Tales of H.P.
Lovecraft
Written by
Lovecraft, stories selected by Joyce Carol Oates and forward.
Read it in
Paper-back and came in at 328 (not counting forward or 'reader's helper' at the
end.
I won't go into any
details of Lovecraft, or his unfortunate life.
All of that is pretty well documented and can be found via a Wikki or
Internet search. One thing that should be
mentioned however is that he is considered the father of Weird Fiction, with a
lot of authors claiming influential ties to his work.
I have wanted to
read a collection of his work for some time but had never quiet committed, till
now. Whatever collection I chose only
had one stipulation, that it contained At The Mountains of Madness. Thus when perusing I found this edition,
which met said criteria, and threw it on the stack to eat up some day. That day was last month.
-Potential Spoilers
Below-
Introduction -
Nothing new in the intro. Joyce sums up
Lovecraft's life and makes inferences to his writing potential and her own and
others experiences with his writing.
Probably can skip unless you have a lot of interest into Lovecraft or
really want Joyce's opinion on the matter.
In no way does Joyce cover some of the shady attributes of Lovecraft
characters, but there is nothing to gain from defaming the dead.
The Outsider - First
published in Weird Tales in 1921. In
this tale a man who has been stuck in a castle/tower for as long as he can
remember finally breaks free in search of others. Overall I felt it was a little light on substance, but perfect for
a magazine which obviously was the target.
Short and weird enough to hold interest and was probably a great
selection for a first story but no real conclusion.
The Music of Erich
Zann - First published in 1922 follow a man who's neighbor plays for a shady
crowd and he is determined to see what all of the ruckus is about. Once again, it leads nicely but ended without
satisfaction.
The Rats in The
Walls - Also published in Weird Tales circa 1923. Longer than the two above, The Rat in the
Walls follows a families attempt to restore a lost castle estate and change the
shadowy legacy of the place. This was a
nice change from the two previous stories and while it does not add much in
terms of long term fulfillment, it was a good read.
The Shunned House -
First published in Weird Tales in 1937 while originally written in 1924. A house with an unusual stain and clouded
history. Out damn spot. The whole time I read this story, all I could
think of was "that will teach you not to clean next time you spill
something."
The Call of Cthulhu
- Written in 1926 and first published in Weird Tales in 1928. The story that's probably gotten more
infamous than it deserves. The story
itself is short, blabbers on with no proper structure and then ends. I get it,
Cthulhu is cool and all. He's big and
leathery, has tentacles for a face, is infinitely old and will chase you while
you dream. It's a terrifying concept and
it's grand. Looking at the scope of the
mythos he was trying to create I can definitely say that this was an important
story, but on its own I was simply not impressed.
The Colour Out of
Space - Written and published in 1927 to Amazing Stories. The story of a small family who witnesses a
meteorite strike on their land which subsequently ushers in some unfortunate
events for them and the community. This
is one of my favorite stories in this collection.
The Dunwich Horror -
Written in 1928 and published to Weird Tales in 1929. This tale follows the strange events of
family named the Whateley's. Wilbur, the
newest addition to the family is not normal and matures very quickly and is
soon shunned by the town. Wilbur pursues
his grandfather's dark arts. I really
liked this story.
At the Mountains of
Madness - Written in 1931, Weird Tales originally declined to publish on the
merits of length and wouldn't be published until 1936 by Astounding
Stories. At the Mountains of Madness
follows an Antarctic Expedition in which they find some peculiar things and
meet tragedy. This is my favorite story
in the whole collection. Lovecraft had
the page count to elaborate and build the overarching mythos put forth in
almost all of his tales.
The Shadow Over
Innsmout - First written in 1931 and published in 1936. A young man travels to Innsmout with great
curiosity in the fields of architecture and antiquarian and the town is fabled
with both. Upon traveling to the town he
soon realizes that much of the legends surrounding the town are in fact true
and horrifying. Faced with his impending
death, he must flee the town.
The Shadow Out of
Time - First published in 1936 in Astounding Stories. A not so conventional story of
possession. The Shadow Out of Time sees
a man 'body swapped' with a strange creature.
During this time the possessed body does many strange things and the
host is written off as crazy all but abandoned by his family, save one
son. Upon the return to his body he
begins to fill the gaps and try to discover what he has done during his lost
years.
-End Spoilers-
This took me much
longer to read than I anticipated and I am not sure if it was the structure,
word choice, and embellishment of his writing style or my simple constant
failings at reading short story collections that are cause for the long
completion. Overall I guess I enjoyed it
but often found myself having to re-read paragraphs. Mr. Lovecraft isn't always the most clearest
writer.
Out of the
collection, The Rats in The Walls, The Colour Out of Space, At the Mountains of
Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmout, and The Shadow Out of Time were my favorite
stories. It appears that Mr. Lovecraft
was robbed of the opportunity for a proper novel, with only At the Mountains of
Madness being the closest thing in duration.
This is a shame I think and I would love to have seen what he could have
done with the opportunity to pull all of his developing mythos, present and
building in the shorts, into a true book.
It could have been grand.
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