The Lurker at the Threshold [Mass Market Paperback]

H. P. Lovecraft (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1988

He is not to open the door which leads to the strange time and place, nor to invite Him Who lurks at the threshold . . ." went the warning in the old family manuscript that Ambrose Dewart discovered when he returned to his ancestral home in the deep woods of rural Massachusetts. Dewart's investigations into his family's sinister past eventually lead to the unspeakable revelations of The Great Old Ones who wait on the boundaries of space and time for someone to summon them to earth.

Acclaimed cult horror writer H. P. Lovecraft's notes and outlines for this tale of uncanny terror were completed by August Derleth, his friend and future publisher.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 186 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers (May 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 088184408X
• ISBN-13: 978-0881844085
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,641,948 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

43 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some much misinformation about this neglected novel, October 30, 2003

By 

U.N. Owen (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lurker at the Threshold (Paperback)

Of all the reviews written here about this long out of print work I am astonished by all the misinformation written by so-called fans. Most of this comes from very young readers, I am assuming, who know little of the pulp magazines and are confused by paperback editions of books that are recycling stories and novels that have been around for a LONG time. Derleth never wrote a story until the 1950s? What hogwash! His weird fiction appeared as early as 1932 and the bulk of his weird fiction and mystery novels appeared throughout the late 30s and into the 1940s. Never collaborated? No, not in the flesh. But he knew Lovecraft while he was still alive, for heavens sake. But most of the "collaborations" were based on notes and plot outlines found among the dozens of papers Derleth and his friends inherited. "Buy anything by Lovecraft especially something from Arkham House." This book was ORIGINALLY Published by Arkham House in the 1940s! A publishing house I might add, created by Derleth and his pal Donald Wandrei. Readers should be celebrating the republication of a book that is highly sought after by collectors. It's a lot more affordable now at a mere ten bucks! It's hardly trash or garbage. Untidily written perhaps and derivative yes. But most of this fiction is derivative anyway. All the writers in the genre borrow from each other and little of it shows any real originality. Rehash after rehash. Readers and fans of this genre ought to read LURKER AT THE THRESHOLD for its literary historic value and keep in mind that Derleth's arch, sometimes annoyingly, baroque style is meant to evoke a mood of long forgotten era. I kind of like this quaint stuff. It sure beats the heck out of the gore-fests crammed with dismemberment, disembowelings, torture and sexual perversity that pass for horror these days.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good story, well done, June 16, 2004

By 

M. R Turner "zenresistance" (Los Estados Unidos) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lurker at the Threshold (Mass Market Paperback)

It's a good read. It's not an action-packed, thrill-a-minute magnum opus, as it seems some wish it wouldve been. It's a rich, Gothic story... not trendy modern neo-Gothic. There is a vast distinction.

It has a good pace. It's nicely done. It's enjoyable.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Fair Book -- But Who's the Author?, January 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lurker at the Threshold (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a fairly good novel and one of the better Mythos works August Derleth ever wrote. Yes, I said August Derleth. H. P. Lovecraft is given credit on the cover, but he only supplies two short fragments that are about a page's worth of material each and were probably not intended to go together. The rest is entirely August Derleth's work. In all fairness, this is Carroll and Graf's problem, not Amazon Book's.