it's the same style in which Lovecraft writes. You can see he was very influenced by these men.

When I first read At the Mountains of Madness. I was expecting this scary story with the "old ones" all over the place. Instead it was this survival story and slow calling from them. As I read Poe and Verne's stories I read At the Mountains of Madness and really enjoyed it more.

I suggest if you want something that focuses more on the "old ones" and is creepy read, The Dunwich Horror. I was really pleased with that.

If Reno is the biggest little city in the world, Mountains of Madness felt like the biggest little book ever written. When I’m in Reno I have a good time, lots of fun. Not so with Mountains of Madness. Zero fun. I thought I would never finish reading this story, it droned on and on till I thought I was slipping into madness myself. Along with the never ending details about ice, land, boats, and ancient ruins Lovecraft on several occasions gives us Latitude and Longitude Coordinates. Seriously how many people read with a map of the world on their lap? I was fortunate that I found this book on line and down loaded it to my Kindle. If it had been a paperback I would have sailed it across the room, several times.

Another bit of aggravation came when the high altitude explorers started reading ancient writings and pictographs. It seemed to require the same amount of effort it would take had they picked up a copy of the Times. Sorry, but here memory may play tricks, it’s not like my mind was so in tune to this story I remember every word, but weren’t these ruins higher that Mt. Everest? If so, not only were these scholars brilliant they were spectacular human specimens. They did a lot of walking and even some running, yet they were higher than Mt Everest is tall.

Rachel I want to thank you for the inside baseball information. It nice to know some explanations for how and why Lovecraft wrote the way he did. I still don’t like it, but it was good information. Will I read another by Lovecraft, probably not, but Rachel’s information cracked open the door that had been firmly slammed shut.

What I found unbelievable about the readings of the pictographs was the astounding amount of information they gleaned about the history of the old ones. It was like they spent a year there reading this stuff. And they apparently could read them with flawless precision. I imagined the pictographs as something akin to Egyptian hieroglyphics, which are not something amateurs can simply walk up to and read.

From the comments here so far, along with reviews from other GR friends, it seems that this story is not one of Lovecraft's best, though perhaps it is his most well known, being one of his longer stories. I'm still undecided whether or not I'll read it, but if I'm pushed for time later in the month I might choose a different short story of his, just to get a taste of his style.

Goodreads Rating for this book:

92% of people liked it
All editions: 3.96 average rating, 13839 ratings, 1000 reviews, added by 22907 people, 1667 to-reads

70% of people rated this book as being a 4 or 5 Star read, I'm in the 1% category. Personally I won't recommend this book, but the statistics indicate I'm going against the populist grain.

I fall below that 70%. I gave it three stars, however the first time I read it was 2 stars.

I read it after I already read stories that the authors where I influenced by Lovecraft and his Cthulhu creations. It was after I read Poe and Verne's stories that I understood Lovecraft's story. It isn't a favorite.

I, too, fall below that 70%. The poll would have come out much differently if they had polled Catching up on Classics readers.

It definitely fairs better in the statistics than it does with friends who have read it. Most people say the same, it's not his best and they prefer some of his other shorter stories within collections. I'll still give this a try if I have time, otherwise I'll seek out a shorter story to try.

I agree with what folks have mostly written here. I found it a real struggle to read, very technical and it didn't really flow as a story for me. It did improve once the geological narration was complete, but I did skim the last couple of chapters just to get through it. This is in a book of selected short stories from the library and am deciding whether I should bother to read any more

I fall in with the general feeling as other readers posting here. The story was lost in the details. I didn't care for the style of writing either. It was hard to read, not because of the language, but because of the sentences and the fact they never ended and rarely went anywhere. This was my first Lovecraft story. I'm bummed it doesn't seem to be some of his best work and disappointed that its not going to be easy for me to pick up another of his stories after this lackluster introduction.

I love the details, and I enjoyed the suspense, but I thought the ending wrapped up too quickly. I didn't understand who the monsters were, where they came from and where they went. Is this part of a series? It really doesn't seem like a stand-alone.

Pink wrote: "I'll still give this a try if I have time, otherwise I'll seek out a shorter story to try. ..."

If you have time to read only one more, try "Colour Out of Space". It has lingered in my head for decades.

I think his shorter work is his best. To me, Lovecraft is all about mood rather than events. In quite a few of his stories, absolutely nothing happens but they still manage to be creepy. And it's easier to sustain a creepy mood in a shorter story.


(Obviously, since often nothing really happens, if you don't catch that creepy mood, he can be incredibly boring...)

Melanti, thanks for the tip, I'll check that one out :)

I agree with the general sentiment of most everyone in the group. I also agree with Melanti that Lovecraft's very short stories work the best.

I think what hurts At the Mountains of Madness the most is the lack of dialog. I don't think there's any active conversation in the whole thing. All of the conversation between characters is related through exposition. It's a surefire recipe for a boring story.

This is my first time reading (well listening to, really) Lovecraft, though he has been on my "to read" list for awhile.
I'm about halfway through this one.
It is interesting enough, but I feel like it could do with a little less detail of their every action to move the story a long a little better. I get that given the storytelling style the "narrator" of the tale feels the need to share everything...it just doesn't feel necessary as a reader.

Edited to add: I finished it. I gave it 4 stars because goodreads doesn't let you give half stars. For me, it's really a 3.5 star work. I had picked it up cheap from Audible, so I listened to it. I think part of my problem was that the narrator was very flat. There was never any real emotion or change in his voice, regardless of what was happening in the story. I may try it again at a later date, reading it myself, and see if that makes a difference.

I was excited to read my first Lovecraft and now I am hoping that this wasn't his best effort. He obviously has a good writing style, very descriptive and able to make you see what he sees, but this story seemed very vague and confusing to me at times, with his attempt to keep the suspense just hindering my understanding of what was occurring.

I couldn't buy their understanding so much about this life form and its history with just the pillars and 16 hours to go on. It took archeologists decades to decipher the Rosetta Stone and the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt. After seeing what the Old Ones had done to Lake's camp and people, why would you continue to go deeper into this labyrinth and deeper still after finding the bodies of the missing man and dog?

As far as frightening goes, I've seen Alien, this didn't seem that frightening to me. :) I have had a long month of frightening tales, and what I have learned about myself is that I don't like frightening tales in books any better than I like them on the silver screen.

Once again I am reviving an old thread. I agree with Nathan that the first person narrative style wore thin after a while. Here's the review I wrote:

This is an interesting look at the early horror/science fiction genre. I thought the book had both positive and negative attributes.

The positive attributes of the book are the intelligent, erudite manner in which Lovecraft writes. The plot is both interesting and inventive. He works to build suspense in the reader.

The negative attributes are the result of this being published as a serial, and because the science of the 1930s is often "old-hat" to modern readers. Lovecraft and Charles Dickens have much in common, in that each chapter feels as if the entire story is given a short recap for readers who are just "tuning in". This leads to a repetitiveness in the writing. The reader feels as if Lovecraft is being paid by the word, and perhaps he was. Also, Lovecraft mentions new theories such as "continental drift" which is common knowledge to modern readers, but required a bit of explanation in the 1930s. Finally, if the reader has not recently taken a high school or college course in animal taxonomy and evolutionary theory, he or she may need to spend some time looking up scientific terms used by the author.

It was an interesting read. I am sure if Lovecraft were writing it today, he would have streamlined and made the story flow more quickly. Not a bad read, but also not my favorite, so I rated the book 3 stars.

Thanks for the review Helen. This is one I still need to read.

Yes, thanks for the review.

I don't see that anyone mentioned that the serialized 1936 version was both heavily edited, and cut. There were attempts to restore it from Lovecraft's notes on the magazine form, but a complete edition from the manuscript was not published until 1985. (!)

I bring this up because some people may have been reading a slightly different book than the others.

The prose is not Lovecraft's typical style, but his attempt to achieve the "cold objectivity" of a scientific report. Which may not have been a good decision, but there it is.

By the way, Continental Drift was still a live theory in some geological circles, and the popular imagination, in the 1930s. It went out of fashion, partly because Alfred Wegener, who revived and systematized the idea in 1912, had a short chronology to work with (which required movements at improbably high speeds), and never came up with a plausible mechanism. Nor did his followers.

The "New Geology" of sea-floor spreading and tectonic plates supplied what was missing, not to mention a general acceptance of a considerable increase in the time allotted for the motion to take place. Wikipedia has, as usual, a run-down on who and when.

Ian wrote: "Yes, thanks for the review.

I don't see that anyone mentioned that the serialized 1936 version was both heavily edited, and cut. There were attempts to restore it from Lovecraft's notes on the mag..."

Very interesting Ian. I really am not sure which version I read, but I have an ebook of the complete Works of Lovecraft H. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction.

Your comments on the science of the period were also very interesting.

Helen wrote: "I really am not sure which version I read, but I have an ebook of the complete Works of Lovecraft H. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction..."

Your link took me to "The Complete Poems" (!), but so far as I can tell all of the inexpensive -- i.e., public domain -- collections of Lovecraft's fiction have the corrupted text.

(Lovecraft's works went into the public domain early, because August Derleth, who first collected them in Arkham House hardcover editions, was in a dispute over who controlled them, and it was not certain if he had sole standing, or had to share the rights with his former partner in Arkham House, according to their original contract.)

The Modern Library Classics edition, found at the head of the present discussion, claims to be "definitive," which I assume means it is using the restored (complete) text. It is available in a Modern Library Kindle edition: not to be confused with a great many other Kindle offerings of the same title
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FCK5US/...

It is there combined with Lovecraft's historical and programmatic essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature," a short book in itself.

I also assume that is the case for the text in a Penguin collection, "The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories," edited by the Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi: https://www.amazon.com/Thing-Doorstep...

Penguin also currently offers "At the Mountains of Madness" as a stand-alone volume, in the Penguin English Library, which is presumably the same text: https://www.amazon.com/Mountains-Madn...

I don't know of any other currently-available editions which contain it, although one or more may exist.

Also, I forgot to mention that part of Wegener's problem with some professional geologists over the theory of Continental Drift was the fact that he was a meteorologist, with no special training in their science.

Helen wrote: "I really am not sure which version I read, but I have an ebook of the complete Works of Lovecraft H. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction..."

Your link took me to "The Complete Poems" (!), but so far as I can tell all of the inexpensive -- i.e., public domain -- collections of Lovecraft's fiction have the corrupted text.


Thank you for all the information Ian. It was interesting. Although I marked on my Goodreads shelf the same edition we have on the Group shelf - which I believe is a stand-alone version - that is not the same edition I have on my kindle.

You are completely right. The link I posted is to a completely messed up page. The title says "The Complete Fiction" but the picture and the description are of the complete poetry. It is not even a mistake that I want to try to fix although I am a Goodreads Librarian because it is due to an Amazon overwrite. When an Amazon page is mixed up, even if a librarian fixes it, the computer program may overwrite it again and again.

I should have posted this link https://www.amazon.com/H-P-Lovecraft-... for the Kindle edition I read from.