The Dunwich Horror and Others [Hardcover]

H. P. Lovecraft (Author), S. T. Joshi (Editor), Robert Bloch (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1984

H. P. Lovecraft (1890 - 1937) was the most important American horror fiction writer of the first half of the 20th century whose fiction, especially about the Cthulhu Mythos universe, spanned both time and space.

He never achieved financial success; however, he did become good friends with several big writers, notably Robert Bloch (Psycho) and Robert E. Howard of Conan fame. The "Cthulhu Mythos" grew out of the Lovecraft Circle, a writing group where everyone shared in Lovecraft's Mythos stories. The most famous of these were "The Call of Cthulhu" and "At the Mountains of Madness".

Many novels and stories have come from his Mythos tales, one of the most famous being The Necronomicon, written by the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, which first appeared in Lovecraft's story "The Hound".

Lovecraft's health and financial situation began to fail seriously in the mid-1930s. He died in 1937 of cancer of the intestine, never knowing what a giant of the horror genre he was to become.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 433 pages
• Publisher: Arkham House Pub; Eleventh edition (October 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870540378
• ISBN-13: 978-0870540370
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.4 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,228,015 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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Lovecraft - Best of the Best September 26, 2000

By Zack Davisson HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

In my humble opinion, there are two ways to read Lovecraft. The first, and best, is to get your hands on an original "Weird Tales" or other pulp. There is something about the musty smell that adds to the tale. For true connoisseurs, read them under the covers with a flashlight, late in the evening hours.

Realizing that original pulps may be prohibitively expensive, the Arkham House Editions are the next option. These hardback treasures are as much a part of Lovecraft's legacy as the stories themselves. Lovecraft would be all but forgotten if it were not for the small circle of friends who founded Arkham House, with the sole mission of keeping his writings in print. Arkham House is the definitive Lovecraft volume.

"The Dunwich Horror and Others" contains some of Lovecraft's finest (and most popular) stories. Here is that slippery tale of a town, an ocean, and an undiscovered heritage "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," the eerie and resounding "The Music of Erich Zann," the much-adapted and still classic "The Colour Out of Space," my personal favorite "The Rats in the Walls," the tile story "The Dunwich Horror" and many other chilling tales.

And let's not forget "The Call of Cthulhu."

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Arkham House Collection May 16, 2001

By Ben Thompson

Format:Hardcover

This is the best Lovecraft edition for those who have been acquainted with Lovecraft and like his writings. Definately the best of the Arkham House collections and is the first of the Arkham House books to get. Probably not the best for those unfamiliar with Lovecraft just because of the cost.

This collection includes my favorite Lovecraft story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", as well as the wonderful stories "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Dunwich Horror". Some of the other better stories include "The Music of Erich Zann" and "Pickman's Model". Robert Bloch's introduction is a nice supplement to Lovecraft's writings. Highly recommended, but I also recommend buying additional Lovecraft because this collection does leave out some Lovecraft gems(i.e. "At the Mountains of Madness").

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Settle for Cheap Imitations May 3, 2004

By David D. Warner

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been at a loss for a couple of years to find something to read that really grabs me. In fact, I usually find myself bored beyond tears with the recent spate of pulp and sloppy nonsense that gets passed off as literature by most of our contemporary, popular authors. So lately, I've been going back and trying to catch up on the works of acclaimed authors from the 20th Century, focusing on those that I never had the time or opportunity to read before now. This week, I stumbled upon THE DUNWICH HORROR AND OTHERS by H.P. Lovecraft and was introduced to Lovecraft's whole weird and fascinating world of "the Cthulhu Mythos". I was familiar with some of Lovecraft's more popular short stories, mainly from their bad movie adaptations (THE DUNWICH HORROR and RE-ANIMATOR spring to mind), and I've read many times where others among my favorite authors have called him "their inspiration" or "a genius ranking with Poe, Hawthorne, and Conrad". I knew that his mythology provided a backdrop for most everything produced by Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, Caitlin Kiernan, and Neil Gaiman, to the entertaining EVIL DEAD movie trilogy, even to BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and DARK SHADOWS of TV-dom. But I'd never had a chance to read Lovecraft's work for myself until now. I've always loved a good scare and a really creepy story. Trouble is, they're just so damned hard to find! And when you find one that starts out with great potential, it usually degenerates into formulaic banality and clichés by the end. However, I now understand why Lovecraft is so admired. While his writing style is clearly dated, his stories are downright frightening. It's awfully hard for anything, let alone a book, to make my hair stand on end or give me gooseflesh, but I usually get at least one good case of crawling flesh from each of Lovecraft's stories and, in many instances, they delivered so much more. Not since my first reading of Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE have I walked away from a book and had to shake it off physically before I could move on to something else. There are many Lovecraft imitators out there. But if you haven't tried a genuine Lovecraft, you haven't even begun to know horror.