The best works of Lovecraft

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Probably every book lover has heard of an author like Howard Lovecraft. Despite the fact that he passed away in 1936, Lovecraft's best works are still popular and terrify readers of all ages. Which is understandable - they are rich, atmospheric and create a magnificent universe with its own laws, history and heroes.

The scariest books

If the reader decides to start acquaintance with the writer's work, it is worth listing the best works of Lovecraft. Still, not all of them are equally good. It will be very disappointing if the first few works that come across so disappoint the horror fan that they discourage the desire to continue reading - the connoisseur will never get to the really interesting works of the talented writer.

So, many experts on the work of Howard Lovecraft believe that the most powerful works are:

• "Dagon".
• "Outcast".
• "The Dunwich Horror".
• "Hidden Fear".
• "Color from other worlds".

This list includes both short stories and long storiesstory. However, they all have one feature in common - they can instill fear in the heart of the reader with the strongest nerves. So, if you want to test your courage, you should definitely read at least a couple of works. But be careful - the atmosphere of hopelessness and horror is really addictive, and you will probably want to read even more books by the great master of horror soon.

Dagon

Telling about the best works of Lovecraft, it is worth starting with this. A short story, just a few pages long, will make even a reader with the strongest nerves wince. And there is something from!

The work "Dagon" by Lovecraft is something like a diary of a man. After a terrible shipwreck, he found himself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Here he saw the ancient god Dagon, as well as numerous cultists worshiping him, performing terrible rites. Despite its small size, the story turned out to be surprisingly atmospheric and creepy.

What's interesting is that the writing of this work of the author was prompted by a nightmare that frightened him so much in childhood that it stuck in his memory for life. Many years later, a creatively modified dream brought Lovecraft considerable popularity.

Outcast

The Outcast by Howard Lovecraft was written in 1921 and published only in 1926. It is also a story about a man who lived for as long as he can remember in an abandoned and dilapidated castle. Never going beyond it, he knew the surroundingworld exclusively according to ancient books. And his only friends are rats, spiders and bats. The castle is surrounded by tall trees that do not let in sunlight, so the hero is forced to live in eternal darkness.

One day, tired of such a life, he decides to explore the upper floors of the castle, which he had never climbed before. It is here that the character manages to find the door when it leads not just to another room, but to another world. It is similar to the one that is familiar to the hero, but much more alive - the castle is not destroyed here, but is kept in excellent condition. Moreover, it has been significantly expanded and a large number of people have gathered here. However, an attempt to approach them had completely unexpected consequences. The last sentences of the work completely turn the whole idea of it, which emphasizes the high skill of the writer.

In one short story, Lovecraft managed to combine fantasy, horror and mysticism, seasoning it all with the theme of loneliness and the afterlife. Perhaps, it is thanks to this that the work reaches a completely different level, becomes especially creepy and memorable.

The Dunwich Horror

Another really creepy piece that could be more of a novella - it's considerably longer than the ones mentioned above. The Dunwich Horror by Lovecraft takes the reader to Massachusetts, where Old Whately and his albino daughter named Lavinia live in the small town of Dunwich. In general, this place has always had a bad reputation. Many argued that in the mountains you can sometimeshear a terrible roar, despite the fact that no traces of collapses after that remain. Yes, and nightjars, which the locals consider guides to another world, are behaving extremely strange.

The Whately family has always terrified the locals. And when Lavinia became pregnant by no one knows who, they began to stay away from their estate. The born boy was already 10 years old as tall as an adult man, and three years later he grew by another head. Whately actively bought cattle from local farmers, but he disappeared without a trace on their estate - no one saw the herds grazing on the land of strange neighbors. But the worst begins when the old man dies, and his daughter disappears to no one knows where. It is after this that the evil that brought terror and suffering to Dunwich is released.

The work was first published in 1929 and is adjacent to the popular cycle "Myths of Cthulhu". It was also one of the first to feature Lovecraft's "Necronomicon" book.

Hidden Fear

This story was one of the first written by the great master. In general, Lovecraft's "Hiding Fear" cannot be called a strong work. However, the writer himself highly appreciated him. After many experiments, the author came to the horror genre, which later glorified him.

The nameless protagonist (yes, Lovecraft has quite a few works in which the main character has no name) goes with a group of people to Mount Tempest toinvestigate numerous rumors related to her. However, there were not only rumors. More recently, a series of brutal murders has been committed in a nearby village, pulling many reporters into this godforsaken corner. And this mysterious atrocity is just one step out of many. For more than a century, people have been disappearing near Mount Tempest. And no one was ever able to see them again.

What evil lurks here? The hero is ready to sacrifice his life to find the answer to this question.

'Color from other worlds"

The action of the story "Color from other worlds" by Lovecraft takes place in the town of Arkham, Massachusetts. It is worth noting that this fictional city generally occupies a key place in the author's work - the action of many works takes place here.

The main character - an engineer - comes here to make surveys for the construction of a reservoir. Noticing unusual vegetation and huge dead wastelands, he tries to find out what happened here. However, most of the locals refuse to speak. He gets the answer from a half-crazy old man. And everything that he says does not fit well with the picture of the real world. But this is the only explanation for what happened. The story is a small digression into the terrible history of Arkham and will make the reader with the strongest nerves shudder.

Conclusion

This concludes the article. In it, we tried to list the best works of Lovecraft. Enough to spendjust a few evenings to read them. And they are sure to leave an indelible mark on the heart of any horror fan.