The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales (Vintage Classics)
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Review
The twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."
-- Stephen King
"Dark, weird tales about tentacled beasts, ancient artifacts that ooze unidentifiable slime and baby-eating cultists eager to bring about the end of the world."
-- "New York Times
""Lovecraft is the crucial link between Victorian Gothic and post-Sixties Horror, as well as a palpable influence on the mythology of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"."
-- Independent
-- Stephen King
"Dark, weird tales about tentacled beasts, ancient artifacts that ooze unidentifiable slime and baby-eating cultists eager to bring about the end of the world."
-- "New York Times
""Lovecraft is the crucial link between Victorian Gothic and post-Sixties Horror, as well as a palpable influence on the mythology of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"."
-- Independent
Book Description
An introduction to the weird and unsettling world of H.P. Lovecraft, master of horror and pioneer of 'weird fiction'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The new Vintage collection, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales, has stolen a trick from the picture-shows and made its pitch using fancy-shmancy 3-D technology (ooooh aaaaah). As far as cheap thrills go, having some slightly elevated wiggly tentacles on the cover is more on the "cheap" side than the "thrilling"... but... God help me, I bought it. However much my (tiny) rational mind screams in protest, the cover did its job.
Beyond the red-blue wigglies, The Call of Cthulhu has more value to someone approaching Lovecraft for the first time. The editor (uncredited) has done an excellent job of sifting through Lovecraft's body of work and finding the most commercial nuggets. The theme is weighted towards the Cthulhu mythos. As well as the famous titular story, the collection contains "The Dunwich Horror", "The Nameless City", "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", "The Whisperer in Darkness", "The Festival" and, of course, "At the Mountains of Madness". Already, this excels as a primer for the Elder Gods.
On top of that, there's also a pair of Lovecraft's pure, Poe-like, horror stories, "The Picture in the House" and the terrifying "The Rats in the Walls". [Aside: "Rats" was the first Lovecraft story I ever read, and I did so in a creaking old New Orleans B&B. After buying my bedraggled, water-damaged copy from a mysterious basement bookseller who wasn't there the next day. Ok, part of that isn't true. But I didn't sleep at all that night.]
The only two false notes are the final stories in the collection, "The Thing on the Doorstep" and "The Haunter of the Dark". The former was justly noted by Lin Carter as being "curiously minor and somehow unsatisfying". The latter is half of a writing experiment (with the other half by Robert Bloch) and, taken on its own, reads like Mr. Lovecraft is writing a bad pastiche of himself. Fortunately, these two are both located at the end, after the monumental "At the Mountains of Madness". Readers can simply excise the last sixty pages with a razor and be none the worse off for it.
The collection wears its Cthulhu-hugging heart on its sleeve, with the non-Mythos stories essentially serving as filler (in the case of "Rats", very good filler, but filler nonetheless). There's none of Lovecraft's Dunsanian Dreamlands stories, none of his poetry (thank god) or essays (shucks) and not a drop of secondary content. Luring in new readers with the Mythos tales is a nice touch - they are, by far Lovecraft's most popular category of story. But without a hint of comment on Lovecraft's significance, a new reader could forgiven for walking away from this volume thinking they'd read the entire body of his work. With the 3-D cover and the crowd-pleasing selections, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales is a quick win and a stocking-stuffer (but shouldn't be mistaken for a serious look at Lovecraft).
Beyond the red-blue wigglies, The Call of Cthulhu has more value to someone approaching Lovecraft for the first time. The editor (uncredited) has done an excellent job of sifting through Lovecraft's body of work and finding the most commercial nuggets. The theme is weighted towards the Cthulhu mythos. As well as the famous titular story, the collection contains "The Dunwich Horror", "The Nameless City", "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", "The Whisperer in Darkness", "The Festival" and, of course, "At the Mountains of Madness". Already, this excels as a primer for the Elder Gods.
On top of that, there's also a pair of Lovecraft's pure, Poe-like, horror stories, "The Picture in the House" and the terrifying "The Rats in the Walls". [Aside: "Rats" was the first Lovecraft story I ever read, and I did so in a creaking old New Orleans B&B. After buying my bedraggled, water-damaged copy from a mysterious basement bookseller who wasn't there the next day. Ok, part of that isn't true. But I didn't sleep at all that night.]
The only two false notes are the final stories in the collection, "The Thing on the Doorstep" and "The Haunter of the Dark". The former was justly noted by Lin Carter as being "curiously minor and somehow unsatisfying". The latter is half of a writing experiment (with the other half by Robert Bloch) and, taken on its own, reads like Mr. Lovecraft is writing a bad pastiche of himself. Fortunately, these two are both located at the end, after the monumental "At the Mountains of Madness". Readers can simply excise the last sixty pages with a razor and be none the worse off for it.
The collection wears its Cthulhu-hugging heart on its sleeve, with the non-Mythos stories essentially serving as filler (in the case of "Rats", very good filler, but filler nonetheless). There's none of Lovecraft's Dunsanian Dreamlands stories, none of his poetry (thank god) or essays (shucks) and not a drop of secondary content. Luring in new readers with the Mythos tales is a nice touch - they are, by far Lovecraft's most popular category of story. But without a hint of comment on Lovecraft's significance, a new reader could forgiven for walking away from this volume thinking they'd read the entire body of his work. With the 3-D cover and the crowd-pleasing selections, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales is a quick win and a stocking-stuffer (but shouldn't be mistaken for a serious look at Lovecraft).
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
Classic tales for a quick win
29 Aug 2011
Format:Paperback
The new Vintage collection, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales, has stolen a trick from the picture-shows and made its pitch using fancy-shmancy 3-D technology (ooooh aaaaah). As far as cheap thrills go, having some slightly elevated wiggly tentacles on the cover is more on the "cheap" side than the "thrilling"... but... God help me, I bought it. However much my (tiny) rational mind screams in protest, the cover did its job.
Beyond the red-blue wigglies, The Call of Cthulhu has more value to someone approaching Lovecraft for the first time. The editor (uncredited) has done an excellent job of sifting through Lovecraft's body of work and finding the most commercial nuggets. The theme is weighted towards the Cthulhu mythos. As well as the famous titular story, the collection contains "The Dunwich Horror", "The Nameless City", "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", "The Whisperer in Darkness", "The Festival" and, of course, "At the Mountains of Madness". Already, this excels as a primer for the Elder Gods.
On top of that, there's also a pair of Lovecraft's pure, Poe-like, horror stories, "The Picture in the House" and the terrifying "The Rats in the Walls". [Aside: "Rats" was the first Lovecraft story I ever read, and I did so in a creaking old New Orleans B&B. After buying my bedraggled, water-damaged copy from a mysterious basement bookseller who wasn't there the next day. Ok, part of that isn't true. But I didn't sleep at all that night.]
The only two false notes are the final stories in the collection, "The Thing on the Doorstep" and "The Haunter of the Dark". The former was justly noted by Lin Carter as being "curiously minor and somehow unsatisfying". The latter is half of a writing experiment (with the other half by Robert Bloch) and, taken on its own, reads like Mr. Lovecraft is writing a bad pastiche of himself. Fortunately, these two are both located at the end, after the monumental "At the Mountains of Madness". Readers can simply excise the last sixty pages with a razor and be none the worse off for it.
The collection wears its Cthulhu-hugging heart on its sleeve, with the non-Mythos stories essentially serving as filler (in the case of "Rats", very good filler, but filler nonetheless). There's none of Lovecraft's Dunsanian Dreamlands stories, none of his poetry (thank god) or essays (shucks) and not a drop of secondary content. Luring in new readers with the Mythos tales is a nice touch - they are, by far Lovecraft's most popular category of story. But without a hint of comment on Lovecraft's significance, a new reader could forgiven for walking away from this volume thinking they'd read the entire body of his work. With the 3-D cover and the crowd-pleasing selections, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales is a quick win and a stocking-stuffer (but shouldn't be mistaken for a serious look at Lovecraft).
Beyond the red-blue wigglies, The Call of Cthulhu has more value to someone approaching Lovecraft for the first time. The editor (uncredited) has done an excellent job of sifting through Lovecraft's body of work and finding the most commercial nuggets. The theme is weighted towards the Cthulhu mythos. As well as the famous titular story, the collection contains "The Dunwich Horror", "The Nameless City", "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", "The Whisperer in Darkness", "The Festival" and, of course, "At the Mountains of Madness". Already, this excels as a primer for the Elder Gods.
On top of that, there's also a pair of Lovecraft's pure, Poe-like, horror stories, "The Picture in the House" and the terrifying "The Rats in the Walls". [Aside: "Rats" was the first Lovecraft story I ever read, and I did so in a creaking old New Orleans B&B. After buying my bedraggled, water-damaged copy from a mysterious basement bookseller who wasn't there the next day. Ok, part of that isn't true. But I didn't sleep at all that night.]
The only two false notes are the final stories in the collection, "The Thing on the Doorstep" and "The Haunter of the Dark". The former was justly noted by Lin Carter as being "curiously minor and somehow unsatisfying". The latter is half of a writing experiment (with the other half by Robert Bloch) and, taken on its own, reads like Mr. Lovecraft is writing a bad pastiche of himself. Fortunately, these two are both located at the end, after the monumental "At the Mountains of Madness". Readers can simply excise the last sixty pages with a razor and be none the worse off for it.
The collection wears its Cthulhu-hugging heart on its sleeve, with the non-Mythos stories essentially serving as filler (in the case of "Rats", very good filler, but filler nonetheless). There's none of Lovecraft's Dunsanian Dreamlands stories, none of his poetry (thank god) or essays (shucks) and not a drop of secondary content. Luring in new readers with the Mythos tales is a nice touch - they are, by far Lovecraft's most popular category of story. But without a hint of comment on Lovecraft's significance, a new reader could forgiven for walking away from this volume thinking they'd read the entire body of his work. With the 3-D cover and the crowd-pleasing selections, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales is a quick win and a stocking-stuffer (but shouldn't be mistaken for a serious look at Lovecraft).
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