The Road to Madness
by H. P. Lovecraft, John Jude Palencar, Barbara Hambly
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Book Summary Information
Author: Barbara Hambly, H. P. Lovecraft, John Jude PalencarEdition: Paperback
Published: 1996-10-01
ISBN: 0345384229
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Del Rey
Book Reviews of The Road to Madness
Book Review: The evolution of Lovecraft
Summary: 4 Stars
Among the most influential of horror novelists is H.P. Lovecraft, and this is appropriate. His tales of weird fiction are still in their own little niche. Thematically, most of his stories fit into two categories which are not exclusive: there are things that man is not meant to know, and there are places that have a certain wrongness. Unlike most horror novelists who may provide a typical happy endings with evil vanquished, there is little such joy at the end of a Lovecraft story; for Lovecraft, merely surviving the horror with sanity intact is the best that can be hoped for.
The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft, subtitled The Road to Madness offers glimpses into some of his earliest work and shows how it evolved over time. As would be expected, the very earliest tales are not all that great. Tales like "The Beast in the Cave" are purely second-rate, but even here, Lovecraft's narrative style can be seen.
Most of the early stories are short (less than 10 pages), but as you progress through these 29 tales, the stories get generally longer. Rather than discussing all of them, I just want to point out a noteworthy few. "Herbert West - Reanimator" is the source story for what is probably the most well-known Lovecraft adaptation, Reanimator, and though many of the details differ between text and film, the premise remains the same: Herbert West seeks a method for bringing life to the dead (a la Frankenstein) and becomes one of Lovecraft's victims to the pursuit of forbidden knowledge.
"Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" is a collaboration with Harry Houdini (of which Lovecraft did most of the work) featuring the celebrated magician trapped in an Egyptian tomb. "At the Mountains of Madness" - by far the longest story at nearly 100 pages, follows an Antarctic excursion that unearths an ancient city that hints at a dark history from many years past. This novella is the most Lovecraftian story in the collection, with plenty of references to Cthulhu and the Old Ones. On the other hand, perhaps the most atypical in the bunch is "In the Walls of Eryx", a straight science fiction story dealing with a treasure hunter on Venus lured into a sophisticated trap by the locals; there are a few Lovecraftian touches, but for the most part, this is old-fashioned sci-fi, probably a change of pace due to the collaborator, Kenneth Sterling.
Just because you might enjoy authors like Stephen King, Clive Barker or F. Paul Wilson (all of whom have been influenced by Lovecraft) does not mean you will enjoy this book or Lovecraft's other works. Lovecraft's narrative style has a definite Nineteenth Century feel, with an emphasis on description over action, dialogue or even character. Lovecraft is also a product of his era with racial views that are, to say the least, not politically correct, and females have almost no presence at all in his stories. In short, you may need patience to enjoy Lovecraft, but - even if this collection is not his "greatest hits" - there is definitely some material to enjoy in this book.
Summary of The Road to Madness
"There is a melancholy, operatic grandeur in Lovecraft's most passionate work," writes Joyce Carol Oates in The New York Review of Books, "... a curious elegiac poetry of unspeakable loss, of adolescent despair, and an existential loneliness so pervasive that it lingers in the reader's memory, like a dream, long after the rudiments of Lovecraftian plot have faded." Del Rey has reprinted Lovecraft's stories in three large-format paperbacks. This third volume collects one poem, one story fragment, and 26 tales not included in the first two, including "Herbert West--Reanimator," "The Lurking Fear," "Dagon," "The Unnameable," and the classic short novel "At the Mountains of Madness." Introduction by Barbara Hambly. Beautiful cover art by surrealist John Jude Palencar.One of the most influential practitioners of American horror, H.P. Lovecraft inspired the work of Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker. As he perfected his mastery of the macabre, his works developed from seminal fragments into acknowledged masterpieces of terror. This volume traces his chilling career and includes:
IMPRISONED WITH THE PHARAOHS--Houdini seeks to reveal the demons that inhabit the Egyptian night.
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS--An unsuspecting expedition uncovers a city of untold terror, buried beneath an Antarctic wasteland.
Plus, for the first time in any Del Rey edition:
HERBERT WEST: REANIMATOR--Mad experiments yield hideous results in this, the inspiration for the cult film Re-Animator.
COOL AIR--An icy apartment hides secrets no man dares unlock.
THE TERRIBLE OLD MAN--The intruders seek a fortune but find only death!
AND TWENTY-FOUR MORE BLOOD-CHILLING TALES
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