The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre

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Summary: Nobody can give you nightmares like Lovecraft.
Review: If your like me and perused a Lovecraft short story in some sundry horror collection and were driven to pursue more of his frightfully addictive visions, this is the volume to have. Handy collection of 16 of Lovecraft's most terrifying works will fit snugly on your reading table, ready for you to take a mesmerizingly chilling plunge into his domain of otherworldly horrors existing just beyond the corner of our eye. Comes with a splendid introduction and biographical sketch of Lovecraft by Robert Bloch.

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Summary: Contents of this book
Review: 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 the Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror, The Whisperer in Darkness, The Colour Out of Space, The Hunter in the Dark, The Thing on the Doorstep, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Dreams in the Witch-House, The Shadow Out of Time.

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Summary: 'Best' of Lovecraft misleading.
Review: I believe another reviewer has already stated that what is contained in this volume seems closer to a most 'accessible' Lovecraft collection than a best of, although the inclusion of pieces such as the Silver Key does give this volume a higher ratio of excellent stories than the clearly-not-best-of Transitions volume also published by Del Ray. What is missing here are the two mature works, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kaddath and (my particular favorite) At the Mountains of Madness. It is difficult to consider this volume to represent the best Lovecraft when it instead seems to (especially in the first few stories) represent the most generic Lovecraft. Some of the man's best and most imaginative stories are not to be found here, but to give the volume credit, it is certainly a well balenced collection with no genuinely weak stories (though the second one--called something like 'the picture in the house' or something like that, is so absurdly predictable that it is hard to understand how it made it into this volume. On another note, upon recent rereading, I must agree with the introduction that appears in the Arkham house Dagon volume, in which the author (I cannot recall his name) states boldly that Lovecraft's horror has not aged well, while his science fiction and fantasy--especially his fantasy--still feels quite inspired and original. But readers of this volume will miss out on most of Lovecraft's fantasy. What they will get instead are pieces like the Dunwich horror, which as the century closes reads more like a potential script idea for a B film made by the likes of Roger Coreman. If we cannot laugh at the invisible monster as it knocks down trees and eats cows in the backwater community of Dunwich, then we must certainly laugh at the 'action scientists' who seem to be trained in at least 5 different fields and who are reluctant to bring in other help as they alone can protect the earth from the strange invisible monster! I do enjoy Lovecraft tremendously, but there are as many odd things to laugh at as there are trully brilliant things--most of which stem from those things the man thought beautiful and wonderous, not his monsters. To wrap this up then, is Lovecraft the greatest horror author of the 20th century? Well I'll certainly take him over the other hacks who have written in this area, but for all those who seem to think that everything that Lovecraft accomplished was creating the Cthulu mythos and the Necronomicon, I strongly suggest looking beyond the monsters and see what the man was trying to say about the nature of consciousness and those who feel drawn inexplicable to those things mysterious and beautiful whose unearthly source is as intangible as are the passing images of dreams. Lovecraft seems forever to be an author frustrated with communicating that sense of wonder, and in frustration was born Cthulu and all the other horrors; creative works, but not the essential idea of Lovecraft.

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Summary: Lovecraft is the best!
Review: Lovecraft is my favorite author of all time, and this book compiles his best work all into one. A must read if you are at all interested in the horror genre!

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Summary: Peerless - but it helps if you know New England
Review: I read my first Lovecraft story in 7th grade some years ago. It was the "Shadow Over Innsmouth," and I instantly became a Lovecraft addict. I grew up in Rhode Island, so Lovecraft's home turf (which he never left in his entire life except for a brief sojourn in New York) is mine as well. Although Lovecraft's most famous locations (Innsmouth, Dunwich, Arkham, Kingsport) are entirely fictional, his writing is so grounded in the topography and architecture of New England that it really helps your reading of him to have in mind the huge forests of the region, the harsh terrain, the ancient and beautiful architecture, and most of all, the constant presence of the sea, the gorgeousness and menace of which is beautifully displayed in the "Shadow Over Innsmouth." Oddly enough, I've never found his stories frightening in the way a Steven King tale is frightening - Lovecraft is never visceral, and he rarely writes about any human relationship other than scholarly confraternity. Instead, his stories unnerve the mind and the psyche, lingering in thought long after a first reading. In this particular collection, his most famous stories are republished and they all pack a wallop. While I can't help but condemn Lovecraft's obvious racism (non-WASP people are definitely inferior in his universe), his anxieties about bodily disintegration and genetic degeneration, invariably caused by hubristic contact with Nameless Ones whom mankind was not meant to know about, really pack a wallop. The best of these tales, "...Innsmouth," "The Colour Out of Space," "The Rats in the Walls," "The Shadow Out of Time," and "The Dunwich Horror" really make you feel how old the universe is, and how tiny and fragile our planet is when compared to the titanic forces which brought it into being just a short time ago. And his style is, in this age of unending would be-Hemingways, a delight to the eye and the mind. If you can handle an author of such a scholarly temperament, you should love this stuff. And don't expect any sex either - women are virtually absent from Lovecraft's universe, so there are no beautiful heroines here who must be saved, thank God, just intelligent men who fall victim to forces beyond their ken which they were foolish enough to think that they could control. Wonderful and thought-provoking!

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Summary: One of the best horror writers humanity will ever have.
Review: Lovecraft is simply fantastic! His Mythology (well, with the help of others) is so complex and so good, that there's people out there that believe it is true! Damn, I even know a guy that believes Cthulhu is for real! I remember I was 14 years when I bought my first Lovecraft. That day I was supposed to attend a dance I had been invited to, something strange bearing in mind my anti-social behavior, so I was supposed not to miss the chance. Damn that Lovecraft guy! Thanks to him, I didn't attend the one and only dance I was ever going to be asked to attend! I am a top-notch science fiction fan, and my interest include Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Crichton among others, so it is quite difficult for a horror writter to influence my life, but Lovecraft's a different story. This is TRUE horror, not a killer clown or a crazy red car (if you know what I mean) but real horror that goes deep into your mind. Horror that explores the darkest and deepest phobias of the human being. Really, pick any of Lovecraft's anthologies, and you won't be sorry you did so. Also, if you're looking for any other writer that is anything closer to Lovecraft (Besides his colaborators) read Brian Lumley.

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Summary: the best-as far as ican see
Review: I don't know if I am the right one to critique this work, since I have no love for this genre, but I must say H.P. lovecraft is the best practicioner of this type of writing. I can see the influences that King, Rice and the rest that Lovecraft had on them. Everyone else that came later seemed but pale imitators. For instance, his story "Colour out of space" told the same story in thirty pages that Stephen King took 400 in his bloated "Tommyknockers", and much more effectively. Comparing Lovecraft to any of the modern practitioners of this genre is like comparing F.W. Murnau or Fritz Lang to the makers of the Friday the 13th movies. There is no comaparison.

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Summary: Lovecraft is the true grandmaster of horror and suspense.
Review: Lovecraft is simply the best. This master of horror and suspense carries a narrative that puts modern horror writers to shame. His writing is truly incredible! I just can't get over how absolutely engrossing his writing style is. Lovecraft, one day I'll put flowers at your grave.

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Summary: Seriously Disturbing Stuff, They're Great!!!
Review: I got this book because I am interested in the roots of popular horror fiction. This stuff is much more subliminal, much more suggestive than the modern day, in your face type of horror writing. It's like the convergence of country and blues that formed rock and roll, if you read it you see where it's going. But this stuff is the best, the original, usually set in places where there isn't electricity. So when it gets dark there, it really gets dark. A great compilation by a master of creeping suspense and the monster in the shadows.

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Summary: Lovecraft - the True Master of Horror
Review: Lovecraft is able to create an atmosphere of fear, loathing, and dread with mere words. His sometimes overwhelming descriptions can paint a picture in your mind like few others. On the cover Stephen King credits Lovecraft as the "greatest practitioner" of the horror tale.