The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft | 1926 | Penguin Classics | Paperback $ 18
Frequently imitated and widely influential, Howard Philips Lovecraft reinvented the horror genre in the 1920s, discarding ghosts and witches and instead envisioning mankind as a tiny outpost of dwindling sanity in a chaotic and malevolent universe.
As an avid reader of SFF, I knew I had to add some classic works of speculative fiction subgenres — including horror — to my list for Classics Club. There’s possibly no more “classic” horror author than Lovecraft, and the author’s best known work might be his short story The Call of Cthulhu.
If you’re not familiar, The Call of Cthulhu is about a man who discovers a horrific sculpture and associated notes among the effects of his recently deceased uncle; he investigates the artist who made it, and ends up tumbling down a rabbit hole involving mass nightmares and a mysterious cult.
This story really was quite creepy; I can definitely see why it has captured the imagination of so many readers over the years. It has spawned all kinds of spin-offs and has been referenced so often in later horror and sci-fi works.
That said, I didn’t come away from it with an urge to read any other stories by Lovecraft. Creepy, yes, but not in the sort of delightfully visceral, skin-crawling stomach-clenching way a really good work of horror can make me feel.
And in reading about the author in preparation for this review, I learned that he was strikingly racist (even for his own time period); apparently many of his other stories contain pretty strong racist language… which isn’t much of an incentive to read any more of his stuff, either.
Links:
- Author biography from ThoughtCo.
- H.P. Lovecraft Collection at Brown University Library
- H.P. Lovecraft Reread at Reactor
- Public domain at Project Gutenberg
Publication information: Lovecraft, H.P. The call of Cthulhu and other weird stories. London, UK: Penguin Classics, 1999. Print.
Source: Personal library.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products.
Pity that this was disappointing- I’ve been meaning to try some of his work just because it’s so seminal in the field- but yeah, I’m put off by the author’s racism, it makes me not in a hurry to try anything. Really good review!
Thank you. I think sometimes classics don’t live up to the hype just because we’ve become accustomed to even better (and maybe less racist) takes on the original concepts, so it can be kind of hard to know when a seminal work is gonna be fun to read just on its own merits or not!