The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft: 12 (Knickerbocker Classics)

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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. Missing only one Story which was "In the walls of Eryx" co-written by Lovecraft and Kenneth J. Sterling. As for the stories I liked most of them. Many of his earlier works that were not yet of his typical cosmic horror genre were still quite enjoyable as short scares or twisted tales.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” The complete works embodies Lovecraft's progression as a writer and fills his mythos well. The only complaint I could find is some earlier works do not stand the test of time or hold well. However having to find other compilations would no longer be needed. For those into noir horror, epic monsters, and the diminished mind seeing the unspeakable terrors and having to rationalize the fear, this is a great book. With some being into lovecraftian lore from gaming, other authors, or even the creepypasta craze, and not reading the original works: buy it now. No other book covers as much. Every other book will have most of the popular selections, not all. At the price you cannot go wrong. With a collection this big, I could write a full novel just summarizing the plots of each story. So instead, here are my general impressions. Now, on to the fiction itself. Lovecraft is regarded as one of the best authors of supernatural horror and weird fiction in the 1920s and 1930s, and is credited with turning the concept of horror in literature at that time on its head, casting the gaze of the reader out into the endless cold beyond our atmosphere while his precursors and many of his contemporaries dealt with far more terrestrial and comparatively homely methods of inspiring dread and fright.

SAMPLES

The editor S.T. Joshi is a man who divides opinions, having set himself up as the world’s most prolific scholar of supernatural horror and weird fiction. Judging solely by this book though, his introductions to the collection and each individual work are short and informative, giving the impression of commendably thorough research without insisting on overbearing opinions and grandstanding. The Hound: Great! A demonic rather than cosmic horror story, florid and macabre with great energy. Reportedly the first mention of the Necronomicon. Today, Lovecraft is considered second only to that other once scorned visionary, Edgar Alan Poe, in the pantheon of horror writing, and it is Lovecraft's chilling hybrid of gothic horror and Science Fiction that is the major inspiration and model for almost all of today's supernatural fiction. one of the most highly-recommended stories, " the dunwich horror, used dialect, which is generally unforgivable, and certainly so here. I did not read the entire book's contents, but instead read only the following. I'm still interested enough in his fiction that I will probably slowly dip into other stories of his I haven't read.

All these things really have little to do with actually reviewing the written content within, but I feel that is unnecessary here. Save it for smaller compilations. After having read and become familiar with the Cthulhu mythos, this story just seemed like a super-condensed version of that, without adding anything. Perhaps this might serve as an introduction to Cthulhu for somebody who is unfamiliar, but I doubt it. I had to immerse myself in Lovecraft's world to understand it. I've been reading him consistently for years now and appreciate it more than I did before. It does, however, include Through the Gates of the Silver Key which was in fact a collaboration with E. Hoffman Price, and Under the Pyramids which was a collaboration with Harry Houdini. In the story, the evil creature that haunts the church can't function except in complete darkness (hence the story's title), so it kind of reminded me of the vampire novels I've been reading recently. I'm unaware of Lovecraft ever writing about vampires, so I guess this is as close as it gets. It follows his common theme of deep time and elder gods, with a little bit of a twist that most of his stories have.My favorites, though, were two of the longer (short novel length) pieces. At The Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time. The Doom That Came to Sarnath: I was reminded of Robert E. Howard in this primordial tale of lost lands. Of course, Howard was influenced by Lovecraft. The Lurking Fear is a bit different than others on the list, and consequentially, I found it refreshing. For one thing, it’s less of a frame story. The narrator is the one who actually experienced the events of the story, which grants it a much better immediacy than the other stories. For another, instead of the horrors coming from outside of us, this is more about the horrors that dwell within us.

The Music of Erich Zann: Now this is the type of mythos tale I remember best, with a nightmarish realm adjacent to our own, always threatening, and barely held at bay by brilliantly insane and esoteric means. The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society produced the first complete audio recording of all of Lovecraft's stories. These are NOT dramatizations like our Dark Adventure Radio Theatre - rather, these are audiobooks of the original stories, in all-new, never-before-heard recordings made by the HPLHS' own Andrew Leman and Sean Branney exclusively for this collection. Working from texts prepared by Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, we offer all of HPL's works from his earliest surviving works of childhood to stories completed shortly before his death. We also offer all available collaboration stories which he wrote with other writers. All of the recordings include original music by HPLHS composer Troy Sterling Nies. I found this cosmological horror to be fascinating more than terrifying. To be sure, this work is all at least seventy years old now, and emulation has dulled the impact of Lovecraft's machinations, but that in no way lessens the vitality of the mythos that the man put together: Man is but a mote of dust in the universe, and what we worship as gods are not divine in any way other than the mere fact that, in the grand scheme of things, they are larger motes of dust than we, and are just as impartial to our lives as we are to the dust mites in our pillows. The stories are arranged alphabetically but I couldn't find a proper Table of Contents so I've included one below : Como curiosidad señalar que una de las cosas que más he disfrutado a medida que iba leyendo estos libros ha sido ir buceando en la biografía de Lovecraft, y ver como todos sus traumas, manías e ideas políticas y sociales influyeron en su obra y se manifiestan en la misma. Conocer todos esos detalles ha enriquecido mucho para mí la lectura. Y por supuesto me han permitido ahondar en una figura muy compleja, solo así se explica que ideara y pusiera sobre el papel lo que escribió.

Where Do I Start?

this piss-stinking craptank came godawful close to a single star, and i'm convinced anyone who calls themselves a lovecraft fan is either mentally deficient or simply lying. either way, one oughtn't further tolerate their presence; call them on their shit and make a swift exit. If you are new to the works of Lovecraft, this may be a bit overwhelming, but may also be a sound choice for the same reason. It contains just about all of his works of fiction. The Colour out of Space - this one blew me away, and possibly might be my favourite tale. Highly recommend. Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.