Customer Reviews

At the Mountains of Madness: And Other Tales of Terror

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I recommend this as the best one-volume introduction to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. If you finish this single volume you will be familiar with the atmosphere and the terminology of a large part of the Cthulhu Mythos. That's probably why this particular edition has remained in print so long. After _The Dunwich Horror_, it was my introduction to Lovecraft.

In the first story, "At the Mountains of Madness", you find yourself immediately immersed in the world of the Necronomicon, Miskantonic University, and the cosmic pantheon of the Cthulhu Cult and the Elder Things.

The second tale, "The Shunned House", shows what the master could do with a more conventional horror story. It is one of the best stories of a cursed house and family ever written.

The third story, "Dreams in the Witch House", serves as an excellent introduction to the cursed city of Arkham, though there are also strong elements of Miskantonic, the Necronomicon, and the speculations of fourth dimensional connections between our own world and "the farthest stars of the transgalactic gulfs."

Finally, there is "The Statement of Randolph Carter", which may be the most perfect short horror story ever written.

Of course if you are really hooked and want all the details about Lovecraft's world, then get the _Encyclopedia Cthulhiana_, that is if you are lucky enough to find a copy....

At the Mountains of Madness is one of Lovecraft's most singular, lengthy, and important pieces of fiction. Set in the cold wastes of Antarctica, it takes us far afield from the mysterious world of Lovecraft's New England yet in close proximity to the mythical framework of his most noted writings. A cadre of scientists from Miskatonic University travels to the coldest continent in order to pursue important geological work, but their mission is quickly transformed by one team's discovery of an ancient cavity housing hordes of scientific specimens at the base of an undiscovered range of weird, majestic mountains. The most important specimens found in the pit are largely intact bodies of terrifically strange creatures having both animal and vegetable characteristics and sporting immense, bat-like wings. As the first team begins a study of the creatures, the other party members rush to the campsite. However, they find only death, destruction, and mystery there when they arrive. Mysterious caves, peculiar shapes, and other incredible aspects of the adjacent mountains leads the expedition leader to dub them "the mountains of madness." Scientific curiosity impels two of the men to fly over those mountains to see what lies on the other side. What they find is an empty, ancient city, which they set out to explore. Statues and strange hieroglyphics lead the men to conclude that this city was once the most revered spot of the Old Ones mentioned in the Necronomicon and the Pnakotic Manuscripts, a city built long before man's first ancestors walked the earth. As they move deeper within the bowels of the city, they discover that it is not quite deserted after all. The story is a masterful one and provides us with a unique viewpoint concerning the race of ancient beings Lovecraft injected into his horror fiction. It can become tedious at times, but these moments are rare. The sense of mystery and trepidation rises consistently throughout, and the ending more than satisfied this particular reader.

There are three stories included alongside At the Mountains of Madness, all of them interesting but not among Lovecraft's greatest creations. "The Shunned House" is basically a ghost story, albeit one featuring Lovecraftian images, themes, and atmosphere. "The Dreams in the Witch-House" is almost stereotypical to some degree--a young man seeks out a place of mystery and dark history in an attempt to gain cosmic knowledge. In this case, the young man is a mathematics student hoping to combine possible ancient knowledge of curved space and time with his powerful mathematical formulae with some hope of transcending the barriers of earth's three dimensions. As can be expected, he soon finds himself in over his head, experiencing terrible things each night at the hands of a supposedly deceased old witch and her horrible rat-like familiar. This story seemed to have great potential, yet I thought it sort of broke down during the latter half, lacking Lovecraft's usual ending flourish and flair. The final story included here is "The Statement of Randolph Carter," which relates a pivotal experience in the life of Randolph Carter, who would become Lovecraft's master of dreams and seeker of Kadath in the ice-cold wastes.

All of these stories are a basic staple of a Lovecraft diet, and At the Mountains of Madness is compulsory reading. These stories can be found elsewhere and in more impressive packages, but this particular book is easy to acquire and relatively inexpensive.

I first read these stories years ago while spending the summer with a friend in rural Arkansas. The house had no electricity so we read late at night by kerosene lamp. I can still remember the feelings that these pieces evoked and how hard it was to go to sleep in the dark afteward. Now, even as an adult, reading in a comfortabley lighted room, these stories still scare the hell out of me.

There has never been another writer like Lovecraft. His stories are oblique and suggestive and the reader's own mind provides much of the horror. He understood what lurked just beneath the civilized veneer of our consiousness and he manages to tease it out so well.

This is fiction for those who like to feel their skin crawl. Simply the best of its kind ever.

I found this book at a used paperback shop for 10 cents about 15 yrs. ago, it is simply the most horrifying stuff I have have ever seen or read, that includes Poe, Kellerman, King, Koontz,"Silence of the Lambs", slasher flix or whatever. It is not an easy read, Poe had a big vocabulary but Lovecraft's was a lot bigger. It's worth it though,there are elements of science fiction, prehistorical speculation, a sense of where science/technology was leading, and how the terrors within the human mind cannot be conquered by it's materialistic accomplishments. This is the most disturbing book I have ever read, I'm an admirer of Poe but this is on a whole other level. This is literary terror in a pure intellectual form, Lovecraft makes Stephen King, Jonathan Kellerman, and Dean Koontz look like babes in a sandbox, fighting over who can dissect a corpse into the most parts with the latest , greatest B&D tools. Sorry, dudes, Lovecraft beat you to the punch about a hundred years ago.

Lovescraft's ideology was not to write horror. It was to impress the mind with the sense of awe and wonder, to impugn upon it that there are ineffable, unfathomable things lurking in the universe, things that we cannot analyze and understand. Naturally, since humans tend to be afraid of the unknown, Lovecraft's reasoning led him to the use of terror as the conveyer of awe. One who reads Lovecraft just for the sake of seeing a few characters get eaten or dismembered is avoiding the best parts. In theory one reads Lovecraft to become disturbed. To expand his mind beyond what is considered human, to break out of the bounds of placidity and decadence, self-assuredness and security, and to feel it in his heart of hearts that humans are not the masters of the world.

At the Mountains of Madness sits proudly as one of Lovecraft's greatest achievements. It is a tale of time immemorial and of an incredible civilization that came to Earth long before it was populated. A truly stellar read that leads one to thinking where exactly humanity's evolution will lead. One of the greatest features of Lovecraft's horror is that all of his stories are interwoven into a single nighmarish parchment- at the mountains of madness is no exception: it includes a number of references to both Cthulhu and the quasi-real "Necronomicon".

Oddly enough, the other stories included in this selection (especially Shunned House, probably because it is about what one might probably call a vampire - in the pre-Dracula sense of the word) don't seem to be quite as deep and absorbing as the first.

Nevertheless, if you care for a new view of the world around you, one where you do not dominate - please, read this book. I myself am too far gone...

"...ever hear tell of a shoggoth?..."

When I first read these words in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," my reaction was: Huh? I've been trying to find out what a shoggoth is ever since, and why they inspire such terror. "At the Mountains of Madness" reveals everything about these creatures, as well as unveiling a rather unusual chapter of the Earth's history.

Sure, Lovecraft was good at gut-wrenching terror, but I like him best when he writes about fantastical, otherwordly encounters. That's why "Mountains" is one of my favorites, along with "The Shadow out of Time." Written back when Antarctica was still largely unexplored, the story chronicles the adventures of a research team from Miskatonic University in Arkham, and their discovery of a deserted alien city millions of years old. Seems Humans aren't the only ones to populate Earth....but what if the former inhabitants aren't entirely gone?

Great story, truly. The shoggoths are certainly worthy of insanity -- don't read this while eating Jell-O.

As for the other three stories in this book..."The Shunned House" was pretty good, but not great. It's a stand-alone story -- no "Iä"s here. "The Dreams in the Witch-House" was quite good; nice and creepy. It even had a reference to "Mountains." Slick. "The Statement of Randolph Carter" is really short and doesn't explain itself at all. Maybe "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," which features Randolph Carter, has more info...I should read that next.

I think this book is worth the price, even though it's cheaply printed. As a hopeless Lovecraft fan, I'm glad to have learned more about the Cthulhu Mythos -- which, by the way, are at least as twisted and intricate as the X-Files conspiracy. Ah, insane genius! Heh, heh, heh....

The only word that can describe H.P. Lovecraft's concept of universal horror and his unique writing style is "increcible." HP Lovecraft's work, "At the Mountains of Madness," reveals the true history of earth, when the Old Ones built their cyclopean city, deep in the arctic. There are three other very good stories in the book, as well. "The Shunned House" is you classic haunted house story, with a Cthulhoid twist that Lovecraft is famous for. "Dreams in the Witch-House" is very much like "At the Mountains of Madness," for in goes into a bit of detail about the true first inhabitants of this world, the elder things. The bottom line is, BUY THIS BOOK.

H.P. Lovecraft possessed a truly unique voice and vision. There is perhaps no better example of his art than "At the Mountains of Madness," the superb short novel which is accompanied by three shorter tales in this volume.

The story of an antarctic expedition whose members uncover a shocking ancient mystery, "At the Mountains of Madness" incorporates many of Lovecraft's trademark themes and techniques. The short novel blends elements of mystery, science fiction, and horror with a subtle satire of academia. Lovers of literature will appreciate Lovecraft's references to Edgar Allan Poe.

"At the Mountains of Madness" is also a gripping adventure story, as we follow the narrator into a forgotten world of monstrous landscapes and equally monstrous creatures. Lovecraft's unique prose style--at once elegantly learned and primally disturbing--contributes greatly to the narrative. There has never been a writer quite like Lovecraft, and this brilliant short novel remains one of his best works.

Lovecraft's "At The Mountains Of Madness" is by far one of the, if not the, best Horror novel written in the Twentieth Century. The story is captivating, the character are engrossing, and the horror is first rate. This novel is the one thing Lovecraft fans should read, after "The Call Of Cthulhu". The novel tells the tale of the Miskatonic University expedition to Antarctica, led by the famous Dr. Pabodie. Seemingly innocuous at first, the story quickly takes a turn to the dark side that happens so very often in Lovecraft's work. The novel explains a few of the Cthulhu Mythos mysteries, such as the history of the Old Ones, and the genesis of the abhorred Shoggoths, and brings up many more questions about the mad universe that Lovecraft created so well. If you like this novel, read "The Whisperer in the Dark", which tells more about of the Old Ones' plans, and "The Call of Cthulhu", just because it is the backbone of the entire Lovecraftian Pantheon.

H. P. Lovecraft's "At The Mountains Of Madness" could be the best horror story ever written. For the time period it was written in it is unsurpassed. For originality of the storyline and the sheer terror it inspires it stands next to if not above Stoker's "Dracula", and Stephen King's "The Shining". Lovecraft boldly went where few other writer's dared to follow by creating an entire Universe of unspeakable horrors. The mastery of his chosen craft lies in his ability to hint subliminally at the fears he was writing about, then letting his reader's imagination take over from there. Serious students of the Horror and Supernatural genre who overlook Lovecraft have missed the entire boat. Read and enjoy this book and Lovecraft's other stories but be careful, the fear you find will be in your own mind. Happy Halloween!