Rating: 
Summary: And to think...I used to think he was overrated
Review: I was introduced into Lovecraft's in 1999 after finding out his work heavily influenced the classic PC game- Alone in the Dark, which started the survival/horror genre. I bought this book, figuring that it would be the best place to start as it's a best of collection. Sadly, I thought some of the stories were overwritten, and put it down for a few years. Then, just last month, I decided to give this one another chance after a friend mentioned "Whisperer in the Darkness" as his favorite story. I remembered that one being in here and gave it a go.No short story has impressed me as much as that one. With just that story, I mean it when I say that Lovecraft was/is a genius. I highly reccomend that as your first reading if you're new. The way he describes the simplest things is incredible. I'd never think that a robotic voice could be so detailed in text, but he does it, and the way he does sends chills through you. A good portion of "The Whisperer in the Darkness" is told via letters between the two main characters...and once they started up, I didn't stop reading. I'll stop right there, as I could do a whole review about that one alone. Again, I highly reccomend that as a first reading. Other stories in this collection that I found to be perfectly executed include: The Picture in the House- while short, this one also impressed me. I can see how many of the horror movies of the 70's and 80's were probably inspired by this. It's about a man that goes into a house during a storm, and comes accross rare books...one of which has a page dealing with cannibalism...and the book seemed to open right to that page, as if it was frequently looked to. The Rats in the Walls- actually, this didn't draw me in like other stories in the collection. It took forever to start: about 2/3 of the story is just a background of one's family. Really, you can skip most of it and you'll understand the later parts. It's in this story that I first started seeing hints of Lovecraft's racism. The Call of Cthulhu- probably Lovecraft's most well known entity/character: Cthulhu. This also, would be a fantastic introduction, as Cthulhu is mentioned countless times in other stories. The Outsider- yeah it's a little predictable, but I like the way the world is described. And some others of course include The Dunwich Horror, The Colour Out Of Space, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. ...I'm starting to ramble, but get this collection and be impressed. From just a few short stories, it's inspired me to start writing my own fictional horror. Lovecraft didn't just write horror though, he messed with your mind with it. Nobody just dies in his stories, many people go through psychological torture over periods of time. After this, you should go for 'The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories'. While it has most of the stories in this book, it also offers a section of explanitory notes which is very handy and educational. Beware of claw prints.
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Summary: My first Lovecraft collection. Need I say I'm pleased?
Review: H P Lovecraft is classified as a horror writer, but I would not put him in that category so readily. He did make some chilling tales, but then, so did humour writer Terry Pratchett on multiple occasions. The ones featuring nightmarish Nyarlathotep were especially chilling. But most of his tales were not very scary. They were enjoyable, well written (for the most part), and featured excellent monsters, a must in these kinds of stories. But they uusually weren't scary. H P lovecraft's writing style was unique. He enjoyed using adjetives like "eldritch" and "quamous". "Cylclopean" was a big favorite. Words like "horror", "horrifying", and "horrible" all occured many times in a single page. And, once per story, the phrase "The thing cannot be described" or a similar sentence occurs. usually right before an excellent description of the thing, too. Sometimes, long after it was described, multiple times. The description of his writing style makes it sound like I don't like it, but in fact, I think it's part of the reason everybody enjoys his work so. That, and his well thought out and believable history of the universe. (There actually is a popular opinion that Cthulhu not only exists, but is running for president in 2004. There's another one saying he's already won the election.) And now, the stories. I recommend not reading them in any particular order, but I'll put them in the order I read them in. The Call of Cthulhu: The first of the Cthulhu Mythos. A absolutely fabulous tale about an evil elder God beneath the seas. Features one of the best climaxes I've seen. Cthulhu is a great monster. The Dunwich Horror: When I first read this story, I didn't like it much, and when I reread it later, I loved it. An evil warlock is out to do some evil with Yog Sothoth, pretty fun, really. The Outsider: Simple story, predictable, But not particularily horrible. 'Bout average. The Shadow Over Innsmouth: While it's pretty obvious what's so strange about Innsmouth long before they reveal it, this is a great example of Lovecraft. The escape from Innsmouth had me on the edge of my toenails. Pickman's Model: The main attraction here is Lovecraft's fantastic descriptions of the paintings. After initially saying they can't be described, he proceeds to describe them richly and wonderfully. Recommended. The Haunter of the Dark: I didn't like this one much at all. While I thought the idea of the Trapezohedron was interesting, and what it was used for, but the story felt weak for the most part. Dreams in the Witch House: Wonderful. A student at Miskatonic University takes up lodgings a the home of the witch Keziah, and when his studies turn towards the space time continuum, Keziah, her ratlike familiar, and Nyarlathotep come to haunt his dreams. The Whisperer in the Darkness: Another good one. Most of the story is told through letters between two correspondents, adding a chilling feel, and while he's not mentioned out loud, the prescence of Nyarlathotep is implied, adding, as I mentioned earlier, a fearful prescence to the story. The Colour Out of Space: A starnge meteorite plagues a New England farm. This one is tremendously good, and is not to be missed. It's hard to really describe this one, so you'll just have to read it. The Silver Key: Features Randolph Carter, a depressed man who used to escape through fantastic dreams, but no longer has them. This story didn't really impress me, although Randolph was a nice diversion from the usual fearful professors of Lovecraft's stories. The Music of Erich Zann: Weird, weird, weird. A mute, deaf musician plays unusual songs which cause a young man to question him. Worth reading. In the Vault: I simply did not like this one. If I have to say something positive about this one, it manages to be both utterly confusing and insanely predictable. Not an easy task. The Shadow out of Time: Ah. This one is amazing. A man's head is switched with the mind of an alien race from the distant past. The very history of Earth is described in minute detail. A predictable ending, but otherwise perfect. The Thing on the Doorstep: This one blends a lot of Lovecraft's ideals. Innsmouth, switched minds, nameless horrors, etc. I suppose that's about it, really. The Picture in the House: A simple tale, seems like something that'd easily be converted into a five minute movie. It's okay. The Rats in the Walls: Very good. A man's inherited home has a dark secret within. Another that's hard to say much about. You'll just have to read it. As a note of warning, H P Lovecraft was racist, and his views are reflected in these stories. I ecommend that you just ignore it. It's not that bad. Overall, this is a fine introduction to the universe of H P Lovecraft. Purists say that Del Rey doesn't do him justice, but I'm not exactly a purist yet, so I don't mind.
Rating:
Summary: Trapped by the Lovecraft Mythos
Review: Once you start reading the "H.P.Lovecraft" stories in this book you will be under the power of Cthulhu and the horrible Yog-Sothoth! Lovecraft's arcane "Mythos" takes you back to dark ages and to your basic childhood fears. Some modern stories like "The Riddle of Cthulhu" add adventure and romance to the Lovecraft mythos, but this classical collection of stories will always be at the heart of it all. Soon you will be under Cthulhu's power and then you will have to read ALL the new "Lovecraft Mythos" books. Just you wait and see!
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Summary: Step #1: Call Cthulhu. Step #2: Run!
Review: If you haven't had the pleasure of encountering H.P. Lovecraft's "Call of Cthulhu" (Kuh-THOO-Loo, for those struggling with an idiom not meant for the human tongue and larynx) before, then I envy you---particularly if you're hunkered beneath the sheets of an antique bed in the garret bedroom of an 18th century Yankee farmhouse where all you can hear---now and then, when you strain your ears and dare to listen---is the beating of your own heart, and the squeak of an errant floorboard. H.P. Lovecraft himself is something of an enigma in the world of 20th century American Letters. The scholarly, polite, bookish recluse of Providence corresponded with so many of the great fantasists of his day (including R.E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith), yet traveled rarely, sharing with fellow New Englander Emily Dickenson a reticence of the body offset by a wanderlust of the mind. It is a marvel, having shivered through the entire works of what I regard as a Grandmaster of American horror, that such an intensely, acutely private man could have conjured up such vistas of the Weird, the Bizarre, the Malignant, and Apocalyptic, and could have presented them in such an indelible, blackly intimate, leeringly diabolic fashion.
Del Rey's "Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre", while scant on extras and certainly not one to lavish the adoring treatment afforded Lovecraft's work by Arkham House, nonetheless gets the job done. This is a seminal collection of vintage, unalloyed Lovecraftian goodness, 16 classic tales that will slake the dark thirst of the jaded Cthulhu aficionado while simultaneously scaring the bewhooskers out of new readers. "Bloodcurdling Tales" gathers together all of Lovecraft's classic terror tales (with the exception of "At the Mountains of Madness", which can be found in Del Rey's equally tasty "The Road to Madness"). In "The Rats in the Walls", the scion of an ancient New England line comes cheek to ratty jowl with the implications of his inheritance; "The Picture in the House", one of my favorites, is a homely paean to recrudescent terror and the joys of home cooking. "The Colour out of Space" proves the American family farm really *is* in trouble, "Pickman's Model" is a devilish black joke on the old axiom "Art Imitates Life", and "The Thing on the Doorstep" serves as a cautionary tale on the perils of yet another form of Black Magic: Love & Marriage. Then there are the three jewels in this cancred Crown: "The Shadow over Innsmouth", one of Lovecraft's finest and most operatic works (and recently adapted into the rippingly good movie "Dagon" by Stuart Gordon) is a slithery, subversive riff on the infamous theme of the Very Unfriendly Town. "The Call of Cthulhu" is a globe-trotting epic, the very lodestone of the Cthulhu Mythos, and features a special guest appearance by none other than Cthulhu Itself---the reason for the Season, if you will. "The Dunwich Horror" is an equally nasty and seminal piece of grue, and all of Lovecraft's favorite ingredients are in place: the warlock who went one step too far, forbidden knowledge as cancerous and transformative rot, invisible horrors that stalk through shady New England thickets, and the shocking decay of formerly noble Yankee bloodlines. In Lovecraft's malignant universe, there are timeless horrors older by millennia than man. There are shapeless, hungry things that call the derelict and forgotten subways and caverns beneath Boston and New York their bowers and lairs, and would blast the sanity of a modern man schooled in reason and the scientific method. There is a reason Man is afraid of the Dark. There are Nightmares here: monsters tampering with space-time itself and hungry to break through into what we call Reality, beasts that shamble in defiled churches and ravaged tombs, ghouls hungry for flesh, madmen hungry for power. Sorcery and necromancy really works in a fashion: Lovecraft himself is proof of it. Though the author lies interred in Swan Point Cemetery beneath a hulking goblin tree festered with white fungus, he yet lives through his diabolic and shivery words, and exerts a far greater influence in our 21st century---through film, through image, through art, through books---than he ever did in the whisper of time he walked the streets of Providence. Lovecraft's work is powerful proof that literature can serve as Incantation.
Rating: 
Summary: A new history.
Review: H.P. Lovecraft is one of the largest influence in horror and fantasy history. Lovecraft was influenced by Edgar Allen Poe. He was a contemperary of Robert E. Howard (Conan's Hyborian Age is actually created by Lovecraft). He has influenced everyone from Stephen King to Brian Lumbly to Clive Barker for years, and probably will for the rest of time. Lovecraft was a man who lived in the 20s and 30s, and had a macabre imagination. His stories centered around a race of aliens that landed on Earth before man evolved from the amebea. These aliens went underground at the first ice age, but they weren't entirly forgotten. From time to time men rise who know the old and terrible magicks. He only wrote one novel, but that is not part of this series. What is here is the core of the Cthulhu Mythos. "Call of Cthulhu" is mostly the investigation into the mysterious cult dedicated to raising the priest of the Old Ones. "Dunwich Horror" is about the infamous Necronomicon. My favorite is "Shadow Over Innsmouth", about the joining of human and fish species. All the stories are good and worth reading. It is a little depressing because it is implied that we (humans) are destined to lose the battle. If you're interested in the history, find and read "At the Mountains of Madness", unfortunately not in this volume. There are some drawbacks to Lovecraft. He is real hard to read, it is highly poetic, and is in love with obscure adjectives and Old English spelling (color is colour), and he isn't always very clear in his descriptions of action.
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Summary: If you only ever read one Lovecraft novel...
Review: Then make it this one. I don't know if it's truly the "best", but nearly every story in this collection is a 5-star story. My mom gave me this book for Christmas when I was 15; I didn't read it until I was 17. I can remember being deliciously, ridiculously afraid that Cthulhu was going to rise up and eat the world for about a month after I read it. I emphatically say that if you consider yourself to be a well-read individual, especially in regard to horror stories, then you need to familiarize yourself with Lovecraft. There are many many collections out there--but this one is quite accessible and quite, quite good. In here you will find stories about the Cthulhu mythos, mention of the Necronomicon, and numerous occurences of the word "eldritch". All three of the above are, at this point in time, well-known and well-used terms in the horror industry, thanks mostly (or entirely) to Lovecraft. If you've ever come across those terms and wanted to know more, here's a good place to start. And, moms and dads, Lovecraft doesn't curse, and there is never any sex in his works (that I have come across), and I am positive that there is none of either in this book. Not much in the way of gory description either. Does that mean I'm recommending Lovecraft to kids? Sure, ages 14 and up, provided they're not already scared of the dark!
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad introduction to Lovecraft's work
Review: These are the stories included in this collection. The Rats In The Walls
The Picture In The House
The Outsider
Pickman's Model
In The Vault
The Silver Key
The Music of Erich Zann
The Call of Cthulhu
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer Of Darkness
The Colour Out Of Space
The Haunter Of The Dark
The Thing On The Doorstep
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Dreams In The Witch-House
The Shadow Out Of Time First time readers expecting something contemporary will be in for a shock. Most of Lovecraft's writing style is straightforward narrative, no characters speaking, and it may seem dry and drab. Most of the time, the protagonist is in the first person and is told from the point of view of that person looking back on the story or reporting it from a journalistic point of view. The stories are set in New England, mostly Arkham, Massachusetts which houses Miskatonic University. Most of them fall under unknown horrors, strange beings from another universe (the Great Old Ones), and things that wouldn't be out of place in the Twilight Zone, Ray Bradbury Presents, or Tales From The Crypt. One of these stories, The Dunwich Horror, about how a human mutates in the course of the story, was made into a movie in 1970, and that has some actual dialogue. The Colour In Space is actually an interesting one, portraying the devastating effects a meteor has on a valley and the family living in it, could make a good made-for-TV drama. So could The Shadow Of Innsmouth, about a strange-looking group of people and a weird race found in the Pacific. The protagonist learns the bulk of the story from a Zadok Allen, a 96-year old man who has witnessed a lot in the town, and there is dialogue, mostly from Allen. The weirdest story is The Shadow Out Of Time, which deals astral travels a man may or may not have experienced, and encountering a race that might have existed back in time. What brought me to buy one of his collections of short stories was the interest in the Old Ones, powerful beings from another universe who exert their evil powers on Earth from afar. After reading most of these stories, I'll say it'll take me a while to get into Lovecraft, although I find some of the stories imaginative. As for bloodcurdling and macabre, well, maybe for its day, but not today.
Rating:
Summary: Best single Lovecraft collection
Review: Having thought this one was out of print, I was about to get the Joshi/Penguin editions, but stopped after I saw this was still around. A few people's favorites are missing, but this is the closest thing to the core of HPL's weird imagination. Joshi's endnotes might be interesting to those who like such things, but HPL is not yet (thankfully) the kind of author who must be annotated if he is to be understood. I can't really add anything to what so many others have said about HPL's appeal. The magnificent paranoia of his tales, the notoriously purple style and eerily repetitive plots - it's not a stylistic or imaginative fault, the repetition, so much as something almost Freudian - makes them uniquely memorable. I haven't read an HPL story in 10 years, I'd say, but having been reminded of him the other day, I'm looking forward to ordering this collection & renewing the acquaintance. (Oh, & note to whoever wondered what T.S. Eliot/Virginia Woolf fans would make of HPL: I'm a fan of all 3, and there's something about HPL's construction of an alternate universe, viewable only through the fragmented reports of his narrators' horrible experiences, that has a very modernist quality, to say nothing of the themes of decadence and insanity. Modernism cuts a broad swath, as I noted Louis Menand recognized when he compared Tolkien's appeal to Proust's in the NYRB a while back ....)
Rating:
Summary: A master of horror fiction!
Review: H.P. Lovecraft is, quite simply, brilliant. His stories can be read on so many levels -- they are wonderful for reading late at night (I can't read some of them when I'm alone at night, they're so scary), and just downright enjoyable for anyone who wants a good scare. But on top of that, his heavy referencing to ancient cultures and mythologies makes his writing something more than simple 'Oh no, here comes the monster' fiction. He represents the elder gods as they must have seemed to the people who once worshipped them: dark, unpredictable figures of terrifying power. This book collects some of his very best stories -- the "must read" of H.P. Lovecraft -- all in one very handsome volume. The reason I give this book four stars is because Lovecraft's intricate prose can be too murky for some. His writing does take a certain amount of mental engagement, and someone who's looking for shivers without having to think should probably look elsewhere.
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Summary: Great introduction to Lovecraft's works
Review: I first read Lovecraft in 1982, when this book came out. I have been a lifelong fan ever since. I own many, many editions of Lovecraft, but this is the one I give as a gift when someone wants to experience Lovecraft for the first time. It's the best single-volume introduction ever printed. The selection of stories (more or less) mirrors _The Dunwich Horror and Others_, the classic Arkham House collection, but costs half as much, and presents a truly definitive selction of stories. The Michael Whelan cover illustration is not directly illustrative of any of Lovecraft's stories, but is metaphorical of many of them. Hesitate no longer. If you want a Lovecraft book, buy this one, and probably _At the Mountains of Madness_.
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