The Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft Volume 1: 70 Horror Short Stories, Novels and Juvenilia
Category: Books,Literature & Fiction,Genre Fiction
The Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft Volume 1: 70 Horror Short Stories, Novels and Juvenilia Details
"The Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft Volume 1: 70 Horror Short Stories, Novels and Juvenilia" includes all the short stories, novels and Juvenilia writings of H. P Lovecraft. If it has been written by H. P. Lovecraft, it is in this book - search no more! The stories are listed according to the writing year rather than the publication year. This will help in reading the stories in the order they were written and follow on the progress in a timely manner. Short Stories and Novels: The Tomb (1917) Dagon (1917) A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1917) Polaris (1918) Beyond the Wall of Sleep (1919) Memory (1919) Old Bugs (1919) The Transition of Juan Romero (1919) The White Ship (1919) The Doom That Came to Sarnath (1919) The Statement of Randolph Carter (1919) The Street (1919) The Terrible Old Man (1920) The Cats of Ulthar (1920) The Tree (1920) Celephaïs (1920) From Beyond (1920) The Temple (1920) Nyarlathotep (1920) The Picture in the House (1920) Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family (1920) The Nameless City (1921) The Quest of Iranon (1921) The Moon-Bog (1921) Ex Oblivione (1921) The Other Gods (1921) The Outsider (1921) The Music of Erich Zann (1921) Sweet Ermengarde (1921) Hypnos (1922) What the Moon Brings (1922) Azathoth (1922) Herbert West—Reanimator (1922) The Hound (1922) The Lurking Fear (1922) The Rats in the Walls (1923) The Unnamable (1923) The Festival (1923) The Shunned House (1924) The Horror at Red Hook (1925) He (1925) In the Vault (1925) Cool Air (1926) The Call of Cthulhu (1926) Pickman’s Model (1926) The Strange High House in the Mist (1926) The Silver Key (1926) The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927) The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927) The Colour Out of Space (1927) The Descendant (1927) The Very Old Folk (1927) The History of the Necronomicon (1927) The Dunwich Horror (1928) Ibid (1928) The Whisperer in Darkness (1930) At the Mountains of Madness (1931) The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1931) The Dreams in the Witch House (1932) The Thing on the Doorstep (1933) The Book (1933) The Evil Clergyman (1933) The Shadow out of Time (1934) The Haunter of the Dark (1935) Juvenilia: The Little Glass Bottle (1898) The Mystery of the Grave-Yard (1898) The Secret Cave (1898) The Mysterious Ship (1902) The Beast in the Cave (1904) The Alchemist (1908)
Reviews
NOTE: Before I went to review this collection, I was unaware of the controversy surrounding it -- apparently it was compiled by a Lovecraft fan and posted online for free, and someone else is publishing the compilation on Amazon to make money off her hard work. If this is true, then shame on whoever's trying to profit off someone else's work... but not only did I get this collection for free via a free e-book program, but it appears this volume is no longer available to purchase on Amazon, so at least the thief isn't getting any more money for their theft...I've been curious about the works of Lovecraft for some time -- while not terribly successful during his life, and while his racist views have made him an uncomfortable figure today, his mythos has seen a revival in recent years, with his take on cosmic horror reverberating with many readers and inspiring many other writers and artists from Stephen King to Guillermo del Toro to the webcomic artist Wayward Martian. This collection gave me a chance to become acquainted with his work, and while his writing isn't superb, his imagination is vivid and chilling, and the universe he created is one that won't soon be forgotten.Many of Lovecraft's most famous works are here, as well as some of his more obscure stories. Of these stories, "At the Mountains of Madness" would have to be my favorite, though I also highly recommend "The Color Out of Space," "Shadow Over Innsmouth," "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," "Cool Air," "The Horror of Red Hook," "The Dunwich Horror," "The Music of Erich Zaan," "The Shadow Out of Time," "The Thing on the Doorstep," and the non-horrific and actually rather hilarious satirical "Sweet Ermengarde." In all but that last story, Lovecraft manages to build a real sense of horror and suspense, and while sometimes the climax/twist can seem obvious to the reader, the payoff is still satisfying in most cases.Lovecraft rarely resorted to the creatures of horror that were mainstays back in his day -- vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc. His creatures were bizarre, ones with strangely shaped bodies, eyes and tentacles in odd places, and biology completely unknown to science. He seemed to understand that the most horrifying thing of all is things of the unknown, and tapped into this quite frequently. And notably, many of his stories share a universe, with elements and creatures and events of one often being referenced in another later on. This is a tactic that provided a sense of continuity to his works, though it wasn't necessary to read all of them to understand what was going on... and seems to have inspired the "shared universe" that other authors have indulged in, such as Stephen King.I wasn't as fond of the "Dreamland" stories in this collection as I was of his others -- "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," "The Silver Key," "The White Ship," etc. I did enjoy his "Cats of Ulthar," which is set in this universe, but it's the exception.And yes... Lovecraft was infamously racist even for his day, and it leaves its uncomfortable mark on many of these stories. One character owns a cat whose name would be considered a racial slur today, and his disdain for not only people of color but people of different social strata and ethnic backgrounds will make the more politically correct reader squirm and squint. Some people may have trouble overcoming this as they read, which I can fully understand.While a controversial writer, Lovecraft has left his mark on the literary world, and his mythos has become beloved to a new generation of readers. His work is worth a look if you enjoy horror that's far more than the standard "monster hunts a group of teens/young adults" that's pretty much defined modern horror, and if nothing else it's a nice look at the origins of the Cthulhu mythos.
