Lovecraft loved him a fictional New England town full of inexplicable phenomena. The Dunwich Horror follows the development of Wilbur Whateley, a child who matures at a freakish rate, becoming a full-grown man in just a few years. His grandfather, Old Whateley, takes Wilbur under his wing, as Wilbur’s mother is crippled and unstable and his father is mysteriously absent. Old Whateley teaches Wilbur the ways of dark sorcery and witchcraft; the locals fear and avoid them. However, they do take note of the odd circumstances surrounding the Whateleys’ cattle, which occasionally disappear. Excellent collection of Lovecraft's stories, you've got most of his best ones in this collection; but it's such a big and somewhat cumbersome book.

The H. P. Lovecraft Collection: Classic Tales of Cosmic Horror The H. P. Lovecraft Collection: Classic Tales of Cosmic Horror

Speaking of whom, I don't believe this edition features the re-edited versions of the texts available in the Library of America edition of Lovecraft. Necronomicon includes the older editions as published by Derleth's Arkham House, featuring Derleth's... let's call them "bold typographical choices", including italicizing the second half of the final sentence in many stories to heighten tension and irritate me. Joshi, S. T. (2009). H.P. Lovecraft: A Comprehensive Bibliography. Tampa, FL: University of Tampa Press. ISBN 9781597320689. Najpre, želim da pohvalim izdavačku kuću Orfelin na divnoj knjizi, predivnim ilustracijama, kvalitetu papira i same knjige kao i za izgled korica. Ovo je knjiga koji bi svaki ljubitelj horora trebalo da ima u svojoj kolekciji, iako jeste malo skuplja od ostalih ali isto tako ovde se pokazuje kako cena jeste kvalitet. Naime, čitalac se (pričam o Orfelinovom izdanju knjige) najpre suočava sa kratkom biografijom autora, odnosno Lavkrafta, zatim se prelazi na Istoriju Nekronomikona, veoma retke ali poznate mračne knjige koja igra ključnu ulogu u većini odabranih priča, nakon toga sledi 25 divno prevedenih horor priča autora Lavkrafta, i tek na kraju susrećemo se sa napomenama i čudnim pojmovima koje je upravo Lavkraft pominjao kroz priče, koje potpomažu čitaocu duboko shvatanje priče.

Table of Contents

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. As for the monsters themselves, like I said, they're barely, BARELY present. Lovecraft's imagination is strong enough to dream up so many fantastic terrors, yet he seems more keen on keeping them to himself. Even his protagonists are stingy with details; their accounts of the horrors they witnessed are usually along the lines of: "And then I saw something that was so frightening that I can't even describe how frightening it was because its frightening-quotient was utterly indescribable but trust me, it was really frightening, so you should totally faint now." Medusa's Coil and Others: The Annotated Revisions and Collaborations of H.P. Lovecraft, Volume 2 ( ISBN 978-1-935006-16-9) If you didn’t know, the Necronomicon is a collection of his best works. They aren’t all of his works. There were a few stories that took a while before getting to the “good stuff” but most immediately drew you into the story. My favorite is Herbert West—Reanimator. Not only did it have a necromancy-like feel to it like Frankenstein, but Lovecraft went into how West began his studies in bringing the dead to life and it completely drew my interest! It was not only creepy but cool as F%#K! I also liked the Doom that Came to Sarnath, The Colour out of Space, and the Call of Cthulhu (to name a few!).

H. P. Lovecraft Collection: Deluxe 6-Book Hardcover Boxed The H. P. Lovecraft Collection: Deluxe 6-Book Hardcover Boxed

As far as Lovecraft's obvious (let's not kid ourselves) racism, it's my belief that it is possible to separate the art from the artist. I still watch Roman Polanski films decades after Polanski was accused and pled guilty to rape, I don't avoid Tom Cruise films because he's the foremost member of a psychotic cult (just because the films are usually supposed to be good), and the same with regard to other unsavory figures like Woody Allen and Mel Gibson. 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.In this novella, literature professor Albert A Wilmarth (you’ll notice that many of Lovecraft’s protagonists have such formal names and scholarly professions — likely in homage to the characters of M.R. James) becomes involved in a controversy surrounding strange, seemingly extraterrestrial sightings. A man of logic, Wilmarth naturally sides with skeptics, who claim the “sightings” stem from local legends with no factual basis. But after receiving a letter from one Henry Wentworth Akeley, a fellow academic, Wilmarth opens his mind to the possibilities of extraterrestrial life — only to find that he never should have gotten involved. You also have Lovecraft to thank for a raft of awesome boardgames and RPGs, from the classic Call of Cthulhu to Eldritch Horror and Cthulhu Wars. 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. napomenuti takođe da je u ovu knjigu utkana svaka moguća pažnja, od samog početka odnosno korica knjige, do realističnih i mračnih ilustracija svake priče, preko veoma informativnih beležaka koje Vam upotpunjuju pročitanu priču i na osnovu kojih možete naći filmove i stripove zasnovane na istim.