The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories

Written by H. P. Lovecraft

Narrated by William Roberts

At the heart of these stories, as with all the best of Lovecraft’s work, is the belief that the Earth was once inhabited by powerful and evil gods, just waiting for the chance to recolonise their planet. Cthulhu is one such god, lurking deep beneath the sea until called into being by cult followers who – like all humans – know not what they do. It is because of these dark, mythic tales with their terrified awareness of the limits of Man’s knowledge, that H.P. Lovecraft is one of the most influential American writers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Naxos Audiobooks
• Release date: Oct 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781843794264

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 Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories

[bookconcierge · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Of course, I’ve heard of H P Lovecraft for years, but I’d never bothered to read anything by him. Just not my genre of choice. But I happened to have this in the house, courtesy of Penguin Random House (the publisher gifted me a set of their new “orange” Penguin Classics a few years ago), and it carries the “science fiction” tag so it fit a challenge.First, these stories are mostly NOT science fiction, although one, dealing with aliens removing the brains of humans but keeping the bodies and brains both alive separately probably would qualify. Mostly this collection is one of horror stories originally published in magazines. Second, as horror stories, I didn’t find them all that horrifying. Although, I can imagine that an audience in the early part of the 20th century would find them disturbing. The fact that Lovecraft writes all these stories in the first person serves to remove much of the suspense. Clearly the person survives any ordeal because he is telling the story. Reading them one after another in this collection made them seem formulaic and dull.Lovecraft relied on the reader’s imagination in that he virtually never describes the “horror I witnessed,” instead relying on stating that said horror was just “too terrible for words.” There’s frequent use of the typical, dark, deserted location – either a room at the top of a tall tower, or a pit underground – into which the hero ascends (or descends), without any good light or backup, and despite the feeling of dread. In many of these cases, the hero awakens some time later with no memory of how he escaped. Finally, although I recognize that this is a sign of the times in which they were written, Lovecraft relies on some disturbingly racist / prejudicial stereotypes. On the plus side, one of his friends/colleagues was the inspiration for the hero of the final story in this collection: The Haunter Of the Dark. That person was Robert Bloch, who wrote Psycho. Lovecraft gave his character, Robert Blake, an address that was once Bloch’s home in Milwaukee. Sadly, one can no longer visit that edifice. It’s at a location that was cleared of houses in the ‘60s to make way for a freeway extension. But it was fun to see that address pop up in the book.

[writertomg · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dagon: Excellent, but way too short. The Sci-Fi Channel movie "Dagon" was NOT based on this story.
The Statement of Randolph Carter: Also excellent. HP can create more terror in 7 pages than most people in 700 pages.
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family: Very good. I expected the ending to incorporate the Dagon/Cthulhu mythos (it didn't) but I was still pleasantly surprised.
Celephais: Okay. His "dream"-type stories aren't the best. I'm wondering if the galley in the story is the same from "The White Ship".
Nyarlathotep: Sucked. Uh, did anything even happen in this story?
The Picture in the House:Awesome story. Like all of his best, it builds and builds until you're totally freaked out at the end.
The Outsider: Thought I had read this before and I was correct. Very good, even if predictable at the end.
Herbert West - Reanimator: Awesome, even if reading the series together tends to get repetitive.
The Hound: Hm. I put in another HP review that I didn't care for The Hound. But upon re-reading it, I do find it quite enjoyable. Not his best, but not one of his clunkers either.
The Rats in the Walls: Excellent! Very creepy, even though you can figure out what's coming. Tough to read in this day and age cause of the cat's name.
The Festival: Had read this before, but reread it and it was still awesome. You feel as unsettled as the narrator as things progress.
He:
Cool Air: One of my favorite Lovecraft stories. Creepy and terrifying set up with an awesome/gross payoff.
The Call of Cthulhu: What can I say? THE ultimate Lovecraft story of all time. With the most awesomest, bad-assed creature ever. Everyone must read this once.
The Colour out of Space: A tad longish. Could have used some editing. But overall, VERY creepy and the ending payoff hits perfectly.
The Whisperer in Darkness: At 60 pages, probably the longest Lovecraft story that I have made it through, although it DID slow in pace and get boring in the middle there. He could have cut down on the correspondence section between the 2 main characters a bit. But good overall, and part (kind of) of the Cthulhu mythos. I would recommend reading it, and not skipping over it.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth: Spoke too quickly about Whisperer there. Innsmouth is also 60 pages and this is the second time that I've read this terribly awesome story. Ranks up there with Cthulhu as a must-read for Lovecraft fans. Fantastic!
The Haunter of the Dark: Very creepy! Fits perfectly with the tone of the other works. And a nice way to end an EXCELLENT collection of Lovecraft stories.

Best Lovecraft collection that I've read so far.

[iansales_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I’m pretty sure I’ve read Lovecraft in the past – in fact, I have a quite vivid memory of the cover art of a Lovecraft collection which, I think, I borrowed from Coventry City Library back in the early 1990s. It’s hard to be sure, given there’s so many different ways to pick up knowledge of his oeuvre and the Cthulhu mythos – I used to play the Call of Cthulhu RPG when I was at school, for example. Having said that, none of the stories in The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories seemed especially familiar. I’d always thought Lovecraft’s prose of poor quality, and despite a recent discussion on that subject, I suspect I may be revising my opinion. The early stuff is pretty bad – Q: when is a door not a door? A: when it’s a “panelled portal”; and Lovecraft had a bad habit of saying something is indescribable… and then going on to describe it. But by the late 1920s, his writing had improved hugely, and in stories like ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ (1928) and ‘The Shadow of Innsmouth’ (1931), he’d toned down his love of adjectives to great effect; and while he might still recycle his favourite words a few times too often, the less-is-more approach was certainly better at evoking eldritch horror. I have to admit, I enjoyed this collection a lot more than I’d expected. Happily, I bought all three of the Penguin Modern Classic Lovecraft books, so I have The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories and The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories, all in nice matching paperback editions.

[brendan.h · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I guess I was expecting something different, or maybe something more, from this. The prose is a bit purple, horror a little staid, and the stories telegraph their endings so clearly that it's hard to remain in suspense. That being said, it's impressive how many horror movie genre conventions and tropes are on display here. Lovecraft truly was a pioneer and deserves to be remembered for that alone. Lovecraft's own personality comes through in ways that can be both interesting (his obsession w/ New England's social and architectural history) and unpleasant (the racism). Oh yeah, this edition is crammed with way, way, way too many footnotes.

[lndlindsey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The fact that I can spell Cthulhu without having to look it up says something about how much I like Lovecraft. His style is... out of style, but he created a masterful mythos. These are the stories I read by candle or gaslight on stormy nights with a cup of tea and bag of popcorn. His monsters aren't threateningly real, so I can happily set aside rationality and just enjoy the fantasy.

[jaredorlando-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Somehow I have lived 30 years without reading a word of Lovecraft. That changed this year when I picked up the beautiful Penguin Orange copy of Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories. Most stories were so brilliant and creepy that the feeling stayed with me for hours after. Some were just okay, but just okay Lovecraft is better than most. His quintessential stories are here in this collection and recommended by a first reader like me.

[billiecat_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I read Lovecraft as a teen in the late Seventies and early Eighties, and even then I noticed his racism. So although it was worse than I recalled when I picked this book up at a sale for old times sake, I wasn't surprised. The reader of Lovecraft may feel compensated for his racism by the depth of imagination, but, given the frequency and virulence of the racism, this second read of some of his "greatest works" has convinced me the compensation is not quite enough. Still, what really turned me off was the failure of this edition's editor to address it forthrightly. Why use a footnote when the offensive name of the pet cat in the story "The Rats in the Walls" is dropped like a turd in the middle of a (frankly not very good) short story, just to say Lovecraft burdened his own cat with the same name, and not even discuss the N-word in the room? Why doesn't the introduction or the notes address the obvious racist undertones in "The Call of Cthullhu" with its constant reference to "degenerate half castes," or the treatment of Hispanics in "Cool Air" or the straight up racism and fear of miscegenation in "Arthur Jermyn"? And this editor is not some Lovecraftian tourist, S.T. Joshi has written a biography of the man which he modestly refers to as "definitive" in the notes. If that definitive biography is as studious in ignoring the blatant racism of its subject as the notes and introduction in this volume is, I would have to say there is great room for more definition here. In the end, the notes were rendered useless to me by this failure - if Joshi tiptoes around racism as plain as the nose on Lovecraft's face, I had to assume (and in fact felt) that his additions to the work was merest persiflage. In the end, I was able to get a nostalgic kick from retracing my teen self's steps, although my more mature reader self has to wonder why I was so into this stuff, and how I even then could excuse the nasty racism. But that may just the failure of callow youth. What Joshi's excuse is, I have no clue, and his notes and introduction shed no light.

[sphawkins · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Review: The Call of Cthulu and other Weird StoriesBy H.P. Lovecraft360 pagesShort Story CollectionStory Diversity: standard; most of the stories are medium length, there are one or two long ones; protagonists are virtually the same; character diversity suffersVocabulary: standard; Lovecraft favors several words (like ‘hideous’) which he uses quite often; other than that, vocab is fineTwists: some of his twists are great, none are terribly subtle, however, he recycles some twists.Strengths: imaginative supernatural creatures and settings; characters, although recycled, come across as believable and genuine; Lovecraft utilizes interesting ideas—horror, from his perspective, doesn’t mean blood. His generators of horror are original and include rituals, disease, and even otherworldly colors. Weaknesses: recycled twists and characters; some stories are a bit melodramatic and are far too long to justify their content; his stories generate little tensionBottom line: I was not impressed by H.P. Lovecraft’s work. Lots of people reference his work and say he was one of the greatest horror writers of the 20th century, but I can’t see why. A lot of his work was inspired by others’ writing, and his writing (his sentence fluidity and dialogue) is not remarkable either. The Necronomicon and Cthulu are amongst his most famous creations, and yes, they’re original and frightening to think of, but these creations are not employed to the greatest effect.

[thedivineoomba · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I finally got around to reading Lovecraft. And, now I get the obsession nerds have with him. The "Shadow at Innsmouth" really quite a scary story - between the town itself, and the ending.A few of the stories were predictable, such as - but it might be that this was first in of a type - and other authors copied him. For example "The Picture in the House".A few stories are science fiction, although a science fiction written in before an understanding of what is in space. Over all - I found the language to be a bit difficult, but after a few stories, the language gets easier to read.

[caanderson-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fast, fast pace. He doesn't let you breathe. Excellent story.

[wilum-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

S. T. told me, in one of our live YouTube videos, that he considers this book, his first of three volumes for Penguin Classics, to be his single best, most important selection of Lovecraft's tales. I've reviewed the book below, but I want here to emphasize that I return to this single edition again and again, to reread the excellent Introduction or to study the Notes at the end of the book, which not only explain obscure words and such, but give wee details concerning Lovecraft's writing of these wonderful tales. I especially love the cover that Penguin gave this book.

[jsaj_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Love H.P. Lovecraft and this is a pretty good collection. My Lovecraft review- interesting writing, even though he has stylistic problems. Very creative and creates fascinating and deeply detailed worlds.

[lbrary · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I guess I missed my prime-Lovecraft years. I should have read him as an adolescent, back when I read and loved Poe. Reading him as an adult, I was was too often annoyed by his writing style to really enjoy the stories. This from someone who usually enjoys the wordier styles of the 19th and early 20th centuries. But I felt that Lovecraft's approach to creating an atmosphere of horror was usually to pile on a surfeit of foul, loathsome, hideous, grotesque, nauseous, and detestable adjectives. That said, I found his mythology fascinating; and I did enjoy uncovering it little by little as I made my way through the stories.

[bookwitch_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What I like about Lovecraft’s short stories is the way he created a whole mythology that not only links them together but pulls in strands from the stories of other horror writers of the era. A little Internet investigation will confirm this – whole dissertations have been written about it and The Necronomicon, that hideous and blasphemous text, supposedly written by the mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred, but in reality a fiction and construct of Lovecraft’s imagination. I read somewhere that he used to edit and improve the stories of other writers, giving him further opportunity to extend the web of his fiction until one almost begins to wonder where imagination begins. These stories have become modern classics, although sometimes they feel overlong and dated in their formality. There are passages of marvellous writing and glimpses into the mind of the writer himself: somehow one feels the presence of Lovecraft in all his narrators, so it’s almost as though one knows the author (although some darkish mystery remains) by the end of the book. I’m not sure how these stories would compare to the modern equivalent because I haven’t read any to speak of; all I can say is that the horror in Lovecraft’s work doesn’t rely on gore or explicit violence and there’s no sex. It’s more the creeping fear of the unseen, the presence in the darkness, that builds gradually to alien and unspeakable happenings, some of which seem almost to tap into primeval memories. Clever stuff!

[shanth_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The first couple of stories were pretty interesting, but after a while the stories tend to get repetitive and predictable with nearly identical plots and themes. Nonetheless, it was worth it just to read the original story of the Cthulhu Mythos.

[ca8bookwyrm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book, as a classic. As an inspiration for tons of D&D/RPG 'horror,' however, I just don't get it.

[Sarah · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic reader, very evocative presenting of the stories. Highly recommended.

[rameau_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Some stray thoughts... Lovecraft has some similarities with Borges. Old books. Stories more about idea than character. "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" could be a HPL story like "The Call of Cthulhu" with its main character going into the archives and finding that the world is really not what he thought....First time reading "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," which now may be my new favorite HPL. Not many people give him credit for being a fine regionalist in depicting New England towns and landscapes. The scene in which the protagonist has to escape from his hotel room was much more clearly blocked out than many Hollywood action sequences.....This Penguin Classic has some interesting notes in which I learned the surprising fact that I have actually been to the "real-life" setting of "The Colour Out of Space." It's the Quabbin Reservoir near Amherst, Mass. In the 1930s, a valley containing several towns was flooded to provide water for Boston. It is truly a strange place, with no people for miles around, dense forest, here and there a ruined foundation sticking out of the grass, and at its center, a giant white sphere containing a radio telescope.

[phoenixterran · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you want an introduction to H.P. Lovecraft, here it is. (At least I think it is, not that I'm an expert or anything, being the first time I've ever read Lovecraft.) Eighteen stories of the weird, strange, supernatural, and paranormal from throughout his career. It's interesting to see the many threads connecting the stories and how he works and reworks many of their aspects. I found the introduction and notes extremely helpful, although occasionally frivolous. Not to be read all at once, I'm afraid, but I'm glad I took the time to wade through it.Stories include: Dagon; The Statement of Randolph Carter; Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family; Celephaïs; Nyarlathotep; The Picture in the House; The Outsider; Herbert West--Reanimator; The Hound; The Rats in the Walls; The Festival; He; Cool Air; The Call of Cthulhu; The Colour Out of Space; The Whisperer in Darkness; The Shadow Over Innsmouth; The Haunter of the Dark.Experiments in Reading

[stonester1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loathesome. Cyclopean.Lovecraft likes those words and others that communicate both the repulsion and the otherworldly alienness that his human protagonists experience when encountering the otherworldly terrors of his mythos. In this case, you have an investigator who is running down a trail of clues and encounters various academics, police officials and others are having with a series of seemingly unrelated cults. But among these cults, whatever the language otherwise, phrases in an unknown language, the same one, keep recurring. Also, an image of a humanoid giant with dragon wings and the head of an octopus. All these signs point to the perception that an ancient race of entities called the Great Old Ones and their leader, Cthulhu, are hidden away in an underwater city someplace. The time is coming, soon, the Stars Will Be Right, and dreaming Cthulhu will return. His followers believe they will share the power and the glory of their god as Great Cthulhu rampages across the world.It helps to remember that the followers of Cthulhu are seemingly insane, and even physicaly degenerate.Cthulhu lies dreaming, and his dreams are touching and affecting people the world over.Creepy stuff. Don't read it at three in the morning while on guard duty.

[steven.skytower · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A collection of short suspense horror stories, could have done without the reference notes though interesting, not necessary.

[erikschreppel · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

HP Lovecraft is a fantastic writer. His tales have a wonderful Gothic feel to them. Whether it is the sci-fi wonder of Call of Cthulu or the classic horror of Arthur Germyn. He is the worthy heir to Poe. If that was it, then I would recommend Lovecraft to all, he is everything I love, dark, creepy, and intelligent. But unfortunately he is also a virulent racist. His hatred of all non Anglo people is palpable. Take one such story at a time and you can shrug it off, but when you read several in a row, it just drives home that it is not a part of the story, it's just Lovecraft's hatred shining through. Lovecraft is without a doubt one of the preeminent horror writers of all time. But his racism makes it quite difficult to celebrate or appreciate that.

[elviomedeiros_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

After ploughing through the hard-to-read, truncated, cyber-punk craziness of Neuromancer, I went to the more "simple" and "traditional" The Call of Cthulhu. Ahhh, Lovecraft, isn´t it great to read such well written and immersive fantasy?! Will stay on this book for quite some time enjoying each of the short stories...

[charrlygirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an audio re-read of The Call of Cthulhu for me. This audio came through the AudioBlast newsletter and I requested it right away.

I enjoyed listening to this performance. It had a full dramatization going on with sounds effects, screams and whatnot in the background. However, at times the main narrator went a little flat for me.

Overall, I enjoyed this performance and would recommend it to fans of cosmic horror and Lovecraft.

*Thanks to Audioblast for the opportunity to listen to this story in exchange for an honest review. This is it.*

[Paul Hanks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Highly recommended. Beautiful collection of stories with great voice acting

[razorhack · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This collection includes some of the best short stories written by H.P. Lovecraft. The stories themselves have been recollated and proofed against the original sources and are the definitive texts. Good introduction to Lovecraft for novices.

[mausergem_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A man discovers amongst his dead uncle’s papers a narrative about a secret cult called the Cthulhu cult. In a series of letters and personal interviews the author has presented to us a picture of this cult. The cult members are savages and are the devotees of the Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones, creatures from the stars who are trapped in their underwater city waiting for release.Something which is entirely imaginative and occult but still creates a sense of fear is quite amazing.

[albertgoldfain · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Filling in the gaps in my geek cannon, the "Call of the Cthulhu" has been on my list for awhile. What I liked most about the story was the Jules Verne style and level of descriptive detail. I also liked that it was told from the perspective of a rational mind confronting (in an almost fatalistic way) a series of irrational events. The ability of the Cthulhu to horrify its victims in dream as well as in the waking hours puts it on a higher rung than other famous monsters.

[xuebi-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A selection of weird tales from the master of weird fiction. The epononymous work, Colour out of Space, The Whisperer in Darkness, and the Haunter of the Dark are the standouts.

[a_reader_of_fictions · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The short stories of Lovecraft, at least the ones in this anthology, all seem to take place in the same universe. The stories have a lot in common with another. For one thing, they all focus on some sort of mythical monster/god/evil creation of a mad scientist / reader of the Necronomicon. Also, if one were narrating them, it would be really difficult to resist the urge to end the telling of each with DUN-DUN-DUN.

At first, I really was not feeling this at all. Lovecraft's writing is very flowery and ornate, which I felt did not lend itself particularly well to tales of horror. All of the extra information and verbiage lessened any sense of urgency that the stories were trying to convey. As I became more familiar with his narrative style and realized the connections underlying each story, I found myself coming to enjoy the stories.

These tales are often hugely unsurprising in their final twists. The plot lines herein will be familiar to most people who have ever watched a horror film or read a horror story. At first, this irritated me, but this too turned to some amount of fascination when I considered that they were probably fairly original plot lines then. He may have originated some of these ideas, which is pretty cool.

While this will not be for everyone, I definitely think that anyone who really liked Mary Shelley's Frankenstein will adore this, as it was clearly a huge influence upon him. Plus, the cover on this edition is completely gorgeous, even if I doubt Cthulhu would actually look like that.