Hi

Someone recently directed me to this writer, with the assurance that I would absolutely love him. I started reading The Call of Cthulhu & Other Weird Stories and they were not wrong.

Lovecraft's style is somewhat antiquated these days, rich narratives that sometimes seem a little rambling, but after I grew accustomed to it, I realised it only adds to the strange atmosphere of the stories.

It's also interesting to see how much modern horror/sci fi/and fantasy writers have drawn from Lovecraft's work. If Edgar Allan Poe (who in himself was a huge influence on Lovecraft) is the Godfather of Horror, then Lovecraft is definitely the Godson - although the latter succeeded in popularising the genre, even if he struggled his whole life to be taken seriously, enduring a heap of scathing criticism from his more literary colleagues. His life itself was dogged by misfortune, and a lot of these events - the sickness, parental deaths and madness, failed marriage and eventual breakdown - are reflected in the tales.

I've been unable to put this collection down, and have experienced some genuine shudders, particularly in the stories Herbert West - Reanimator (a Frankenstein inspired tale) and The Rats in the Walls (a gorgeously creepy tale about a mansion built on an old pagan site). The Cthulhu Mythos is of course, supberb, and a great inspiration for any writer in the field. Highly recommended.

JB

Mr Lovecraft where have you been all my life? I just finished The Colour Out of Space and I am blown away. You know when you eventually stray across a classic and it's like it was always there, waiting for you to read it? Well, this is that. I'm not surprised there is such a huge following, because Lovecraft knocks most modern horror writers (some of which I now understand have almost copied his work wholesale) into a cocked hat.

JB

Now you're talking. I'm a huge fan too - you should try Michel Houellebecq's biography - H P Lovecraft, Against the World, Against Life - it's got a really interesting intro by Stephen King too.

Thanks. I have been thinking about seeking out a biography because Mr Lovecraft had a quite unusual life. I've been reading the introductions by S.T.Joshi in the Penguin Classics, and can't help but feel a bit sorry for the man. No surprise where he got such dark inspiration from.

I find the link between Lovecraft and King quite interesting. I mean, they both come from roughly the same area of the United States, and having read a fair amount of Bradbury and Lovecraft now, the influences are very obvious.

There's going to be a Cthulhu film out soon too that looks quite interesting.

http://cthulhuthemovie.com/

Could be good?

JB

I'm still waiting for my Penguin copy. I emailed them yesterday and was told they haven’t put it in the post yet!

Can't wait to get it now…

Dee

I bought The Dreams in the Witch House off Amazon in protest (well, I mean, Descartes???), got mine this morning.

The good thing about the collections is they don't have to be read in any order. Each one of the Penguin volumes has a progressive sequence of stories from all of Lovecraft's works, collected, I think, because of theme rather than date.

JB