Customer Reviews

The Dark Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft, Vol. 5

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THE DARK WORLDS OF H. P. LOVECRAFT is a wonderful audio series from Audio Realms, and this fifth volume showcases three of Lovecraft's most popular tales. "The Lurking Fear" was an early work of Lovecraft's that was written for a semi-commercial magazine. Although never considered one of Lovecraft's finest tales, it has many fine moments of horror. "The Thing on the Doorstep" is one of Lovecraft's oddest stories, and it includes fascinating hints as to his inventive world that has become known as the Cthulhu Mythos -- for example, here we hear of a mystic woods and its pit of shoggoths, we learn of the curious students who roam the halls of Miskatonic University in Arkham, and we meet the doomed fantastic poet, Edward Derby, a character that seems to contain in his nature curious and twisted aspects of his creator's biography. "The Haunter of the Dark," a story that was inspired by an earlier tale by Robert Bloch (and this story by HPL is dedicated to Bloch), has long been one of my favourites. It is one of the creepiest Gothic weird tales ever written, filled with fabulous moments of dark brooding horror. Fans of the Cthulhu Mythos have long pondered the exact nature of this "haunter of the dark," this avatar of Nyarlathotep. The story is set in Lovecraft's hometown of Providnece, Rhode Island, which is beautifully brought to life.

The one flaw of the series is that the readings seem to be taken from the early corrupted texts of Lovecraft's works, which have since been thoroughly re-edited and corrected by the magnificent scholar, S. T. Joshi. Per example, the final line of "The Haunter of the Dark" reads, in its corrected text, "I see it--coming here--hell-wind--titan blur--black wings--Yog-Sothoth save me--the three-lobed burning eye..."

In the uncorrected version, unable to read Lovecraft's handwriting, the person editing the text deciphered "titan blur" as "titan blue," and this incorrect version is what we hear on this recording, alas.

The entire series is superbly read by Wayne June. I am especially anxious to listen to Volume Seven, which will be a complete and unabridged reading of my all-time favourite work by H. P. Lovecraft, THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD!!!

Whether Lovecraft is for you is a matter of taste of course, but if you like Poe, Lovecraft's writing has a similar flavor but with a more arcane and macabre focus. His stories are almost always in first person narrative, telling of past events that lead up to where the the main character is now, which usually is a state of great fear, struggle for sanity, or something along those lines. But where Poe and Lovecraft really differ is in their choice of opposition. To contrast the two, Poe tends to focus on a more feasible course of events, which though often extreme or even surreal, are basically grounded within earthly premises. Lovcraft characters are also often crazy, much like Poe, but usually the victims of supernatural or metaphysically horrific events, creatures from another plane of existence that have somehow made their way into our realm, and the main character(s) act out of responsibility to discover or somehow protect the human race as they face madness.

The unfortunate truth is that Lovecraft died young, probably before really making it into his prime as an author. His abilities and vision are remarkable and highly entertaining, and if he had lived another ten years, the progressions he was making would have likely made him a literary household name (although slowly this seems to be taking place anyway..). But alas, a longer life was not to be. Luckily, we do have a wonderful variety of fantastic stories from Lovecraft's magical pen, and have had a huge impact on many of the most famous writers and filmmakers of the latter 20th century.

Out of all of Lovecraft's writing, "The Thing on the Doorstep" is probably my favorite story of his, though "The Lurking Fear" is an excellent story also. These two stories are an interesting contrast to each other, as "The Lurking Fear" was one of his earlier stories and the "The Thing on the Doorstep" was one of his last. "The Thing on the Doorstep" is a wholly unsettling course of events that indirectly fit within the Cthulhu mythos ("The Shadow Over Innsmouth" specifically) with a tremendously horrific, surprise ending. It captures the best of Lovecraft's familiar elements, such as black magic, other worldly beings, possession, insanity, and the like. And don't let the quaint title fool you, this is Lovecraft at his best. It's a more succinct and less ponderously abstract story that is typical of most other Lovecraft stories. Whether you are new to Lovecraft or have read many of his works, don't miss this one.

The narrator for these two stories is perfect. He isn't as dry as Wayne June who reads for many of the other volumes in this series, and tends to be more dramatic. The depth and timbre of his voice perfectly captures the spirit of the stories. Wonderfully done.