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    The Dunwich Horror (Fantasy and Horror Classics): With a Dedication by George Henry Weiss
    The Dunwich Horror (Fantasy and Horror Classics): With a Dedication by George Henry Weiss
    The Dunwich Horror (Fantasy and Horror Classics): With a Dedication by George Henry Weiss
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    The Dunwich Horror (Fantasy and Horror Classics): With a Dedication by George Henry Weiss

    By H.P. Lovecraft and George Henry Weiss

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    Deformed albino Lavinia Whateley lives with her grotesque son and father in the remote village of Dunwich, Massachusetts. Growing from a child to a man in just ten years, her son Wilbur is feared by person and animal alike. His sorcerer grandfather, however, pays particular interest in him, teaching him witchcraft and the secrets of dark rituals. Suspicions are further raised in the local town as the family buys more and more cattle yet their herd never seems to grow in number, instead only developing wounds on their flesh. First published in 1929, “The Dunwich Horror” is a horror short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft and one of the main stories of the Cthulhu Mythos. Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an American writer of supernatural horror fiction. Though his works remained largely unknown and did not furnish him with a decent living, Lovecraft is today considered to be among the most significant writers of supernatural horror fiction of the twentieth century. Other notable works by this author include: “The Call of Cthulhu”, “The Rats in the Walls”, and “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”. A fantastic example of Lovecraftian horror not to be missed by fans of the genre. Read & Co. is publishing this classic work now as part of our “Fantasy and Horror Classics” imprint in a new edition with a dedication by George Henry Weiss.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateMar 31, 2016
    ISBN9781473369191
    The Dunwich Horror (Fantasy and Horror Classics): With a Dedication by George Henry Weiss
    Author

    H.P. Lovecraft

    Renowned as one of the great horror-writers of all time, H.P. Lovecraft was born in 1890 and lived most of his life in Providence, Rhode Island. Among his many classic horror stories, many of which were published in book form only after his death in 1937, are ‘At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels of Terror’ (1964), ‘Dagon and Other Macabre Tales’ (1965), and ‘The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions’ (1970).

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    Reviews for The Dunwich Horror (Fantasy and Horror Classics)

    4/5

    130 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I never tire of reading H.P. Lovecraft. His descriptions are fantastic and his influence can be seen in King and Gaiman novels. Hellboy owes a lot to the Lovecraft Cthulhu mythos. Can’t praise Lovecraft enough!
    • 5/5
      An excellent overview of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stories, as well as some general horror tales, often about terrible old men with ghastly secrets. My edition contains August Derleth's introduction that tries to fit Lovecraft's Yog-Sothothery into a good-versus-evil frame, which is... not so successful, but oh well. Other features of this edition include Derleth's editorial decision to italicize the final line in almost every story, and a very nice cover drawing of Wilbur Whateley playing with a balloon or something.
    • 4/5
      Contents: H. P. Lovecraft and his work / by August Derleth --In the vault -- Pickman’s model -- The rats in the walls -- The outsider -- The colour out of space -- The music of Erich Zann -- The haunter of the dark --The picture in the house --The call of Cthulhu -- The Dunwich horror -- Cool air -- The whispering in darkness -- The terible old man -- The thing on the doorstep -- The shadow over Innsmouth -- The shadow out of time.
    • 4/5
      Some of Lovecraft's best stories including "Call of Cthulhu," "The Colour Out of Space," "The Dunwich Horror" (all three of which have been made into movies) "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "The Whisperer in Darkness," and some non-Mythos tales like "Cool Air" and "Pickman's Model" (both of which, I believe, were adapted for Rod Serling's Night Gallery TV show in the 70's). Most of the stories are just a bit too long and could have used some judicious editing, but they are atmospheric and often achieve a real power by the end. There should be a Lovecraft drinking game in which one imbibes whenever one reads the word "blasphemous," but then I'd probably never get to the end of a story.
    • 4/5
      I don't like sequels or re-imaginings very much but Joe Lansdale does tell a good story and treats the material with the respect a fan would demand. Peter Bergting did what he could to illustrate a monster that Lovecraft meant to be indescribable. I grumbled at Menton3's turning the text into calligraphy but I came to appreciate it. His work did elevate this bloody pulp thriller into a fine piece of Gothic art.
    • 5/5
      this may be the best collection of lovecraft's short stories ever put together. a lazy undertaker locks himself in his crypt he uses as a storage house to keep the bodies and caskets for buriel. He figures out he can get through the window high over the door, but how to get there. Ah! He stacks the coffins on top of each other in a pyramid-step structure, then climbs it and works his way out. Just as he is ready to go out, the top coffin crashes and he feels great pain in his ankles. "In the Crypt") -- title piece "The Dunwich Horror" bears little resemblance to the movie made of it. Rather, this story is much more frightening.. Lovecraft simply is the master of the hoirror short story. Neither Poe, King, or Koontz can come close as consistently as lovecraft does in spiking the adrenalin into the blood stream and making you sleep with the lights on at night. Poe's the closest with the "Fall of the House of Usher," but that's tame compared to Lovecraft.
    • 1/5
      I haven't read a lot of Lovecraft, but I've read some that was pretty good -- Rats in the Walls, Colour out of Space and some others -- so I was surpised to find that The Dunwich Horror, which is by repute one of his most canonical titles, is such a mess.The exposition is diffuse and clumsy. Then the 'horror' part is glacially paced, with many incidents telegraphed; is simply SODDEN with bizarrely spelt New England hillbilly dialect; and although it has its moments (e.g. the description of Wilbur's corpse) it actually gets worse as it goes along so that as the end approaches it's painful to read. I hear he was paid by the word, so I guess he needed to pay the phone bill or something.
    • 3/5
      This was a really enjoyable graphic novel to break up my work day with. A very fast read. This is actually two stories The Dunwich Horror and The Hound. The first story was the stronger of the two for me but only because the second story was practically impossible to read. The script font they selected was really small and the scratchy to imply a hand written account, which looked really cool but the reality was that I had to guess on a number of words since I couldn't truly read all of them. Overall though it is a nice addition to the lovecraftian collected works.
    • 3/5
      Read on Serial ReaderI enjoyed this more than other Lovecraft stories I have read recently. Though "the horror" itself was not that well done, I found the horrors of the townspeople desperately locking themselves and their livestock in at night to be very real. Also, the mocking they endured from the local town when they reported problems--after being looked down on for years/decades because something was "off".Though I don't much enjoy Lovecraft (I really prefer Poe), I do think his work would be great for middle schoolers. The reading level is fine, and I think they are young enough to find his ideas extra creepy. Kind of how Poe gave me nightmares at that age.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic. I realize a lot of people view Lovecraft as a hack, but I don't buy that for a second. And I especially don't buy it after reading this collection, which packs many of his best stories together. He had his quirks, for sure, but man...some of the stuff here is just incredible.
    • 5/5
      I listened to the audiobook edition of this and I can finally say that I enjoy Lovecraft stories much more if they're read to me. These stories are classic Lovecraft in every way. He builds worlds with creeping, undulating atmospheres that do not let up. There's a reason so many horror authors of the modern era were influenced by the work of Lovecraft. If you've never read any of his work, this volume is a great place to start.

    Book preview

    The Dunwich Horror (Fantasy and Horror Classics) - H.P. Lovecraft

    1.png

    THE

    DUNWICH HORROR

    Fantasy & Horror Classics

    By

    H. P. LOVECRAFT

    WITH A

    DEDICATION BY

    GEORGE HENRY WEISS

    First published in 1929

    Copyright © 2020 Fantasy and Horror Classics

    This edition is published by Fantasy and Horror Classics,

    an imprint of Read & Co.

    This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any

    way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.

    British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

    A catalogue record for this book is available

    from the British Library.

    Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd.

    For more information visit

    www.readandcobooks.co.uk

    To

    Howard Phillips Lovecraft

    Essayist, Poet &

    Master-writer of the Weird

    1890-1937

    He lived—and now is dead beyond all knowing

    Of life and death: the vast and formless scheme

    Behind the face of nature ever showing

    Has swallowed up the dreamer and the dream.

    But brief the hour he had upon the stream

    Of timeless time from past to future flowing

    To lift his sail and catch the luminous gleam

    Of stars that marked his coming and his going

    Before he vanished: yet the brilliant wake

    His passing left is vivid on the tide

    And for the countless centuries will abide:

    The genius that no death can ever take

    Crowns him immortal, though a man has died.

    Francis Flagg

    (George Henry Weiss)

    Contents

    H. P. Lovecraft

    I

    II

    III

    IV

    V

    VI

    VII

    VIII

    IX

    X

    H. P. Lovecraft

    Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born in 1890 in Rhode Island, USA. Although a sickly boy, Lovecraft began writing at a very young age, quickly developing a deep and abiding interest in science. At just sixteen he was writing a monthly astronomy column for his local newspaper. However, in 1908, Lovecraft suffered a nervous breakdown and failed to get into university, sparking a period of five years in which he all but vanished.

    In 1913, Lovecraft was invited to join the UAPA (United Amateur Press Association)—a development which re-invigorated his writing. In 1917, he began to focus on fiction, producing such well-known early stories as Dagon and A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson. In 1924, Lovecraft married and moved to New York, but he disliked life there intensely, and struggled to find work. A few years later, penniless and now divorced, he returned to Rhode Island. It was here, during the last decade of his life, that Lovecraft produced the vast majority of his best-known fiction, including The Dunwich Horror, The Shadow over Innsmouth, The Thing on the Doorstep and arguably his most famous story, The Call of Cthulhu. Having suffered from cancer of the small intestine for more than a year, Lovecraft died in March of 1937.

    THE DUNWICH HORROR

    Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimaeras—dire stories of Celaeno and the Harpies—may reproduce themselves in the brain of superstition—but they were there before. They are transcripts, types—the archetypes are in us, and eternal. How else should the recital of that which we know in a waking sense to be false come to affect us at all? Is it that we naturally conceive terror from such objects, considered in their capacity of being able to inflict upon us bodily injury? O, least of all! These terrors are of older standing. They date beyond body—or without the body, they would have been the same. . . . That the kind of fear here treated is purely spiritual—that it is strong in proportion as it is objectless on earth, that it predominates in the period of our sinless infancy—are difficulties the solution of which might afford some probable insight into our ante-mundane condition, and a peep at least into the shadowland of pre-existence.

    — Charles Lamb

    Witches and Other Night-Fears

    I

    When a traveller in north central Massachusetts takes the wrong fork at the junction of the Aylesbury pike just beyond Dean’s Corners he comes upon a lonely and curious country. The ground gets higher, and the brier-bordered stone walls press closer and closer against the ruts of the dusty, curving road. The trees of the frequent forest belts seem too large, and the wild weeds, brambles, and grasses attain a luxuriance not often found in settled regions. At the same time the planted fields appear singularly few and barren; while the sparsely scattered houses wear a surprisingly uniform aspect of age, squalor, and dilapidation. Without knowing why, one hesitates to ask directions from the gnarled, solitary figures spied now and then on crumbling doorsteps or on the sloping, rock-strown meadows. Those figures are so silent and furtive that one feels somehow confronted by forbidden things, with which it would be better to have nothing to do. When a rise in the road brings the mountains in view above the deep woods, the feeling of strange uneasiness is increased. The summits are too rounded and symmetrical to give a sense of comfort and naturalness, and sometimes the sky silhouettes with especial clearness the queer circles of tall stone pillars with which most of them are crowned.

    Gorges and ravines of problematical depth intersect the way, and the crude wooden bridges always seem of dubious safety. When the road dips again there are stretches of marshland that one instinctively dislikes, and indeed almost

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