The H. P. Lovecraft Collection: Deluxe 6-Volume Box Set Edition: 3 (Arcturus Collector's Classics, 3): Deluxe 6-Book Hardcover Boxed Set

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The Colour out of Space - this one blew me away, and possibly might be my favourite tale. Highly recommend. This eerie work of masterful suspense heads up one of the best H.P. Lovecraft books of all time, but it’s by no means the only worthy piece in this anthology! Included among these “weird stories” are seventeen other tales of the mad, mystical, and macabre, each taking a slightly different approach to horror. The Rats in the Walls is a Tell-Tale Heart-esque account of a man who’s plagued by the sound of rats in his family home. However, when he goes to investigate, he uncovers a gruesome truth about his ancestors. Dagon is the testimony of a World War I vet who relies on morphine to ease his tortured mind… but the visions that haunt him are worse than any battlefield violence. The complete works embodies Lovecraft's progression as a writer and fills his mythos well. The only complaint I could find is some earlier works do not stand the test of time or hold well. However having to find other compilations would no longer be needed. For those into noir horror, epic monsters, and the diminished mind seeing the unspeakable terrors and having to rationalize the fear, this is a great book. With some being into lovecraftian lore from gaming, other authors, or even the creepypasta craze, and not reading the original works: buy it now. No other book covers as much. Every other book will have most of the popular selections, not all. At the price you cannot go wrong.

Lovecraft’s stories often remind me of how nudity was depicted in early film. It was never shown directly. The Hays code didn’t allow it. Instead, you might see a silhouette. Or a dress fall to the ground at the woman’s feet. Or there’d be a bannister in the way. Lovecraft likewise has this propensity to avoid actually describing his cosmic horrors. His characters will instead simply say, ‘I cannot describe it, for my very mind rebelled against grasping such a reality! Mouth and teeth and tentacles!’ or ‘I refuse to share this knowledge, for it will inspire madness in all who hear it.’ It is, frankly, annoying. The Cats of Ulthar: A must-read for all cat people and fans of poetic justice. Ulthar and its cats is another element in Lumley's version of the Dreamlands; will it be mentioned again later by Lovecraft? Finally, at the end of the book, we readers are treated to Lovecraft's well-regarded treatise on weird fiction, "Supernatural Horror in Literature". Lovecraft describes his understanding of horror and the place that fear has in humans, and then proceeds to trace the evolution of horror in writing from ancient times right up to his contemporaries in the pulp magazines of the Twenties and Thirties, from elements of classical mythology cycles through old folklore, Gothic literature, and the weird fiction of the early 20th Century. I don't know how the essay holds up to modern examinations of the subject, but I'll certainly use it as a reference in my own survey of the genre. I suppose the two best words to describe my feelings on the work of the 20th century's most prolific horror writer are "mostly disappointing".Este volumen contiene algunos de los mejores relatos de Lovecraft. Como el título indica, todos mencionan o incluyen en alguna forma el Necronomicón, un libro ficticio de magia negra y conocimientos prohibidos. Naturalmente, Lovecraft no inventó el concepto de los libros malditos. Ha existido desde hace siglos. Hay varios ejemplos de la vida real: entre ellos, el Codex Gigas, también conocido como Códice Gigas o la "biblia del diablo". Se trata de un manuscrito medieval que pesa 75 kilos y que contiene un dibujo enorme de Satanás, y según la leyenda, fue escrito por el Diablo en persona a cambio del alma de un monje. All right, with this one under my belt, I think I can safely say that I’ve read everything Lovecraft has ever written in his life. I will then skip introducing the author––who doesn’t need any introduction, anyway––and go through a rundown of some of my most beloved horror stories of his, which you can find in this collection. Beyond the Wall of Sleep: It turns out the term ‘white trash’ was in use as early as 1919. Who knew? Another dream-world tale, more cosmic than the last, in which a psychiatrist receives a six-month paid vacation for taking on too much stress from his patient, a degenerate from that famous hotbed of brutish hillbillies, the Catskills. Points for ‘ululation’, ‘effulgent’ (twice), and ‘architraves’. While most Lovecraftian stories can be summed up to: "something unspeakably terrifying happened but it was so horrible that I cannot actually describe it", his ideas, weird universes and the beings within are unique. What seems cliche to us now is largely thanks to him (except maybe Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!). I finished reading Jane Austen’s seven large novels not too long ago, and I was astounded by her writing ability. I think I just read someone who can not only rival her but top her. Lovecraft’s writing prose is one of the best of the classic writers I’ve read this year. The way he describes his monsters and establishes a creepy scene is definitely something worth studying if you’re a writer.

The Call of Cthulhu is probably Lovecraft’s most influential story, serving as the basis for his epic “Old Ones” mythos. It centers around an ancient dragon-sea monster hybrid that implants itself subconsciously into human minds, driving them slowly insane. The cultists who worship Cthulhu commit ritual killings and chant in tongues. As more details of the creature and its history come to light, our narrator realizes that no one can possibly be safe from such a powerful entity — not even himself. This collection contains most of Lovecraft's better known stories, focusing largely on his Cthulhu mythos cycle, so there is lots of squamous horror here. All the familiar names are here: Cthulhu, Hastur, Shub-Niggurath, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, Dagon, etc. Monsters of all shapes and sizes, and degenerate inbred New England townsfolk who usually have nasty things in their barns, wells, attics, and woods. All but eight of the stories were written before "the Call of Cthulhu" in 1927, but a number of these earlier ones written in typical Lovecraft fashion contain marked foreshadowings of the Cthulhu Mythos in both themes and details. The tie-ins with stories like "Nyarlathotep" and "The Nameless City" are particularly obvious, as are references to the Necronomican, etc. ("History of the Necronomican" was written post-1927; it's simply a pseudo-nonfiction account of the imaginary author and origins of the sinister book, and its translation/printing "history," but adds enjoyable texture to the Mythos for committed fans.) As I've commented before, Lovecraft's own perception of his main fictional corpus was probably much more unified than that of later critics who carve it up into "Mythos" vs. "non-Mythos," and he never coined the term "Cthulhu Mythos" himself; there's a great degree of similarity of conception in many stories on both sides of the supposed divide. One can definitely say, though, that "The Very Old Folk" is certainly a Mythos tale (and as eerie and chilling as any I'd read before), as well as one which reflects HPL's fascination with ancient Rome. Before Lovecraft, horror was about killers, kidnappers, ghosts - human faults and sins and divine (or other) punishment in the sense of you reap what you sow. Lovecraft instead creates a vision of a vast cosmos completely indifferent to humans, and their earthly bullsh*t, filled with forces before which we are helpless, which we cannot hope to understand, and which would destroy our minds if we only saw or knew. We could categorize him as a writer of cosmic horror.The Strange High House in the Mist: Intriguing, surprisingly more joyous than menacing, with beautiful poetic descriptions and phrases. Antes de enfrentarme a la reseña de este gran tomo, me parece importante señalar para los que no lo sepan que la prosa de Lovecraft se divide en tres temas fundamentales: están las historias de corte más clásico o macabro, las que se relacionan con el mundo de lo onírico, y las que tratan del terror cósmico o lovecraniano, donde se incluiría el famoso ciclo de los mitos de Cthulhu.