Monday, September 20, 2010

Dollar Bin Horror Spotlight:The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft,Part II

By Eric Polk
anotherdescentinto.blogspot.com

Continuing with my spotlight on H.P. Lovecraft, we begin with...

Celephais-
Inspired by a dream-like many of his works-Lovecraft's tale is about a British gentleman who slips into the dream world of Celephais, a mythical city by the mythical sea of the Cerenerian. In Celephais, there is no perception of time; one can leave for years and find nothing has changed. Some important landmarks the gentleman finds is the turquoise temple of Nath-Horhath and the Street of Pillars. Eventually, the gentleman meets his fate which will carry him into another story sometime later. A very imaginative tale about an imaginative place. Lovecraft also touches briefly upon longing for a dream and getting it! 8/10


Nyarlathotep-
Dread and foreboding are on the minds of many at the start of  this brief tale. An evil is approaching the world and arrives in the form of Nyarlathotep, a man of the race of Pharaohs who has been hibernating for twenty-seven centuries. He travels from place to place, plaguing people's dreams with disturbing nightmares. The narrator is unconvinced of this man's powers and as a result, bad things happen to three columns of people. Dark, disturbing imagery. A power story in a mere three pages. 9/10



The Picture in the House-
Set in rural New England, a traveler seeks shelter from a storm in an apparently abandoned house, only to find that it is occupied by an old, white-bearded, and ragged man, speaking in "an extreme form of Yankee dialect...thought long extinct", whose face is "abnormally ruddy and less wrinkled than one might expect." He shows a disquieting fascination for an engraving in an old book depicting a butcher shop of the "cannibal Anziques" from the historic Congo kingdom of Anziku), and admits to the narrator-who becomes nervous and frightened throughout the man's story- that it made him hunger for "something more". Sadly, the outlandish ending to the story sank an otherwise horrific story about a man's cannibalism(Rhonny would love this,lol.) 6/10


Next week I tackle The Outsider, Herbert West-Reanimator, and The Hound.

3 comments:

Mr. Gable said...

Yes!! Next week is going to rule. Herbert West baby.

Eric Polk said...

I can tell you Mr.Gable it was an enjoyable descent(no pun intended) into madness and obession.

Sekhmei said...

Nyarlethotep and Celephais have always been two of my favorites. I thoroughly enjoyed your review of both. I look forward to the review of Herbert West - Reanimator, which I have recently acquired on audiobook.