The Dunwich Horror
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
H. P. Lovecraft proclaimed his Dunwich Horror "so fiendish" that his editor at Weird Tales "may not dare to print it." The editor, fortunately, knew a good thing when he saw it.
One of the core Cthulhu stories, The Dunwich Horror introduces us to the grim village of Dunwich, where each member of the Whateley family is more grotesque than the other. There's the grandfather, a mad old sorcerer; Lavinia, the deformed, albino woman; and Wilbur, a disgusting specimen who reaches full manhood in less than a decade. And above all, there's the mysterious presence in the farmhouse, unseen but horrifying, which seems to be growing . . .
Wilbur tracks down an original edition of the Necronomicon and breaks into a library to steal it. But his reward eludes him: he gets caught, and the result is death by guard dog. Meanwhile, left unattended, the monster at the Whateley house keeps expanding, until the farmhouse explodes and the beast is unleashed to terrorize the poor, aggrieved village of Dunwich.
As chilling today as it was upon its publication in 1929, The Dunwich Horror is a horrifying masterwork by the man Stephen King called "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."
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).
Read more from H. P. Lovecraft
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 4 (30 short stories) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5At the Mountains of Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best of H. P. Lovecraft Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of Cthulhu (Serapis Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Weiser Book of Horror and the Occult: Hidden Magic, Occult Truths, and the Stories That Started It All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Terrible Old Man Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Shadow of Innsmouth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gothic Novel Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Weird Tales: Best of the Early Years 1926-27: Best of the Early Years 1926-27 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Temple Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Festival Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5H. P. Lovecraft: The Collection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 1 (30 short stories) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brooklyn Noir 2: The Classics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft (The Annotated Books) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Horror Megapack: 25 Classic and Modern Horror Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Cthulhu Mythos MEGAPACK®: 40 Modern and Classic Lovecraftian Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Dream Cycle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gothic Classics: 60+ Books in One Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Dunwich Horror
Related ebooks
The Durwich Horror Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dunwich Horror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dunwich Horror (ArcadianPress Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dunwich Horror: Short Horror Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dunwich Horror Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings7 best short stories - Weird Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dunwich Horror (Fantasy and Horror Classics): With a Dedication by George Henry Weiss Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5L'Orrore di Dunwich (The Dunwich Horror) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sheep-Stealers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTHE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - An American Literary Classic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whisperer in Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Far from the Madding Crowd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Works of Thomas Hardy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Watcher by the Threshold Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Goblin Tales of Lancashire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chronic Argonauts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFar from the Madding Crowd - Unabridged Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHell Hogs of Des Paire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIs Paris Worth a Mass? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chronic Argonauts: A Precursor to The Time Machine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Grove of Ashtaroth & Other Horror Tales: The Watcher by the Threshold, Space, The Keeper of Cademuir, A Journey of Little Profit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow: English and Russian language edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Tale of Two Cities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Classics (Omnibus Edition) (Diversion Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle of Life: A Love Story Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Classic Gothic Horror Anthology Volume III: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Carmilla, and The Castle of Otranto Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Well-Beloved Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Women (Seasons Edition -- Winter) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jungle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Dunwich Horror
129 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5this 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Some 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This 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.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I really was perfectly content with the idea that I would never get around to reading any Lovecraft. Of course he's a legend, but the book descriptions never really did anything for me, and then there is that he was known to be pretty racist -- both in his opinions privately and sometimes in his books.But then I was browsing Eighth Day Books on a recent trip to Kansas, and this book was displayed face out. And I just fell in love with the cover. I was still resisting until I turned it over and saw that it was published by Melville House. FINE. I bought it.There was something almost familiar about this story, which I suppose shouldn't be surprising given how massively influential Lovecraft was. There was something also of a charming old-fashioned feel to the story -- particularly in its characterizations of the setting. And in the end, really, how can you argue with a book in which the entire known world is saved by librarians?Enjoyable, but I probably won't be reading any more Lovecraft any time soon.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Read 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Contents: 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This anthology of seven eerie, suspenseful tales by the legendary H.P. Lovecraft includes three that involve his famous mythology of the Ancient Ones—especially the monstrous entity, Yog-Sothoth—as well as the grimoire of black magic known as the Necronomicon. “In the Vault” – After finding himself locked in a tomb, an unsavory and cantankerous undertaker successfully escapes by stacking six occupied coffins to create a platform, allowing him to reach a small opening above the door. However, just before crawling free, his leg punches through the lid of the top coffin, leaving him with wounds that were not merely inflicted by jagged wood…“Pickman’s Model” – An artist of the macabre develops a new and startlingly realistic style when he begins painting demonic figures too grotesque to be displayed in public… but where did he find this latest inspiration?“The Rats in the Walls” – After restoring the cursed, ruined estate of his ancestors, a young man begins hearing rats scurrying in the walls. An exploration of the cellar reveals an opening to a large chamber, the contents of which reveal the true and terrible history of the property.“The Music of Erich Zann” – Each night, on the top floor of an apartment building, an elderly violinist plays a haunting, otherworldly melody… and receives a response from somewhere beyond our dimension.“The Haunter of the Dark” – Robert Blake takes an unhealthy interest in the ruins of a long-abandoned Gothic church whose distant spires are visible from his apartment window. After venturing across town, Blake learns that local residents fear the church and do not speak of it. Undaunted, Blake presses on and finds a way inside. While exploring the ruins, he encounters an artifact that offers him frightening visions of the Ancient Ones—one of which is soon unleashed.“The Dunwich Horror” – In the isolated, backwoods village of Dunwich, Massachusetts, the primitive Whateley family welcomes a grandson named Wilbur, born of Lavinia and an unnamed father who is believed to be the entity known as Yog-Sototh. Other villagers become fearful of Wilbur’s rapid physical development and inhuman countenance—not to mention the strange growling and rumbling from the surrounding hills that began after his birth. Following Lavinia's unexplained death, Wilbur and his grandfather begin boarding up the windows of their home as if to imprison something inside. After the deaths of Old Man Whateley, then of Wilbur, the invisible creature bursts from its confinement to wreak havoc on the village. Three professors from nearby Miskatonic University undertake a mission to destroy the creature using the Necronomicon, the grimoire of black magic that initially spawned the beast.“The Thing on the Doorstep” – Edward Derby, an intelligent, but weak-willed young man with an interest in the macabre, marries a homely, eccentric woman named Asenath who is reputed to have a beguiling affect on others. It is claimed by some that once captured by her stare, they found themselves gazing upon their own bodies through Asenath’s eyes. It isn’t long before Derby undergoes a bizarre and dangerous change of demeanor…