Showing results by author "H. P. Lovecraft" in All Categories

Cat haters beware. This piece by H.P. Lovecraft is largely memoirish, whereby the narrator is compelled to tell the listener about Ulthar after petting his own cat. When a travelling caravan passes through, a young orphan named Menes finds his beloved black kitten has gone missing and fears the worst - that his kitten had suffered a torturous end at the hands of the town cat killers. Annoyed by the lack of action on the part of the townspeople, Menes invokes a prayer that results in the cats of the town rising and slaying the cat-killing couple.

Nyarlathotep: descendent of ancient Egyptian pharaohs and bringer of bad dreams. When the story’s namesake begins his travels to showcase his once dormant supernatural powers, he runs into a particularly tough crowd. When Nyarlathotep becomes angry, he sends the crowd in different directions - which brings a seeming horror about the city. By the end of it, the maddened crowd is the least of the world’s worries. Doom, it would seem, was here to stay with Nyarlathotep.

The tomb is the story of Jervas, a little boy whose whole life begins to revolve around the tomb of the Hyde family. A childhood spent sneaking out to sleep beside the tomb eventually turns into a young adulthood of sleeping in a tomb with his name on it. After a stormy night and after heading for the tomb, he turns back and sees the Hyde mansion, which had been burnt down in previous years, aglow with splendor. Once Jervas went inside, the spectral mansion sets ablaze, and his vision is broken by his father. Jervas comes to find out he had never been inside the tomb at all.

When the narrator accompanies a withered old Yankee back to his house, he is intrigued by the many old curiosities he finds around it - including precolonial furniture. One of these curiosities, an engraving, brings the old man on a terrifying reminisce about eating things that he was not allowed to have, and the narrator realizes that he could next on the plate. As blood drips from the ceiling onto the book, the narrator narrowly escapes when a bolt of lightning strikes the house, finally ending his streak of immortality.

The narrator introduces himself as being 228 years old and goes on to document his interactions with Dr. Samuel Johnson. Being older and in a time when respect for elders was everything, the narrator expects Dr. Johnson to appreciate his writing, which the man does not. While the tale goes on to document other awkward meetings with Dr. Johnson, he ultimately dies younger than the narrator - who goes on to continue writing and living an unfulfilled life.

Randolph Carter begins the story telling the harrowing tale to those who found him stumbling through the swamp. Carter and his friend, the occultist Harley Warren, went to investigate the location of a supposed portal to the underworld - near Big Cypress Swamp in Florida. Upon discovery of a tomb with stairs going deep into the earth, Warren decides to descend them. Only after waiting for what seems an eternity does Carter call down into the tomb, only to be returned with a voice that does not belong to Warren telling him that his friend was dead.

This collection comprises H. P. Lovecraft's main and undisputed Dream Cycle stories, including "Polaris", "The White Ship", "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", and "The Outsider". 

Von 1973 bis 1990 strahlte Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) die beliebte Hörfunksendung "Nur für starke Nerven" (ab 1987 unter dem Namen "Die Mitternachtsstory") aus. Der Schauspieler Friedrich Schönfelder las darin Grusel- und Kriminalgeschichten für Erwachsene zur guten Nacht vor. Bezeichnenderweise schlug er selbst 1972 der Unterhaltungsabteilung des SFB vor, eine Sendereihe zu starten, in der von ihm redaktionell ausgewählte Gruselgeschichten zu Gehör kommen sollten.

This collection features seven classic Lovecraft tales that can be listened to in between 15 and 30 minutes: "From Beyond", "The Outsider", "The Hound", "He", "Cool Air", "The Strange High House in the Mist", and "The Disinterment".

Eerie old houses, wretched smiles, mausoleums, and banshees. Stories from masters of the horror genre, M.R. James, F. Marion Craword, Edgar Allan Poe, W.W. Jacobs, Amelia Edwards, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, and H.P. Loveraft, stories to make your body tingle and your mind play tricks.

The two stories in this collection, The Shunned House and The Dunwich Horror, are notable demonstrations of Lovecraft’s ability to build and sustain narratives permeated with a unique flavor of foreboding and horror. 

When Robert Blake took his lodgings on the Upper East Side he thought that the view across the city would inspire his writing. But the mysterious church steeple across the valley kept drawing his attention. Something was different about it, something mysteriously alluring. Finally he can resist no longer and makes his way to the church. The locals shun the church, which has been locked for decades. So Blake breaks in and finds the unimaginable: horror, and madness, and the Haunter of the Dark.

The pioneer of modern-era horror stories, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, meets one of his "gurus" - Edgar Allan Poe (Lovecraft himself is sometimes referred to as E. A. Poe's direct successor). "William Wilson" is a typical specimen of Poe’s fantastic, even mystic style that won him world renown. H. P. Lovecraft is also the author of the other two short stories - "The Terrible Old Man" and "Ex Oblivione". Curiously enough, Lovecraft's name now defines one of the subgenres of horror literature (the fear of the unknown, as opposed to a bloodbath).

"Beyond the Wall of Sleep" is a short story from 1919 based on the innovative (at that time) idea of using psychology for explaining real-life issues. Incidentally, a near namesake song ("Behind the Wall of Sleep") appeared on the debut album of Black Sabbath. The second story, "From Beyond" (written in 1920, published in 1934), hovers around the theme of a mad scientist willing to peek beyond reality. It inspired a few films, songs by death-metal bands, and it even features in the PC game, "Half-Life". The last story of the trio is "The Transition of Juan Romero", from 1919. The feature "character" is a mysterious evil encountered in an ancient ritual to the Mexican deity, Huitzilopochtli.

"The Music of Erich Zann" by H. P. Lovecraft: the author himself considered the story to be one of his masterpieces, and it is often deservedly included in various horror-story collections. The second short story was written by Bram Stoker. Indeed, THAT Stoker who wrote the epistolary novel "Dracula" - the very first novel that dealt with a vampire legend. "The Judge's House" (written in 1914) completes the collection, and its strongest point is building the atmosphere of fear, which is underlined by excellent voices and music.

"The Outsider" is one of most often published short stories by H. P. Lovecraft, and it has proven to be very popular with both readers and listeners. Lovecraft himself thought that he came near to Poe's style in this story (the first paragraphs are an echo of "Berenice" by E. A. Poe, and the inspiration of "The Masque of Red Death" is also pretty clear). This short story is probably the most elaborate story by Lovecraft, with echoes of his gurus and multifaceted references. The atmosphere is emphasized by actors' performances, music, and the graphics on the cover.

The author of the first short story - "The Haunted Dolls' House" - is Montague Rhodes James, "master of terror and monstrous visions". "Cool Air" and "Azathoth" by Howard Phillips Lovecraft complete the collection. The atmosphere of horror and mystery is underlined by excellent performances by all actors and music.

Friends since childhood, Dan and Edward had a closeness that allowed them to share the deepest of secrets. Yet when Edward's marriage led him into a study of the dark arts it drove a wedge of horror between these best of friends. In this classic stand alone tale of horror, occultism, and madness, H. P. Lovecraft adds to his mythos with a tale that builds on the story of the Escape from Innsmouth. Interestingly it also crosses over with the Robert E. Howard's story called The Black Stone, making this story an essential for fans of Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos.

"The Crawling Chaos" is a short story by American writers H. P. Lovecraft and Winifred V. Jackson first published April 1921 in the United Cooperative. As in their other collaboration, "The Green Meadow", the tale was credited to "Elizabeth Berkeley" and "Lewis Theobald, Jun". Lovecraft wrote the entire text, but Jackson is also credited since the story was based on a dream she experienced.

A Gloucester fishing crew lands a monster after a 40-hour battle at sea. Turns out that this behemoth is only a baby, and what ensues later should keep you well on shore.