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Summary
Summary
'Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men. A time will come - but I must not and cannot think!' H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was a reclusive scribbler of horror stories for the American pulp magazines that specialized in Gothic and science fiction in the interwar years. He often published in Weird Tales and has since become the key figure in the slippery genre of "weird fiction". Lovecraft developed an extraordinary vision of feeble men driven to the edge of sanity by glimpses of malign beings that have survived from human prehistory or by malevolent extra-terrestrial visitations. The ornate language of his stories builds towards grotesque moments of revelation, quite unlike any other writer.This new selection brings together nine of his classic tales, focusing on the "Cthulhu Mythos" a cycle of stories that develops the mythology of the Old Ones, the monstrous creatures who predate human life on earth. It includes the Introduction from Lovecraft's critical essay, "Supernatural Horror in Literature", in which he gave his own important definition of "weird fiction". In a fascinating contextual introduction, Roger Luckhurst gives Lovecraft the attention he deserves as a writer who used pulp fiction to explore a remarkable philosophy that shockingly dethrones the mastery of man.
Author Notes
H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, known as "weird fiction". He published primarily in the pulp magazine Weird Tales and attracted a cult following. He wrote in the Gothic tradition, creating a profound sense of dread, and of contact with unknown spheres and powers. He created the Cthulhu Mythos, a series of interconnected fictions featuring creatures from human prehistory, and the Necronomicon, a fictional textbook of magical rites and forbidden lore. He has influenced writers such as Robert Bloch and Stephen King, and film-makers such as David Lynch. Roger Luckhurst is the author of The Invention of Telepathy (OUP, 2002), Science Fiction (Polity Press, 2005), The Trauma Question (Routledge, 2008), and The Mummy's Curse: The True History of a Dark Fantasy (OUP, 2012). He is an expert on science fiction and Gothic literature, publishing widely and broadcasting regularly on these topics. For Oxford World's Classics he has edited Late Victorian Gothic Tales, Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, James's Portrait of a Lady, and Stoker's Dracula.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Reviewed by Peter Cannon. As Stefan Dziemianowicz points out in "Terror Eternal: The Enduring Popularity of H.P. Lovecraft" (PW, July 12, 2010), horror writer H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) has been enjoying a boom in recent years. He and his work have become enshrined in popular culture, from graphic novels to stuffed animals, and editions of his fiction have proliferated, particularly since his stories went into the public domain in 2007. The Library of America volume, Tales (2005), sent the signal to the larger literary world that Lovecraft was worthy of serious attention. Oxford's prestigious scholarly edition, which includes eight stories and the short novel At the Mountains of Madness, will also help sell Lovecraft to readers who normally prefer an author like Proust (a name I do not invoke lightly: the long, digressive expository paragraphs of In Search of Lost Time bear certain similarities to Lovecraft's mature style). Luckhurst, a British professor of modern languages, has a problem, however: how to distinguish this Lovecraft collection from all the others. In a bold if misguided move, he has chosen to open with "The Horror at Red Hook," a minor tale chiefly notable for how it reflects Lovecraft's misery while living in Brooklyn in 1925. "I don't think it is very good," Lovecraft said in a letter of this muddled account of devil worship and sinister immigrants. Instead, I wish he had started with "The Call of Cthulhu," the first important contribution to what became known as the "Cthulhu Mythos" (a set of thematically similar tales by Lovecraft and others), and inserted "The Mound," an underappreciated long story Lovecraft wrote in 1929 for a revision client, in between 1928's "The Dunwich Horror" and 1930's "The Whisperer in Darkness." "The Mound," Lovecraft's first tale to elaborate on the social organization of an alien civilization, anticipates such later masterpieces as At the Mountains of Madness and "The Shadow out of Time"-which Luckhurst, in another attempt at novelty, has reproduced with the short, choppy paragraphs imposed on them for their original appearances in the pulp magazine Astounding Stories, much to Lovecraft's dismay. In a textual note, Luckhurst says he used these variants "in order to retain some of the pulp energy that Astounding Stories wanted to inject into Lovecraft's tales." I venture to suggest that the magazine's columnar format dictated the re-paragraphing. Proust lovers are forewarned. As for the selected bibliography, it has a few items of recent vintage, but misses everything from Hippocampus Press, today's leading publisher of Lovecraft-related books, except for S.T. Joshi's two-volume biography, I Am Providence (2010). A pity John D. Haefele's incisive A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos: The Origins of the Cthulhu Mythos (2012) isn't listed under critical works. One could have dispensed with such dated studies as Lin Carter's H.P. Lovecraft: A Look Behind the "Cthulhu Mythos" (1972), John Taylor Gatto's Monarch Notes volume (1977), and my H.P. Lovecraft (1989). Peter Cannon is the author of H.P. Lovecraft, a critical study in Twayne's U.S. Authors Series and Senior Reviews Editor at PW. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
When an author's name becomes synonymous with a genre or, indeed, a descriptor Lovecraftian it's safe to assume the ground has already been worn flat. However, the release of Lovecraft's most famous stories, nine in total and edited by Luckhurst, still has room to entice. Containing biographical information, author notes, an intelligently constructed introduction from Luckhurst, and samplings from Lovecraft's own critical writings on weird fiction, this edition is far beyond a simple anthology of reprints. Although many of these stories are pushing well past 70 years since their first publication, they continue to hold up remarkably well. Dripping with plush, ornamental language, Lovecraft's work still has the ability to surprise and scare. These stories forerun many genres, and their influence is still felt far and wide in contemporary weird fiction. For those interested in Lovecraft but unsure of where to start, this book rolls out the welcome mat. Highly recommended for both new readers and seasoned veterans with an eye toward literary curatorship.--Orbesen, James Copyright 2010 Booklist
Table of Contents
| Introduction |
| Select Bibliography |
| A Chronology of H. P. Lovecraft |
| The Horror at Red Hook |
| The Call of Cthulhu |
| The Colour out of Space |
| The Dunwich Horror |
| The Whisperer in Darkness |
| At the Mountains of Madness |
| The Dreams in the Witch House |
| The Shadow over Innsmouth |
| The Shadow out of Time |
| Appendix: from 'Supernatural Horror in Literature' |
| Explanatory Notes |
