The Terrible Old Man

Written by H.P. Lovecraft

Narrated by Cathy Dobson

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), who wrote as H. P. Lovecraft, was an American author of horror fiction who achieved posthumous fame as one of the most influential writers of his day.

"The Terrible Old Man" is the gruesome story of three robbers who set out to steal from a mysterious and reclusive retired sea captain who has a circle of strange stones in his garden and conducts even stranger rituals in his house.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red Door Consulting
• Release date: Jun 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781467698900

H.P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American author of science fiction and horror stories. Born in Providence, Rhode Island to a wealthy family, he suffered the loss of his father at a young age. Raised with his mother’s family, he was doted upon throughout his youth and found a paternal figure in his grandfather Whipple, who encouraged his literary interests. He began writing stories and poems inspired by the classics and by Whipple’s spirited retellings of Gothic tales of terror. In 1902, he began publishing a periodical on astronomy, a source of intellectual fascination for the young Lovecraft. Over the next several years, he would suffer from a series of illnesses that made it nearly impossible to attend school. Exacerbated by the decline of his family’s financial stability, this decade would prove formative to Lovecraft’s worldview and writing style, both of which depict humanity as cosmologically insignificant. Supported by his mother Susie in his attempts to study organic chemistry, Lovecraft eventually devoted himself to writing poems and stories for such pulp and weird-fiction magazines as Argosy, where he gained a cult following of readers. Early stories of note include “The Alchemist” (1916), “The Tomb” (1917), and “Beyond the Wall of Sleep” (1919). “The Call of Cthulu,” originally published in pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928, is considered by many scholars and fellow writers to be his finest, most complex work of fiction. Inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and Lord Dunsany, Lovecraft became one of the century’s leading horror writers whose influence remains essential to the genre.

Reviews for The Terrible Old Man

[Madeline “Five” Shepherd · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

H.P. Lovecraft is always known for great stories, so the writer speaks for the story itself. The narrator is a woman in this story, she does a fantastic job and her tone gives the story a perfect sense of dread.