The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

Resumen del libro

Collecting uniquely uncanny tales from the master of American horror, H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories is edited with an introduction and notes by S.T. Joshi in Penguin Modern Classics.

Credited with inventing the modern horror tradition, H.P. Lovecraft remade the genre in the early twentieth century. Discarding ghosts and witches, and instead envisaging mankind at the mercy of a chaotic and malevolent universe, Lovecraft's unique works would prove to be a huge influence on modern horror writers such as Stephen King.

This selection of short stories ranges from early tales of nightmares and insanity such as 'The Outsider' and 'The Rats in the Walls' through the grotesquely comic 'Herbert West - Reanimator' and 'The Hound', to the extraterrestrial terror of 'The Call of Cthulhu', which fuses traditional supernaturalism with science fiction. Including the definitive corrected texts, this collection reveals the development of Lovecraft's mesmerising narrative style and establishes him as a hugely influential - and visionary - American writer. Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), born in Providence, Rhode Island was self-educated and lived in his birthplace all his life, working as a freelance writer, journalist, and ghostwriter.

Biografía del autor

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (Providence, 1890 - 1937). La seva vida va estar marcada per nombroses dissorts i per una solitud que només va saber pal-liar a través d'una intensíssima activitat epistolar. Lovecraft cercava obsessivament la perfecció de l'horror , i el va assolir amb el conreu d'un estil propi: l'horror còsmic, que conté elements de ciència-ficció, una mitologia pròpia i una perspectiva basada en la creació d'ambients ominosos i abismes siderals. Tot i que en vida només va ser admirat per una minoria, amb el pas del temps els seus escrits han aconseguit l'objectiu perseguit per l'autor segons Michel Houellebecq de portar el lector a un estat de fascinació . Avui, les seves creacions terrorífiques són conegudes globalment i els seus Mites de Cthulhu, desenvolupats per les generacions posteriors d'escriptors de terror, continuen vigents.