Itemize Books In Pursuance Of Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales
| Original Title: | Necronomicon: The Best Weird Fiction |
| ISBN: | 0575081562 (ISBN13: 9780575081567) |
| Edition Language: | English |
H.P. Lovecraft
Hardcover | Pages: 878 pages Rating: 4.21 | 13504 Users | 716 Reviews
Interpretation Supposing Books Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales
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.THE OUTSIDER is my favorite Lovecraft story bar none. It is also one of his shortest. Written in the first-person narrative (as is often the case in his fiction), it tells of a man (or is it?) who, after having lived as a recluse for what seems like a very long time in his darkened and lifeless castle (or is it?), decides one day to go out into the world and explore. There ensues a series of discoveries––with a devastating although somewhat anticipated reveal––which will seal the narrator’s fate forever. As said, this story is super short but masterfully executed, woven around the themes of loneliness, abnormality and the afterlife. The prose is as it should given the genre––divinely gothic, deliciously verbose and darkly purple. All in all, a masterpiece.
THE DREAMS IN THE WITCH-HOUSE is my second favorite and the only one that actually gave me goosebumps while reading it for the first time in bed at night. This story of a math student who decides to rent a room in a cursed house in which a witch and her hellish amalgam of a familiar are said to have lived is downright disturbing and creepy and just too well written for comfort. Which makes it yet another masterpiece in the Lovecraft canon.
THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK is my third most beloved Lovecraft story and also the last one he ever wrote (that we know of). Eschewing the first person for the third limited, Lovecraft treats us to a chilling account of what the protagonist, Robert Blake, discovers when, driven by his penchant for the occult, he decides to go and explore a haunted church in the town of Providence, RI. Here again the writing is on point as Lovecraft knows better than anyone how to create an atmosphere of claustrophobia and paranoia, playing unashamedly with the fear of the unknown and impending doom. Deeply steeped in the Cthulhu mythos, this story is a prime example of how curiosity can kill a cat.
THE CALL OF CTHULHU. Although not the first Lovecraft story to introduce an element of the Cthulhu mythos (that would be Dagon, also included in this collection), this one is the first to feature the foul-smelling, tentacle-wielding and potbellied deity in all its greasy and nasty glory. Written as an epistolary short story, it gives an account of the discovery of Cthulhu via a series of documents left behind by the great uncle of the narrator, Francis Wayland Thurston. Three words: groundbreaking, masterful, perfect.
THE RATS IN THE WALLS is another gothic masterpiece recounting the tale of Delapore, an American who decides to cross the pond and move to England into his ancestral manor, the ill-fated Exham Priory. After restoring it, Delapore soon discovers that something isn’t quite right about the place and, prompted by scurrying noises in the walls, decides to investigate. Lovecraft juggles many balls in this one––the haunted house, genetic mutations, cannibalism, forbidden worships and eldritch (doesn’t Lovecraft just love this word?) cults, the inescapability of heredity, mental disorder, etc.––providing us with nail-biting scenes of exploration and horror, and tying it all together (albeit loosely) into his infamous Cthulhu mythos. Definitely a winner.
THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH is yet another effective horror story set waist-deep in the Cthulhu mythos, and from what I’ve heard, a favorite of many Lovecraft aficionados. Told once again in the first person, the story is about a student (whose name is never revealed) who goes to the ruined seaside town of Innsmouth, Mass., for what he thinks will be a one-day trip. Lovecraft spares no words in describing the cursed town, and we soon understand that the nature of the curse boils down to an invasion of Innsmouth many years ago by the Deep Ones, an ancient people that came ashore from the bottom of the sea. From the town drunk with whom the narrator has a long (perhaps overlong?) conversation, we learn that the Deep Ones used to practice human sacrifices in Innsmouth and also did not hesitate to mate with local women, hence the fishy appearance of many of the inhabitants. The whole thing ends up with a big reveal, which for once isn’t as bad as one might expect for a Lovecraft story, and the author even gives us a long, very-well-written action scene toward the end, which is something rare enough to be mentioned and relished.
I guess I could go on like this forever, as there are many other stories in this collection that are worth reading and rereading, but I will stop here for now. It’s late, and I think I heard something scurrying in the walls. Wonder what it is…
OLIVIER DELAYE
Author of the SEBASTEN OF ATLANTIS series
The Forgotten Goddess
Be Specific About Epithetical Books Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales
| Title | : | Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales |
| Author | : | H.P. Lovecraft |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Commemorative Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 878 pages |
| Published | : | March 27th 2008 by Gollancz, Great Britain (first published 2008) |
| Categories | : | Horror. Fantasy. Fiction. Short Stories. Classics. Science Fiction. Audiobook |
Rating Epithetical Books Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales
Ratings: 4.21 From 13504 Users | 716 ReviewsDiscuss Epithetical Books Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales
No specific spoilers, but general descriptions of style and content ahead. Read at your own risk.Reasons I didn't like Necronomicon that had nothing to do with the book itself:Not a big fan of classic literature, I have to work very hard to enjoy it, if I even can. The entire pace of Necro was dull to me. I remained bored 89% of the time.The audiobook readers did their best, and sometimes they sounded good, but I found their voices calm, soothing, and mildly dull.I like heavy dialogue andA concise history of Lovecraft's fictional book the Necronomicon. Made to exclusively suppliment the references of the text within the main stories.
I could not give this book five stars in good conscious, and I will explain why. It's no secret that Lovecraft was a deeply racist individual. Because children also browse Goodreads, I want parents to know that this compilation contains overt racist slurs and connotations. Of course, one can argue that this is just a product of the author's imagination. I respectfully disagree. Although, Lovecraft was a brilliant writer, the writer's overt hatred of other races sometimes poured out into his
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. -H.P. Lovecraft This collection of weird fiction short stories and novellas is slightly inconsistent in terms of quality, but it contains so many genuinely original and thoroughly harrowing, sinister tales that, on the whole, I found it a highly enjoyableand often exquisitely eeriereading experience. That said, Id really only recommend it for hardcore fans of Lovecraft; for everyone else, there are far betterby which I really mean far shorter
Cyclopean. p. 454: Carter now spoke with the leaders int he soft language of cats, and learned that his ancient friendship with the species was well known and often spoken of in the places where cats congregate. He had not been unmarked in Ulthar when he passed through, and the sleek old cats had remembered how he petted them after they had attended to the hungry zoogs who looked evilly at a small black kitten. And they recalled, too, how he had welcomed the very little kitten who came to see
The five star rating for this book is not because I think every story (or even most of them) were 5 stars, or because Lovecraft was a great writer (though I do think he was a better writer than he's often given credit for). It's because these stories are essential reading. Like him or hate him, Lovecraft casts a long, dark shadow over all of American fantasy and horror, and in fact, the stories are mostly pretty good, in a very dated way. Yes, Lovecraft wrote purple. Yes, his characterization is
NOTES ON THE STORIESThe Colour Out Of Space = WIN. And it's a stand-alone story. You don't need to know anything about the mythos for this one.Pickman's Model = WIN. Another stand-alone story, without reference to the mythos. Actually very creepy.The Shadow Over Innsmouth = WIN. A good introduction to the mythos, and a great introduction Lovecraft's story-telling. A perfectly crafted, perfectly creepy tale.
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