A collection of stories from H.P. Lovecraft, the unrivaled master of early-twentieth-century horror Frequently imitated and widely influential, Howard Phillips Lovecraft reinvented the horror genre in the twentieth century, discarding ghosts and witches and envisioning instead mankind as a tiny outpost of dwindling sanity in a chaotic and alevolent universe.
Lovecraft’s preeminent interpreter S.T. Joshi presents a selection of the master’s fiction, from the early tales of nightmares and madness such as “The Outsider” and “Rats in the Walls,” through the grotesquely comic “Herbert West – Reanimator” and “The Hound,” to the overpowering cosmic terror of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” and “The Call of Cthulhu.” The first paperback edition to include the definitive corrected tests, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories reveals the development of Lovecraft’s mesmerizing narrative style and establishes him as a canonical – and visionary – American writer.
“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
Contents
Introduction, by S.T. Joshi
Suggestions for Further Reading
A Note on the Text
Dagon
The Statement of Randolph Carter
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
Celephaïs
Nyarlathotep
The Picture in the House
The Outsider
Herbert West – Reanimator
The Hound
The Rats in the Walls
The Festival
He
Cool Air
The Call of Cthulhu
The Colour Out of Space
The Whisperer in Darkness
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Haunter of the Dark
Explanatory Notes