Nyarlathotep

Written by H. P. Lovecraft

Narrated by Anastasia Bertollo

Howard Lovecraft is an American writer, who became famous for his works of horror fiction. Nowadays he is considered as one of the best 20th-century authors in his genre.

"Nyarlathotep" is a story published in November 1920 in The United Amateur. It is written in first person. The story opens with the describing of a strange feeling of anticipation of a big evil. The narrator experienced the end of the world and now describes how it was.

"Nyarlathotep" came from Egypt, he looked like a Pharaoh. Wherever he came, the people there started to have nightmares. He organized a demonstration, when he came to the narrator’s city. The observers split into 3 columns: the first group disappeared around the corner, from which was heard a moaning then; the second went into the subway station with the sound of laugh; the third group with the narrator travelled from the city to the country.

The narrator lagged behind the group a bit and then saw “graveyard of the Universe”. Lovecraft’s childhood night dream underlay the story.

A SmartTouch Media production.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SmartTouch Media
• Release date: Jan 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781467605984

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 Nyarlathotep

[morcys · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lovecraft has written some very strange stories that make it clear why he is still remembered.

[datrappert · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Atmospheric early story by Lovecraft is a foretaste of things to come, but would work better as a poem. (I'm not reviewing a comic book version, just the downloaded short story.)

[carpentermt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Boom Studios has recently made quite a name for themselves in the field of Lovecraftian comics. Fall of Cthulhu easily had the best single story arc series in HPL comics, although I thought the ending was weak. They also are giving us The Calling, a very good new series. Necronomicon was a 4 issue series well worth finding for collectors and Cthulhu Tales is a respectable series of self contained stories. Nyarlathotep carries fascination for most Lovecraftians (in fact, I think Fall of Cthulhu: Nemesis is supposed to be about his origins). This book represents something of a new direction for Boom. It consists of the text of HPL's prose poem, Nyarlathotep, lavishly illstrated by Chuck BB. I must admit I am unfamiliar with Chuck BB's other work. Nyarlathotep is a very nice cloth bound hardcover with an intriguing painting on the slipcover. Page count is 32 but the text and illustrations run from 5-27. List price is $14.99 but Amazon discounts to $11.69. I did not compare the text of Nyarlathotep with any of Joshi's definitive editions. While I have found the prose poem mesmerizing for many years, the reason to by this book is for the illustrations and production values. If you like the image on the cover, you will certainly enjoy the rest of the book. Counting the cover illustration, there are 11 full page, full color illustrations, each representing some passage from the text. While I wished for different passages to be illuminated, and for many more pictures, I was very impressed with Chuck BB's skill. The muted color palate enhanced the peculiar mood conveyed by the text. Sample this if you can before you buy, but I certainly was impressed and will be dipping again into its pages periodically. I hope Boom Studios will give us more illustrated versions of HPL's originals.