Apparently this anthology is actually missing four stories that appear in other collections, but I'll get to those another time. For all intents and purposes, this book sent me on a full and fascinating voyage through Lovecraft's fiction.
Prior to beginning the collection, I had never read a single Lovecraft story, yet I had long been meaning to. I was of course aware of arguably his most famous creation, Cthulhu, the god-like “Old One” with its iconic tentacled head, slumbering through the aeons below the Pacific. What had really got me interested, however, was a synopsis I’d read of the story The Shadow Out of Time, which awakened me to the true wonders of Lovecraft’s imagination–it occurred to me that this horror tale had a pronounced sci-fi element to it, which I hadn’t expected. I wondered at how no story I could think of from this master had every found its way into my hands.
What I was most surprised and delighted by was the unexpected variety across his works. A sense of cosmic horror forms the underpinning of his writing, spanning a veritable pantheon of monstrous creatures, extra-cosmic beings, gods, and virtually indescribable lifeforms and other fiends (indeed, unnameable and supposedly indescribable horrors are a common features in these tales)–from the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep, to Cthulhu and his ilk, to alien interlopers, to the Earth Gods of a sprawling Dreamland, to the terrifying Other Gods, and beyond. I loved the lore he created, added to piece by piece across multiple stories, stretching back through a vague history of the earth and its many (non-human) civilizations that have dwelt upon it since primordial times, their ruins now buried beneath the earth and sea in the deep and remote places of the world. Referenced in tale after tale, the widely-suppressed and deathly taboo Necronomicon, a fictional ancient book composed by the “Mad Arab” Abdul Alhazred, is a great element to draw the reader into a literary universe teeming with forbidden elder knowledge.
Then there are the stories of his Dream Cycle, taking place in Earth’s Dreamland, explored most extensively in the wonder-filled novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. The journeys through dreamland, often undertaken by characters escaping a dreary Earthly existence into a wondrous and adventure-rich non-corporeal world, are described beautifully. Lovecraft was able to create a sense of cosmic dread–fear for the very experience of the human mind and soul in the face of truths and realities so extreme in their alien-ness and horror that they drive it to utter madness, in addition to mortal terror–but he could also capture through prose a rare and fleeting sensation such as we get in those dreams, often as children, in which we find ourselves for a time in unknown worlds of limitless beauty, mystery and joy.
Lovecraft not only takes his readers through the hidden (often subterranean) recesses of fictionalized New England locales, but as far as the unexplored wastes of Antarctica (At the Mountains of Madness - one of my favorites), to Australia (The Shadow Out of Time), to the Congo, to various corners of Europe, to the depths of the ocean, to vast cities that rose on Earth before the evolution of human beings, to the edges of the cosmos and beyond, and to the furthest reaches of Earth’s Dreamland. Almost as a bonus, the third-to-last story, Sweet Ermengarde, which was written under the pseudonym Percy Simple, was a humorous and lighthearted tale, theatrical in nature, and without any supernatural gloom whatsoever.
All in all, an awesome tour-de-force through the Lovecraft's body of literature.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
$23.00
Get it Apr 29 - 30
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Similar items that may ship from close to you
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Reviews with images
Missing stories
Bought this as a one-stop source to read all of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. Disappointed to see a book titled, "The Complete Fiction..." doesn't actually contain all of his work. At minimum, it's missing "Herbert West - Reanimator" which is one of the more popular titles.
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2021
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2023
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2017
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2023
U GET CAUGHT IN THE STORIES. I WILL READ IT AGAIN
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Simon I.
really good looking book from HP lovecraft
Reviewed in Sweden on June 18, 2023
And.Reds
L'Edizione con la "E" maiuscola!
Reviewed in Italy on October 5, 2021
And.Reds
Reviewed in Italy on October 5, 2021
Un autore che consiglio a tutti di leggere in originale. In lingua italiana è tradotto benissimo, assolutamente; però si perde dall'inglese tutta quella scelta di parole e musicalità (allitterazioni e via discorrendo) che accresce ancora di più l'importanza di questo scrittore, che per troppo tempo è stato misconosciuto dai più e relegato in una nicchia di un genere grandemente sottovalutato!
Bellissima la copertina (finalmente niente mostri a caso, né tentacoli), pagine con gli estremi in argento e segnalibro. Fatevi un piacere! Compratela!
Images in this review
Ildiane V. T. dos Santos
Impressionante, muito bom!
Reviewed in Brazil on August 19, 2020
Martin
A perfect book for two weeks of holidays, but the stories are ordered poorly
Reviewed in Germany on August 24, 2020