Customer Reviews

The Road to Madness

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This is an anthology of some of the best works of Howard Philips Lovecraft (HPL), a pulp horror- and science fiction- writer of the 1920s and 30s. Lovecraft had a distinctive style of writing, meant to convey through description an atmosphere of awe and wonder of the universe, which he believed a rational mind would experience as horror. His works have influenced generations of writers including Stephen King, Brian Lumley, Ramsey Campbell, and Robert Howard. The content of THE ROAD TO MADNESS is some of HPLs most evocative, chilling, and enduring tales. And I almost missed them.

You see, I thought I had everything by Lovecraft. But I would catch allusions to things like the "Martense kin", "the U-Boat", and Arthur Jermyn. I couldn't find these references in any of my books, when I realized I was missing THE TOMB. Rather than buy this out-of-print book, I picked up ROAD TO MADNESS. It has served me well as a general collection of the most enduring elements of Lovecraft's fiction. The 3 Del Rey collections (ROAD TO MADNESS, BEST OF HP LOVECRAFT, DREAM CYCLE OF HP LOVECRAFT) are pretty comprehensive of HPLs corpus. I am posting below a list of the contents of THE ROAD TO MADNESS under the heading of other sources for the same stories, to let you decide how much overlap it has with other anthologies you might own.

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS AND OTHER TALES
"At the Mountains of Madness "
"The Evil Clergyman"
"The Shunned House"

THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH
"The Crawling Chaos"
"The Festival"
"In the Walls of Eryx"
"memory"
"Nathicana"
"The Tomb"
"The Tree"
"Under The Pyramids"

THE LURKING FEAR AND OTHER STORIES
"Dagon"
"Arthur Jermyn"
"The Lurking Fear"
"The Moon-Bog"
"The Temple"
"The Unnameable"
"The White Ship"

THE TOMB AND OTHER TALES:
"The Alchemist"
"The Beast in the Cave"
"The Book"
"The Festival"
"He"
"The Horror at Red Hook"
"In the Walls of Eryx"
"Poetry and the Gods "
"The Street"
"The Tomb"
"The Transition of Juan Romero"
"Under the Pyramids"

[Possibly no other source]
"Cool Air"
"Herbert West, Reanimator"

This book is excellent for mature readers 12+. When kids (like me, I'm 14) find that ghost stories start to seem a little childish... these stories are a step up. After I read this book, I would sometimes find myself staring off into space, thinking about one of the stories... this book will put so many ideas into your head, you will look at the entire world differently. Lovecraft is a master author.

This collection of stories by H.P. Lovecraft apparently was put together for hardcore collectors, but it does have many treasures for those who are just beginning to discover his work. The book begins with several "Early Tales" from Lovecraft's formative period. Some go as far back as his teenage years. In these early stories Lovecraft was still nailing down the style that would later become so influential. Unfortunately some of these tales aren't very good, especially the very predictable "The Beast in the Cave," and the others are high on stiff prose and low on ideas. So this early stuff is a real treasure for collectors but may be a struggle for everyone else. However, once you get over that hurdle, this book starts to pick up steam with a steady supply of fascinating and freaky tales of horror and the supernatural. As the title indicates, most of these short stories contain people going mad, and you may be wondering about your own sanity at the end. Highlights include the Frankenstein-style tales "Herbert West-Reanimator" and "Cool Air." My favorites appear toward the end of the book, with the sci-fi style "In the Walls of Eryx," in which Lovecraft shows a surprising flair for conceptual science fiction. The mini-novel "At the Mountains of Madness" may be Lovecraft's all-time best - a masterpiece of occult history that leaves you with a very spooky feeling afterwards. For those who are just discovering Lovecraft: while you're reading the stories, sometimes you'll find yourself struggling through his dense, slow-moving prose (which hardly ever contains dialogue), and his obscure references to the occult. But once you put the book down, and the stories work their way to the back of your mind, you'll start feeling creeped out. VERY creeped out.

The Beast in the Cave, The Alchemist, Poetry and the Gods, The Street, The Transition of Juan Romero, The Book (excerpt), Dagon, The Tomb, Memory, The White Ship, Arthur Jermyn, The Temple, The Terrible Old Man, The Crawling Chaos, The Tree, The Moon-Bog, Herbert West--Reanimator, The Lurking Fear, The Festival, The Unnamable, Imprisoned with the Pharaohs, The Shunned House, He, The Horror at Red Hook, Cool Air, Nathicana, At the Mountains of Madness, In the Walls of Eryx, The Evil Clergyman.

Many of Lovecraft's villains and heroes, which he so smoothly incorporates into his tales, are none other than scholars who are dangerously treading the realms of forbidden knowledge; and hence, desperately attempting to reveal the occult secrets derived from 'actual' hidden and historical documents of the past. He so cleverly weaves these yarns with both fact, fiction and legend, and mysteriously arrives at the ultimate conclusion that "yes, the world and its inhabitants are basically living in a totally unknown void of time and space, yet they are afraid to acknowledge it." One reading these gruesome short stories is left at the threshold of what is and what really may be. Most of these tales are earlier works written in his teens, but are nevertheless disclosing pieces of art prior to his becoming into one of the masters of horror - if not thee master. Mr. Lovecraft hinted at alot more than he outright stated in his writings, and many firmly believe he was either onto something or most likely, something was onto him, which very well may have drove him to the road to madness and to ultimately persuade him to produce the 29 chilling tales of horror encapsuled within this book. GET THESE!!

I heard about HP Lovecraft a little while ago, but never read any of his works until about a month ago when I bought the Best Of collection from Del Rey. I loved it, so I bought this book after getting through most of the first one. After reading The Beast in the Cave, I was hooked on this too.

The best thing about Lovecraft's storytelling is the way he describes things so vividly, and yet leaves a lot to your own imagination. Although he can drag on at times, the stories always come together in the end. One of my favorites is Dagon, with an incredible introduction and conclusion. My personal favorite was probably Memory. It was one page, and it gives you just a taste of Lovecraft's brilliant imagination.

One last note: the cover on this book is incredible. John Jude Palencar is a great artist.

This volume contains a lot of reprints from the smaller books published a few years ago, but if you don't have them, pick this up: it takes up less space. This volume includes Lovecraft's first stumbling attempts at writing (they're still a helluvalot better than I could do) and some fragments, but not all of them (it doesn't include 'Azathoth' which is tied with 'The Rats in the Walls' for my favorite story by Lovecraft). It does include 'Herbert West - Reanimator', which is way classier than the movie 'Reanimator', even though Lovecraft thought the story was garbage. It also includes 'the Lurking Fear' (once again, way classier than the movie) and 'At the Mountains of Madness', which wins my 'Story I Most Want to See Made Into a Movie' award. All in all, a great volume if you don't already have the aforementioned stories.

As an avid reader of Lovecraft's Macabre, I couldn't resist picking up this book and the other two in the series (The Best of H.P. Lovecraft, and The Dream Cycle of H.P. Lovecraft). And it turned out to be a great addition to my library. The starring attraction is At The Mountains of Madness, which automatically makes the book worth the meager cost. One of the nice things about this collection is that it traces some of the early themes in Lovecraft's work to their later maturity. Although the stories are quite varied, you needn't worry about them straying from Lovecraft's trademark theme: cosmic ignorance is a wonderful commodity. I highly recommend this to addicts and newcomers alike.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft ... a writer who has been granted both respect and contempt over the decades, the founder of a school of purple prose-laden horror that has, despite critical approbation, not only survived but thrived in book and cinematic form. New devotees join the cadre of writers who have continued various aspects of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, and Lovecraft himself has had a cinematic avatar in two made-for-cable alternate universe movies, and never mind the rock band named after the man himself (or the growing collection of music based on or inspired by his work.)

Del Rey have been releasing a series of Lovecraft collections in trade paperback, each one with a new introduction and a handful of macabre illustrations. This volume is set up as something of an overview, hence the title, and features not only well-known tales such as "At The Mountains Of Madness" but a selection of early (and more derivative) pieces, a poem that reads like congealed Coleridge, and several collaborations, including a notable adventure produced with the aid of Harry Houdini and a science fiction tale that takes a horrific turn.

The Transition Of H.P. Lovecraft makes a fair introduction to Lovecraft's entire body of writing, but if the mythos is more of interest, then the better choice would likely be the earlier The Dream Cycle Of H.P Lovecraft, though "At The Mountains Of Madness" and "Herbert West - Reanimator" should not be missed.

--Steven McDonal

Years ago I found a tattered old paperback of Lovecraft's work in a used book store. I took it with me up to my uncle's cabin in New Hampshire and, After everyone else had gone to bed, I stretched out on the couch, in a dimly lit room, with a deer's head hanging over me, and read The Lurking Fear. I was hooked, if not more than a little creeped out. Lovecraft's style has a slightly pulpy feel to it, and he frequently uses punch-line endings, but his mastery of atmosphere and mood, coupled with his skill with language, make his stories nothing less than genius. This volume offers a wonderful over view of his history and is certainly a great place to start on your exploration of his work. If you can get yourself to some secluded, and darkened room it will only further add to the effect, especially if there's a deer's head involved. Trust me.