The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales

Description

An introduction to the weird and unsettling world of H.P. Lovecraft, master of horror and pioneer of 'weird fiction' An introduction to the weird and unsettling world of H.P. Lovecraft, master and pioneer of horror. Between these pages you will find things that lurk, things that scurry in the walls, things that move unseen, things that have learnt to walk that ought to crawl, unfathomable blackness, unconquerable evil, inhuman impulses, abnormal bodies, ancient rites, nameless lands best left undiscovered, thoughts best left unspoken, doors best left closed, names best forgotten. You have been warned.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island on August 20, 1890. His father, a traveling salesman, suffered a nervous breakdown three years later and was hospitalised until his death in 1898, from a form of syphilis. Lovecraft's family experienced financial difficulties after the death of his grandfather in 1904, and the shame of this deeply affected the young writer. His relationship with his mother was severely troubled, and she was also hospitalised after a nervous breakdown in 1919. After a brief marriage and a period living in Brooklyn where he first began publishing his stories in the magazine Weird Tales, Lovecraft returned to Providence where he continued to write stories, and supported himself through ghost-writing. He continued to be plagued by money problems, and died in relative poverty on March 15, 1937. His numerous stories, novellas and poem were never collected and properly published during his lifetime.

The twentieth century horror story's dark and baroque prince -- Stephen King Dark, weird tales about tentacled beasts, ancient artifacts that ooze unidentifiable slime and baby-eating cultists eager to bring about the end of the world * New York Times * Lovecraft found a voice that was profoundly his own -- and brought horror into the 20th century. His best stories sent the gothic into collision with science fiction and offered a bleak vision of a world whose thin veneer of civilization was being stripped away by an implacable zeal for knowledge * Washington Post * The founding father of what has become known as "weird fiction''...Lovecraft has nothing in common with Anita Brookner * Daily Telegraph *