Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
24 used & new from CDN$ 7.15

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: The Best of H. P. Lovecraft
 
 

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

by H.P. Lovecraft (Author) "On July 16, 1923, I moved into Exham Priory after the last workman had finished his labors ..." (more)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 19.95
Price: CDN$ 14.56 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
You Save: CDN$ 5.39 (27%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

12 new from CDN$ 7.15 12 used from CDN$ 11.80

Frequently Bought Together

Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: The Best of H. P. Lovecraft + The Road to Madness + Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
Total List Price: CDN$ 57.95
Price For All Three: CDN$ 42.30

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: The Best of H. P. Lovecraft by H.P. Lovecraft

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • The Road to Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Product Details


Product Description

From Amazon.com

Lovecraft is "the American writer of the twentieth century most frequently compared with Poe, in the quality of his art ... [and] its thematic preoccupations (the obsessive depiction of psychic disintegration in the face of cosmic horror)," writes Joyce Carol Oates in the New York Review of Books. Del Rey has reprinted Lovecraft's stories in three handsome paperbacks. This first volume collects 16 classic tales, including "The Rats in the Walls," "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Dunwich Horror," and "The Colour Out of Space." Introduction by Robert Bloch. Wraparound cover art by Michael Whelan.

Product Description

This is the collection that true fans of horror fiction have been waiting for: sixteen of H.P. Lovecraft's most horrifying visions, including Lovecraft's masterpiece, THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME--the shocking revelation of the mysterious forces that hold all mankind in their fearsome grip.
"I think it is beyond doubt that H.P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the Twentieth Century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."
Stephen King

Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
On July 16, 1923, I moved into Exham Priory after the last workman had finished his labors. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?

Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: The Best of H. P. Lovecraft
69% buy the item featured on this page:
Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: The Best of H. P. Lovecraft 4.6 out of 5 stars (101)
CDN$ 14.56
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
16% buy
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
CDN$ 19.96
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
6% buy
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos 4.4 out of 5 stars (11)
CDN$ 15.33
20th Century Call Of Cthulhu And Other Weird Stories
5% buy
20th Century Call Of Cthulhu And Other Weird Stories 4.1 out of 5 stars (28)
CDN$ 12.05

 

Customer Reviews

101 Reviews
5 star:
 (76)
4 star:
 (16)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (101 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad introduction to Lovecraft's work, Aug 30 2003
By Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
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.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Stories From A Master of Horror, May 7 2004
By A Customer
Writing in the '20s and '30s, and being marginalized by major publishers, H.P. Lovecraft was forced publish his work in various obscure pulp-horror magazines. Unfortunately, his talent as a writer of horror/science fiction wasn't recognized until after his death in the late 1930s, and it was only then that his friends were able to start their own independent publication of his work. Lovecraft's literary talent and the scope of his imagination are well presented in this collection of short stories. Lovecraft admired and emulated the work of Edgar Allan Poe and his short stories follow the same plot structures, themes, and prose as that of Poe's. The narrators are usually avid empiricists such as detectives or scientists who come face to face with the unexplainable. As the story progresses, the narrator's confidence in his logical reasoning or use of the scientific method clashes with the unknown, unfathomable, or unthinkable, and he eventually becomes mad or nihilistic. The stories are almost always in the form of a retrospective narrative whereby the author reassures the reader that he's not mad (i.e. 'After you read what I have to say you will see for yourself whether I'm truly mad...') Many of Lovecraft's stories consist of themes and plots of the occult and his own imagined mythology. Lovecraft developed a mythology (often referred to as the Ctulluh myths) about various races of amorphic aliens who came to live on Earth millions of years ago. Over time, these aliens fought each other and some were vanquished and sealed in their forgotten cities by magic rituals and symbols. Many of the cities, of non-euclidean geometry, are burried in deserts or in antarctic mountains while others lie beneath the sea. Although physically dead, these sentient beings remain active through phenomenal esp powers which they use to control humans. The 'gods' use the humans to spawn and/or to liberate themselves from their prisons. Inspired by his invented mythology of primordial alien creatures, Lovecraft wrote 'That is not dead which can eternal lie, yet in stranger eons even death may die.' So enjoy these wonderful short stories from the master of occult horror. If you love Poe, you will most certainly love Lovecraft.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
5.0 out of 5 stars A collection of great stories, April 27 2004
By G. Swift "97jedi" (Southwestern Missouri) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This anthology contains, for the most part, truly excellent works of horror fiction. Lovecraft is considered by many as the best purveyor of horror fiction of the 20th century, all the more impressive since he did not live beyond the first half.

As with most anthos of fiction, there are some truly great stories in this one, some that are so-so, and some that are not so great. "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Music of Erich Zahn" are two of my favorites of this one. "Call" is the story that really is Lovecraft's best-known, I believe. It was the first to establish very well the pantheon of the Old Ones that appear in so many of his later stories (including those in this collection). There have been a number of emulators of his style, and even products by others based on his works (like role-playing games), but it was reading these originals that really made me long for the older days.

Lovecraft makes painstaking effort to establish mood and environment. There are always unknowns, the cornerstone of his horror. Many take the form of investigations of mysterious happenings, and a number of them are similar to others, but that similarity is more in presentation than in the particulars. It seems that he did a very good job of using new concepts in all the contained stories. Some of the stories in this one really could benefit from a reduction in volume. "The Whisperer in the Dark" simply dragged on way too long. Despite the reader being well aware from the narrative of what was occurring, the narrator himself seemed unable to make the simple conclusion of his situation. I really was disappointed in that one.

As stated, these stories are classics, and nearly all of them are wonderful reads. Even some of those that go on too long have something in them of the refinement of the mythology that Lovecraft was creating. This book is a great buy, even in the slightly more expensive trade paperback format.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars masterful
gloriously haunting tales which prove spine tingling and bone chilling. A true master.
Published on Feb 11 2004 by Author Brian Wallace (Mind Tra...

5.0 out of 5 stars Great writer
Great anthology.

None ever touched him for haunting a landscape in sure, swift movements:

"When a traveller in north central Massachusetts takes the wrong fork at the junction... Read more

Published on Jan 16 2004 by Anton Dolinsky

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovecraft, indeed.
4.5 stars. Mr. Lovecraft is a superb writer, a decent story-teller, and a master of dark tales. This collection has some of his finest work and is a great start to any Lovecraft... Read more
Published on Jan 9 2004 by D. Knouse

5.0 out of 5 stars And to think...I used to think he was overrated
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. Read more
Published on Jan 1 2004 by A.N. Roman

5.0 out of 5 stars My first Lovecraft collection. Need I say I'm pleased?
H P Lovecraft is classified as a horror writer, but I would not put him in that category so readily. Read more
Published on Dec 10 2003 by Eric Drury

5.0 out of 5 stars Trapped by the Lovecraft Mythos
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! Read more
Published on Dec 9 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Step #1: Call Cthulhu. Step #2: Run!
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)... Read more
Published on Nov 25 2003 by Dark Mechanicus JSG

3.0 out of 5 stars A new history.
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. Read more
Published on Nov 14 2003 by Vagabond77

5.0 out of 5 stars This Will Scare the Excrement Out of You
This is a collection of some of the most classic and best written horror stories ever. Written by the master himself; H.P. Lovecraft. Read more
Published on Nov 13 2003 by djhexane

5.0 out of 5 stars If you only ever read one Lovecraft novel...
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. Read more
Published on Nov 13 2003 by cyk1

Only search this product's reviews



Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback


Amazon.ca Privacy Statement Amazon.ca Shipping Information Amazon.ca Returns & Exchanges

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.