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US Mall 1 - The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $8.52
Your Save: $ 6.43 ( 43% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Del Rey
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780345350800
ISBN: 0345350804
Label: Del Rey
Manufacturer: Del Rey
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 1987-05-12
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: 1987-05-12
Studio: Del Rey
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: a master of cosmic horror
Comment: Super scary stories from the master. The Rats in the Walls is about a guy who finds a whole hidden netherworld underneath his house. Pickman's Model is about an artist who paints scary subjects. In The Vault is about a night spent trapped in a tomb with a zombie. The Music of Erich Zann is, like Pickman's Model, about demonic inspiration. The Whisperer in Darkness is one of the longest stories, and it is about a guy who takes up correspondence with a man who's interested in hidden forces in the forest. Things take a turn for the worse, but he nonetheless accepts an invitation to be driven into the middle of nowhere to spend a night in an isolated house in the middle of a haunted forest. And then he finds out that... things are not as they would appear! Classic stories such as The Dunwich Horror and The Call of Cthulhu are in the book and have to be read to be believed, but probably the best story is The Shadow Over Innsmouth, which talks of a man who out of curiosity visits the town of Innsmouth, about which no good things have ever been said. It is haunted by mysterious cult creatures and sea demons, or so the legends say, and he goes there by himself to find out first hand whether there's truth to the rumours or not. Of course there is, and he has to escape the town. You'd think that the story would end there, but it doesn't and it just gets more interesting. Slow-moving as all Lovecraft's stories are, this one is still a marvel to read. It was the basis of the films Cthulhu and Dagon, of which I understand the latter is the better one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lovecraft is a master
Comment: Great collection of Lovecraft stories. I would love to have seen "The Cats of Ulthar" in this collection too, but I guess you can't have everything. I know there are some legal copyright disputes on some of H.P.'s works.
Lovecraft is truly a master who has influenced many modern writers and horror filmmakers, noteably Stephen King. Definitely check out this volume. Lovecraft's vocabulary is impressive and can be a little difficult, but any person who reads regularly should have no problem.
I'd also recommend Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems, Cold Streak, It (Signet Books), H.P. Lovecraft: A Life.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: You know, the amorphous toad-like being hinted at ...
Comment: ... quote from my favourite Lovecraft story "The Whisperer in Darkness" showing that, although this lengthy story abounds with obscure Cthulhu mythology name-dropping, learned hints at forbidden folklore and similar highly academic stuff the atmospheric horror created by visions of darkened Vermont hillsides and rumours of shapes of unspeakable origin operating about them is in my opinion the most effective Lovecraft has done - when in fact, the only tangible elements of horror are a few, more or less fresh, clawprints in the neighbourhood, a phonograph record of voices in the wood praising a certain "Black Goat" a black stone and a steel container used for transmitting human brains into outer space - but these, indeed, are awful enough. Curiously, no screams are emitted, neither in the darkened woods of frightful conference nor near the end when the steel container begins to speak by itself - such shrieks would attract the attention of the Things anyway ... all in reverent tribute to English-Welsh author Arthur Machen, master of horror settings whether out in the wild or in the city, whose influence is especially apparent also in "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Thing on the Doorstep".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best of Lovecraft
Comment: The title says it all. The best of his stories and if you're a fan of Lovecraft, this must be a part of your collection.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Revisiting Lovecraft
Comment: This is a great Lovecraft compilation. I love the florid late Victorian prose, but more than anything this man seems so far ahead of his time for someone writing in the 1920-30 era. His visionary dreams are evocative of the psychedelic visions and writings of the bohemians of the 1950s and later. His stories, through the rejection of the ghost story, instead were firmly grounded in speculative science and science that was cutting edge at the time - the theories of Einstein, early ideas about parallel universes and higher dimensions, the spiritual higher dimensional topology of P.D. Ouspensky.
The most amazing ideas in this collection are, I believe, in the short story "The Silver Key." That story, with its confessional tone, seems to prevision post-modernism and a weariness with the rational scientific worldview that seems to have overtaken much of the rest of popular culture only decades later.
There is so much in Lovecraft's work that is echoed by the work of modern ayahuasceros and other psychedelic visionaries - his worlds seem very similar to those reported by students of DMT and psychedelic mushrooms. Perhaps if he had been born a few decades later, he would have found more wonder and awe in his internal experiences, and less of a sense of horror at his glimpses into the arcane realms.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: a master of cosmic horror
Comment: Super scary stories from the master. The Rats in the Walls is about a guy who finds a whole hidden netherworld underneath his house. Pickman's Model is about an artist who paints scary subjects. In The Vault is about a night spent trapped in a tomb with a zombie. The Music of Erich Zann is, like Pickman's Model, about demonic inspiration. The Whisperer in Darkness is one of the longest stories, and it is about a guy who takes up correspondence with a man who's interested in hidden forces in the forest. Things take a turn for the worse, but he nonetheless accepts an invitation to be driven into the middle of nowhere to spend a night in an isolated house in the middle of a haunted forest. And then he finds out that... things are not as they would appear! Classic stories such as The Dunwich Horror and The Call of Cthulhu are in the book and have to be read to be believed, but probably the best story is The Shadow Over Innsmouth, which talks of a man who out of curiosity visits the town of Innsmouth, about which no good things have ever been said. It is haunted by mysterious cult creatures and sea demons, or so the legends say, and he goes there by himself to find out first hand whether there's truth to the rumours or not. Of course there is, and he has to escape the town. You'd think that the story would end there, but it doesn't and it just gets more interesting. Slow-moving as all Lovecraft's stories are, this one is still a marvel to read. It was the basis of the films Cthulhu and Dagon, of which I understand the latter is the better one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lovecraft is a master
Comment: Great collection of Lovecraft stories. I would love to have seen "The Cats of Ulthar" in this collection too, but I guess you can't have everything. I know there are some legal copyright disputes on some of H.P.'s works.
Lovecraft is truly a master who has influenced many modern writers and horror filmmakers, noteably Stephen King. Definitely check out this volume. Lovecraft's vocabulary is impressive and can be a little difficult, but any person who reads regularly should have no problem.
I'd also recommend Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems, Cold Streak, It (Signet Books), H.P. Lovecraft: A Life.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You know, the amorphous toad-like being hinted at ...
Comment: ... quote from my favourite Lovecraft story "The Whisperer in Darkness" showing that, although this lengthy story abounds with obscure Cthulhu mythology name-dropping, learned hints at forbidden folklore and similar highly academic stuff the atmospheric horror created by visions of darkened Vermont hillsides and rumours of shapes of unspeakable origin operating about them is in my opinion the most effective Lovecraft has done - when in fact, the only tangible elements of horror are a few, more or less fresh, clawprints in the neighbourhood, a phonograph record of voices in the wood praising a certain "Black Goat" a black stone and a steel container used for transmitting human brains into outer space - but these, indeed, are awful enough. Curiously, no screams are emitted, neither in the darkened woods of frightful conference nor near the end when the steel container begins to speak by itself - such shrieks would attract the attention of the Things anyway ... all in reverent tribute to English-Welsh author Arthur Machen, master of horror settings whether out in the wild or in the city, whose influence is especially apparent also in "The Dunwich Horror" and "The Thing on the Doorstep".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best of Lovecraft
Comment: The title says it all. The best of his stories and if you're a fan of Lovecraft, this must be a part of your collection.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Revisiting Lovecraft
Comment: This is a great Lovecraft compilation. I love the florid late Victorian prose, but more than anything this man seems so far ahead of his time for someone writing in the 1920-30 era. His visionary dreams are evocative of the psychedelic visions and writings of the bohemians of the 1950s and later. His stories, through the rejection of the ghost story, instead were firmly grounded in speculative science and science that was cutting edge at the time - the theories of Einstein, early ideas about parallel universes and higher dimensions, the spiritual higher dimensional topology of P.D. Ouspensky.
The most amazing ideas in this collection are, I believe, in the short story "The Silver Key." That story, with its confessional tone, seems to prevision post-modernism and a weariness with the rational scientific worldview that seems to have overtaken much of the rest of popular culture only decades later.
There is so much in Lovecraft's work that is echoed by the work of modern ayahuasceros and other psychedelic visionaries - his worlds seem very similar to those reported by students of DMT and psychedelic mushrooms. Perhaps if he had been born a few decades later, he would have found more wonder and awe in his internal experiences, and less of a sense of horror at his glimpses into the arcane realms.
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