The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch
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Book Summary Information
Author: H.P. Lovecraft, Robert BlochEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1982
ISBN: 0345350804
Number of pages: 375
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780345350800
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
Book Review: Eldritch Yankee Gent
Summary: 5 Stars
[This review may contain what can be consider'd "spoilers" -- caution is advis'd]
The book is certainly too slim to contain the "best" of H. P. Lovecraft -- but this is an excellent place to begin if you are reading his weird fiction for the first time. I love Robert Bloch's introduction, in which he relates bits of HPL's biography and talks about many of the stories; but I don't think he mentions that, as a teenager, Bloch wrote to Lovecraft and was inspired by that correspondence to become a horror writer himself, selling his first story to WEIRD TALES one year after receiving his first letter from HPL. Had it not been for H. P. Lovecraft, we probably wouldn't have any fiction by Robert Bloch! And Bloch inspired Lovecraft's last original story, which was dedicated to him.
It amazes me that people call Lovecraft "repetitive," because each of the stories in this collection are unique and unlike the others. I question a couple of the tales included, for I think that "The Hound" or "Cool Air," or even "The Festival" or "The Nameless City," are far better than either "The Silver Key" or "In the Vault." Still, the core of the classics are here, ranging from the earthy horror of "Pickman's Model" to the cosmic terror of "The Colour out of Space." "The Colour out of Space" is perhaps Lovecraft's greatest example of creating a cosmic horror that is authentically alien in every meaning of the word. Writes S. T. Joshi, "The final tale in Lovecraft's tremendous burst of fiction writing in 1926-27, this novelette was written in March 1927. Some critics have conjectured the influence of Charles Fort, with his hints of extraterrestrial incursions from meteorites and similar sources, but Lovecraft read Fort's BOOK OF THE DAMNED (1919) only toward the end of March. In this tale Lovecraft richly develops his imaginary New England topography, this time in a rural setting. Edmund Wilson, generally hostile to Lovecraft's work, found much merit in the story's anticipation of the effects of atomic radiation on living creatures." I found the story so powerful, tragic and disturbing when I first read it, so overwhelming, that I didn't read anything else by Lovecraft for quite a while afterward, I was too shaken by the power of this magnificent science fiction classic.
"The Outsider" is, for some people, a picture of Lovecraft's personal state of mind in regards to his feeling out of place in this neoteric age. It's always best not to place too autobiographical a meaning in an author's work, to say, "this story means this." Writing is as much a subconscious activity as it is a concentrated act of art. In H. P. LOVECRAFT: A LIFE, S. T. Joshi contemplates the autobiographical aspects of this remarkable Gothic tale:
"It is, however, now time to examine the question of the story's autobiographical character. The opening sentence reads: 'Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness.' One of the Outsider's final remarks--'I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century and among those who are still men'--has been taken, perhaps not unjustly, as prototypical of Lovecraft's entire life, the life of an 'eccentric recluse' who wished himself intellectually, aesthetically, and spiritually in the rational haven of the eighteenth century. I think we have already learnt enough about Lovecraft to know that such an interpretation greatly overstates the case: without denying his emphatic and sincere fondness, and even to some degree nostalgia, for the eighteenth century, he was also very much a part of his time, and was an 'outsider' only in the sense that most writers and intellectuals find a gulf between themselves and the commonality of citizens. Lovecraft's childhood was by no means unhappy, and he frequently looked back upon it as idyllic, carefree, and full of pleasurable intellectual stimulation and the close friendship of at least a small band of peers.
"Is, then, 'The Outsider' a symbol for Lovecraft's own self-image, particularly the image of one who always thought himself ugly and whose mother told at least one individual about her son's 'hideous' face? I find this interpretation rather superficial, and it would have the effect of rendering the story maudlin and self-pitying. The plausibility of this view would perhaps br augmented if the exact date of writing of 'The Outsider' could be ascertained--especially if it was May 24, 1921. But Lovecraft never discusses the story in any letters of 1921-22 that I have seen, never supplies an exact date of writing for the tale in the relatively few later instances where he talks about t, and in his various lists of stories it usually appears sandwiched between 'The Moon-Bog' (March) and 'The Other Gods' (August 14). I think it is more profitable not to read too much autobiographical significance in 'The Outsider': its large number of apparent literary influences seem to make it more an experiment in pastiche than some deeply felt expression of psychological wounds."
Or, as Lovecraft himself wrote, "To my mind this tale...is too glibly MECHANICAL in it climatic effect, & almost comic in the bombastic pomposity of its language. . . . It represents my literal though unconscious imitation of Poe at its very height." I would emphasis his use of the word "unconscious."
Lovecraft consider'd "The Music of Erich Zann" among his finest tales. I do not give credit to the idea (express'd by HPL himself) that the success of the story comes from a sort of negative value, in that it lacks what he considered the flaws of overwriting and bald description of some of his other early works. This seems to suggest that its success was an accident. I find the story extremely controlled, shewing that Lovecraft knew exactly what he wanted to achieve in the writing of the tale, and absolutely succeeded. It's evocation of atmosphere is brilliant, and the title character is one of Lovecraft's strangest human creations, brilliantly portray'd. It's been said that Lovecraft could not create "character" -- and that is absurd nonsense. With the simplest of strokes, he created some of weird fiction's most memorable oddballs!
The frantic first-person narrative of "Pickman's Model" was an experiment in style that I find extremely enjoyable. Lovecraft was equally effective when writing in first or third person voice. With this tale HPL expresses some of his convictions about the creation of horror in art. He evokes with brilliance the age-old feel of Boston's North End. The story's ending has been condemn'd as predictable -- yet it cannot be deny'd that it is effective. This "minor" story has influenced a vast number of sequels from other writers. I myself have written a number of "Pickman" tales, one of which (soon to be published in S. T. Joshi's anthology of modern Lovecraftian tales) is one of THREE "Pickman" stories appearing in Joshi's anthology, BLACK WINGS.
I strongly disagree with Neil Gaiman's dismissal of "The Call of Cthulhu" as a "crap story" (so stated in his interview for the DVD, THE ELDRITCH INFLUENCE). I find it a riveting tale of mystery, adventure and horror. Lovecraft's evocation of all that is alien is stunning. Similarly, I completely disagree with Joshi's feelings that "The Dunwich Horror" is one of Lovecraft's "artistic failures." S. T. fusses, in his biography of Lovecraft, "What we have here is an elementary 'good vs. evil' struggle between Armitage and the Whateleys." And It should be evident from this narration that many points of plotting and characterisation in the story are painfully inept." And, "What 'The Dunwich Horror' did was, in effect, to make the rest of the 'Cthulhu Mythos' (i.e., the contributions by other and less skillful hands) possible. Its luridness, melodrama, and naive moral dichotomy were picked up by later writers (it was, not surprisingly, one of Derleth's favorite tales) rather than the subtler work embodied in 'The Call of Cthulhu', 'The Colour out of Space', and others. In a sense, then, Lovecraft bears some responsibility for bringing the 'Cthulhu Mythos' and some of its unfortunate results upon his own head." This is nonsense. "The Dunwich Horror" is an engaging and completely original tale, despite what may be its many influences. The use of those influences is another aspect on which I disagree with Joshi. "In an important sense, indeed, 'The Dunwich Horror' itself turns out to be not much more than a pastiche. The central premise--the sexual union of a 'god' or monster with a human woman--is taken directly from Machen's 'The Great God Pan'. The use of bizarre footsteps to indicate the presence of sn otherwise undetectable entity is borrowed from Blackwood's 'The Wendigo'. Lovecraft was clearly aware of the number of tales featuring invisible monsters--Maupassant's 'The Horla' (certain features of which...had already been adapted for 'The Call of Cthulhu'); Fitz-James O'Brien's 'What Was It?'; Bierce's 'The Damned Thing'--and derived hints from each of them in his own creation." I want again to emphasis the wonderful CHARACTERS that Lovecraft created in this magnificent horror story. Wizard Whateley, Wilbur Whateley, and Lavinia Whateley are among the strangest and coolest freaks in all genre fiction. The hints as to the life and fate of Lavinia so captivate me that I feel a very good novel could be written about her, based on the few yet powerfully suggestive tidbits Lovecraft has supplied concerning this albino matron.
This is a great collection of classic weird fiction, containing between its covers some of the most original and effective weird tales ever penned. It is the unique writing of an imaginative genius. Ain't nuthin' like it in ye whole darn Universe! YOG-SOTHOTH!
More The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre reviews:
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Summary of The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
This is the collection that true fans of horror fiction have been waiting for: sixteen of H.P. Lovecraft's most horrifying visions, including Lovecraft's masterpiece, THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME--the shocking revelation of the mysterious forces that hold all mankind in their fearsome grip."I think it is beyond doubt that H.P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the Twentieth Century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."
Stephen King
Lovecraft is "the American writer of the twentieth century most frequently compared with Poe, in the quality of his art ... [and] its thematic preoccupations (the obsessive depiction of psychic disintegration in the face of cosmic horror)," writes Joyce Carol Oates in the New York Review of Books. Del Rey has reprinted Lovecraft's stories in three handsome paperbacks. This first volume collects 16 classic tales, including "The Rats in the Walls," "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Dunwich Horror," and "The Colour Out of Space." Introduction by Robert Bloch. Wraparound cover art by Michael Whelan.
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