Lovecraft has his own strange mythology and style of storytelling. It is a bit droll and tedious but pays huge dividends in creepy atmosphere. Great stuff for the Poe fan, but skip it if you enjoy the more sensational and less cerebral horror fiction. ( )

54. Lovecraft, H.P. "The Call of Cthulhu." 31 pages. 5.18.09.

"...all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom."

I have received numerous recommendations over the years for the work of horror legend H.P. Lovecraft, and have often been met with surprise when I admit that I had never read his work. While I am a horror and gothic enthusiast I always felt apprehensive about Lovecraft's work - after all, how could he possibly compare to such greats as Edgar Allen Poe and Sheridan LeFanu?

Despite having the Tales of H.P. Lovecraft (edited by Joyce Carol Oates) sitting on my shelf, I decided to download Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" on my Kindle2 after seeing it mentioned in a group on LibraryThing. ( I apologize now, because I cannot for the life of me remember who brought it up recently, but it inspired me to give Lovecraft a try once and for all).

I am pleased to say that I was not disappointed. "The Call of Cthulhu" is a delightfully dark and twisted tale that has the ability to draw readers in from its first mysterious pages. The tale is presented from the point of view of a secondary source (the nephew and executor of a deceased professor) stumbling upon the research and first-person accounts regarding an ancient and malevolent entity by the name of "Cthulhu." As cult members practice dark arts in order to revive this creature from its watery depths, the narrator realizes with horror that it has already been done, and instills in readers a kind of apprehension that such a thing can be innocently done again, much to the detriment of all living creatures.

Lovecraft's style is at once elegant and non evasive, so his language adds to the understanding and delight of the reader as opposed to detracting from the story with superfluous prose. The evolution from nineteenth-century gothic literature is evident, which helps to ground the short story in a strong literary history, while allowing it to evolve into what audiences now call "horror." ( )

HP Lovecraft is a fantastic writer. His tales have a wonderful Gothic feel to them. Whether it is the sci-fi wonder of Call of Cthulu or the classic horror of Arthur Germyn. He is the worthy heir to Poe. If that was it, then I would recommend Lovecraft to all, he is everything I love, dark, creepy, and intelligent. But unfortunately he is also a virulent racist. His hatred of all non Anglo people is palpable. Take one such story at a time and you can shrug it off, but when you read several in a row, it just drives home that it is not a part of the story, it's just Lovecraft's hatred shining through. Lovecraft is without a doubt one of the preeminent horror writers of all time. But his racism makes it quite difficult to celebrate or appreciate that. ( )

The Great Lovecraft: Being a long-time Lovecraft fanatic, I am pleased to see that Penquin chose to publish a two volume collection of his works.

Lovecraft's writing is not for those who ingest King, Grisham, Patterson, Dan Brown or other formulaic storytellers. These stories are for those who don't shy away from a good gothic thriller, Dostoevsky, Bram Stoker, Poe or other writers who had lived in a different era from our own. If you need to read 'modern writing', Lovecraft is not for you.

Lovecraft's stories tend to be written in the first person, with the narrator, typically alone, happening upon some sort of forbidden esoteric knowledge or unknown malevolent evil. Because of this, there are relatively few 'confrontations' in his stories. When you read a Lovecraft story you are entering the mind of an intelligent, often times lonely, protagonist who finds himself in a terrifying situation, helpless, alone, scared to death and knowing that if he survives, his mind will never recover.

There are very few female characters, no sex, limited violence and not an overwhelming amount of action sequences. But lots of action and violence are not needed. Lovecraft has true talent and an amazingly far-reaching imagination that allows him to take you into a vivid world full of mysteries, supernatural occurences and unnameable horrors like no writer before or since. In fact, he often uses the words 'thing' and 'unnameable' because the creatures and horrors that he creates are so far beyond the scope of what the human mind can acknowledge that there is simply no other way to describe them. His creatures should have never existed and human beings should never be witness to them or even be aware of their existence.

Deeply psychological and thoroughly paranoid not to mention flat-out 'weird', Lovecraft is a writer like no other. He has created an entire mythology beginning with the creation of the Universe and conjures up lifeforms and gods who existed on earth, and elsewhere, long before human beings ever came into existence. In fact, in Lovecraft's world, human beings are insignificant creatures who are to the Universe what harmless microscopic bacteria are to the earth. This is troubling for some readers and it is certainly troubling to the protagonists who are unfortunate enough to discover the Truth.

Everyone should try Lovecraft and give his unique style of writing a chance. Do not expect outrageous action sequences and gratuitous violence or sex, but expect to be taken to a world where anything, even the most unthinkable horrors are not just possible but commonplace, and learn how a person reacts and copes when he becomes aware of Things that he feels never should have existed and of the knowledge that these Things act as though it is the human beings that never should have existed.

I guess I missed my prime-Lovecraft years. I should have read him as an adolescent, back when I read and loved Poe. Reading him as an adult, I was was too often annoyed by his writing style to really enjoy the stories. This from someone who usually enjoys the wordier styles of the 19th and early 20th centuries. But I felt that Lovecraft's approach to creating an atmosphere of horror was usually to pile on a surfeit of foul, loathsome, hideous, grotesque, nauseous, and detestable adjectives. That said, I found his mythology fascinating; and I did enjoy uncovering it little by little as I made my way through the stories. ( )