Customer Reviews

The Road to Madness

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

this first book in a planned tetrology scores high. Mostly, I suppose, because it's true Lovecraft, no latter day additions. If you're new, check out the humongous catalog of modern writers influenced by the strange Howard Phillips, (King fans try "Jerusalems Lot", or "Crouch End") "Imprisoned with the Pharoahs" may be thee best horror story of the 20th century!!

The works of H.P. Lovecraft loom like a shadow over today's modern horror fiction. His brilliance forshadowed the likes of Stephen King, Clive Barker and many others. The works here in "The Road to Madness" only reinforce this fact. Included is the outstanding "Herbert West: Re-Animator." Lovecraft was a master of the realistic setting which makes the eruption of the irrational that much more unnerving. Indeed, when Lovecraft is at his best -- no one can touch him. At an early age, Lovecraft rejected religious belief and came to adopt a nihilistic philosophy where humans have no importance in the cosmos but to serve as the playthings of incomprehensible and uncaring forces. Lovecraft was indeed racist as well; one can find sinister Africans and wicked Jews amongst his writing. Only the politically corrected will run away from this. The rest of us will enjoy his work.

This volume contains a lot of reprints from the smaller books published a few years ago, but if you don't have them, pick this up: it takes up less space. This volume includes Lovecraft's first stumbling attempts at writing (they're still a helluvalot better than I could do) and some fragments, but not all of them (it doesn't include 'Azathoth' which is tied with 'The Rats in the Walls' for my favorite story by Lovecraft). It does include 'Herbert West - Reanimator', which is way classier than the movie 'Reanimator', even though Lovecraft thought the story was garbage. It also includes 'the Lurking Fear' (once again, way classier than the movie) and 'At the Mountains of Madness', which wins my 'Story I Most Want to See Made Into a Movie' award. All in all, a great volume if you don't already have the aforementioned stories.

As an avid reader of Lovecraft's Macabre, I couldn't resist picking up this book and the other two in the series (The Best of H.P. Lovecraft, and The Dream Cycle of H.P. Lovecraft). And it turned out to be a great addition to my library. The starring attraction is At The Mountains of Madness, which automatically makes the book worth the meager cost. One of the nice things about this collection is that it traces some of the early themes in Lovecraft's work to their later maturity. Although the stories are quite varied, you needn't worry about them straying from Lovecraft's trademark theme: cosmic ignorance is a wonderful commodity. I highly recommend this to addicts and newcomers alike.

Yes, Lovecraft was a racist. Talent is not reserved for those whose ethics are palatable to our society. And Lovecraft did have talent.

These stories are filled with wondrous descriptions, the likes of which inspired many current authors, filmakers and visual artists. Personally though, I find his plots to be rather weak. His common theme "man is lucky not to know the truth" is at best annoying and at worst overly predictable. Don't get me wrong. His work is worth a look. I just prefer his fantasy and dream cycle to these stories. The idea of the restriction of knowledge is repellant to me.

I was really enjoying this collection before I came to the story "The Street". I had to stop and re-read the story several times because I didn't want to believe what I was reading. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to be a horror story about what happens when a "swarthy" (psuedo Jewish) element takes over a neighborhood, sneakily encouraging "besotted beasts" (psuedo African-Americans) to go on burning, slaying, and destroying the land of "our fathers" (psuedo caucasians)...

I used to love H.P. I understand the fact that just because he writes about monsters doesn't necessarily mean he believes in monsters. But, I can't help getting the impression that he was definitely a racist. He seems to be irresponsibly exploiting some very prejudiced fears. Somebody tell me I'm getting this story wrong. Otherwise, I won't ever be able to read another H.P. story.

The Beast in the Cave, The Alchemist, Poetry and the Gods, The Street, The Transition of Juan Romero, The Book (excerpt), Dagon, The Tomb, Memory, The White Ship, Arthur Jermyn, The Temple, The Terrible Old Man, The Crawling Chaos, The Tree, The Moon-Bog, Herbert West--Reanimator, The Lurking Fear, The Festival, The Unnamable, Imprisoned with the Pharaohs, The Shunned House, He, The Horror at Red Hook, Cool Air, Nathicana, At the Mountains of Madness, In the Walls of Eryx, The Evil Clergyman.

I heard about HP Lovecraft a little while ago, but never read any of his works until about a month ago when I bought the Best Of collection from Del Rey. I loved it, so I bought this book after getting through most of the first one. After reading The Beast in the Cave, I was hooked on this too.

The best thing about Lovecraft's storytelling is the way he describes things so vividly, and yet leaves a lot to your own imagination. Although he can drag on at times, the stories always come together in the end. One of my favorites is Dagon, with an incredible introduction and conclusion. My personal favorite was probably Memory. It was one page, and it gives you just a taste of Lovecraft's brilliant imagination.

One last note: the cover on this book is incredible. John Jude Palencar is a great artist.

This book is excellent for mature readers 12+. When kids (like me, I'm 14) find that ghost stories start to seem a little childish... these stories are a step up. After I read this book, I would sometimes find myself staring off into space, thinking about one of the stories... this book will put so many ideas into your head, you will look at the entire world differently. Lovecraft is a master author.

My only complaint about the writings of H.P. Lovecraft would be that many of his stories are of a similar nature and theme. Irregardless of this I found most of his stories to be extremely impressive works of fantasy and horror.

H.P. Lovecraft is a true past master. If you like anything that has ever dealt with horror, fantasy, or sci-fi, then you would be doing yourself a great disservice to not read a collection of Lovecraft stories at least once in your life.

I was very, very impressed by my first encounter with Lovecraft's work. I will read more of his material before my life is over.