The Loved Dead [Paperback]

H. P. Lovecraft (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 21, 1997

H.P. Lovecraft, aside from devising his own works in his Cthulhu Mythos cycle, also collaborated in his day with many younger writers of the uncanny and eerie. Available for the first time in paperback, this collection features stories to which the master of horror added his own ingenious touch.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lovecraft is the 20th century's dark and baroque prince." - Stephen King

About the Author

H.P. Lovercraft's other Carroll & Graf titles include: The Lurker at the Threshold and The Watchers Out of Time.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (May 21, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786704454
• ISBN-13: 978-0786704453
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #297,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

H. P. Lovecraft was born in 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island, where he lived most of his life. He wrote many essays and poems early in his career, but gradually focused on the writing of horror stories, after the advent in 1923 of the pulp magazine Weird Tales, to which he contributed most of his fiction. His relatively small corpus of fiction--three short novels and about sixty short stories--has nevertheless exercised a wide influence on subsequent work in the field, and he is regarded as the leading twentieth-century American author of supernatural fiction. H. P. Lovecraft died in Providence in 1937.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovecraft revisions offering some enjoyable reads, April 14, 2003

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Loved Dead (Paperback)

The Loved Dead assembles a number of stories that H.P. Lovecraft revised for less talented would-be authors of weird tales. While it is quite impossible to know just how much of himself Lovecraft inserted into these tales, they are by no means to be assigned to his creative endeavors. Personally, I don't see a lot of Lovecraft at all in these tales despite the sorts of cryptic, Mythos-related references made in a number of the selections. Examining these stories in and of themselves, on their own merit, I must say I rather enjoyed a number of them, however. Adolphe de Castro's The Last Test manages to insert a nice little aura of creepiness into what is essentially an unremarkable pulp horror tale. Zealia Bishop, one of the better writers of Lovecraft-revised fiction, sets the story of Medusa's Coil in such an atmospheric setting that its far-fetched plot does only minimal damage to one's enjoyment. Two entries from Hazel Heald are really quite good indeed; not only are The Man of Stone and Out of the Aeons compelling stories, they come closer than all of the other revised stories to capturing the spirit of Lovecraft himself. Duane W. Rimel's The Tree on the Hill lacks an original ending but does succeed in tapping a small vein into the cosmological realm so richly mined by Lovecraft. Rimel's The Disinterment also shows potential but is more seriously weakened by a far too predictable plot.

The remaining stories seem to decline in quality as one progresses through them. 1922's The Horror at Martin's Beach is remarkable not for its rather ineffective craftsmanship so much as its attribution to Sonia H. Greene, Lovecraft's wife of some two years. C.M. Eddy, Jr. contributes four short stories to this collection: Ashes, The Ghost-Eater, The Loved Dead, and Deaf, Dumb, and Blind. These tales just fall too much in line with standard, pulp horror themes that they become caricatures of themselves and of the weird tales in vogue at the time; a Lovecraft would have been able to make the ideas come out in an effective way, but nothing really seems to click in the revised words of Eddy himself. Henry S. Whitehead makes a valiant effort in The Trap, but the story of a magical mirror capable of pulling someone into it and thus freeing that person from time and space just never finds a plane of plausibility upon which it might flourish. The only two stories I did not care for at all in this book are R.H. Barlow's Till A' the Seas and The Night Ocean, both of which seem to be exercises in over-description lacking any discernible backbone of an actual plot.

While many of these stories possess an unmistakably amateurish quality and can by no means be associated with the literary genius and fruitful imagination of H.P. Lovecraft himself, I did get a lot of enjoyment from reading most of them. Lovers of weird tales in all their sundry fashions should find several pleasant diversions in the pages of this book. Those looking for Lovecraft-quality fiction, however, must never forget the fact that H.P. Lovecraft revised but did not actually write these tales. I would not consider The Loved Dead a must-buy for casual Lovecraft fans because I don't detect much of his influence in these pages; of course, fanatical admirers of the master of the macabre will naturally want to add these revised stories to their collection.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Obscure stories for the Lovecraft completist, September 10, 2005

By 

Alexander Scott (Birmingham, AL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Loved Dead (Paperback)

For the obsessive-compulsive bibliophile, finding previously unknown (at least, to yourself) works by your favorite author is a real treat. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft are, of course, familiar with such works as "The Shadow over Innsmouth", "The Dunwich Horror", and "The Call of Cthulhu". Then there are works that Lovecraft ghostwrote or revised (such as the famous collaboration with Harry Houdini "Under the Pyramids", or the stories collected in THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM AND OTHER REVISIONS). This book, THE LOVED DEAD AND OTHER REVISIONS contains some of Lovecraft's even more obscure revisions. But, in the evolving self-referential universe based on the writing of Lovecraft, his contemporaries, and his followers, you will want answers to such questions as, "Who is Ghatanothoa?" and "What was the horror at Martin's Beach?".

Most of these stories are pulp magazine quality, with some winners and some forgettables. There are 14 total:

"The Last Test" - similar to other Lovecraftian tales of cold science arrayed against humanity in the pursuit of knowledge. See "Cold Air" and "Herbert West, Re-Animator".

"Medusa's Coil" - this story has an excellent atmosphere of Southern decadence, an ancient secret kept alive by descendants of Atlantis, and a husband blinded by love. Or, the cosmic secret could be some stupid bit of racism at the end. I am marking out the las6 sentence so that it never mars my reading enjoyment again.

"Out of the Aeons" - I think that this story ranks up there with "The Call of Cthulhu". An excellent mythology, some blasphemous relics from the ancient world, and a cult dedicated to their retrieval. If only the dead could speak - but their eyes are bad enough!

"The Ghost-eater" - fairly standard pulp ghost story; good enough for what it is.

"The Loved Dead" - I was very surprised to see that this was influenced by HPL, but upon reflection, you can see his mark in the vocabulary and writing style. I'm only surprised that I never noticed it before (I have this story in a collection of Weird Tales, attributed to CM Eddy).

"The Tree on the Hill" - a story about the horrors of a tree, alone on a hill. It doesn't sound scary, but Gothic houses are overdone. I thought the author was up to the challenge.

"Till A' The Seas" - what will the very last day of humanity be like? Before the Nuke, we went out with a whimper and not a bang. The bleak nihilism in this story as the last of humanity passes away is almost cathartic. I found it elegant (though not desirable!).

"The Night Ocean" - The sea has always held an attraction and a mystery to men. Eternity and infinity lie in its deeps; the author posits that there may be more. He has nothing more than half-glimpses and overheard mutterings, but he knows enough to know that he knows too much.

To the Lovecraft completist, these stories are necessary apart from their own merits, as part of the canon. On their own, I think they make decent light reading with some highlights that will stay with you.

3.0 out of 5 stars the loved dead, October 2, 2007

By 

Stephen Mattie "mindlessbile" (pennsylvannia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Loved Dead: Collected Short Stories Vol II (Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural) (Paperback)

considering it was my first non lovecraft mythos fiction i've read
(even though he worked on them or rewritten these particular tales)i thoght them to be alright i enjoyed horror in the museum much better, but it was depressing knowing that i've finally read all of his tales and rewrites