By Eric Polk-
I've never believed in a summer reading list. I feel it's an endeavor that shouldn't be relegated to just one season out of the year. Of course, it's almost always summer that brings out the Lovecraft in me. A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading a collection of four of his classic tales.
At The Mountains of Madness: Told in first person, the longest of the four stories involves a geological professor from the infamous Miskatonic University as he regales a warning to a future expedition of explorers to Antarctica about what he and another survivor of their own journey witnessed. In typical Lovecraft fashion, the dynamic duo discover a great creature who originated in the stars. While there are some truly scariest moments in this story, the narrator tends to overly describe alien architecture in the mountains and loves to use the word decadent. Everything was decadent. The layout was decadent. You'd figure being a university professor, he could at least use a thesaurus.
The Shunned House: The title itself is based on an actual house in Providence, Rhode Island. The story itself involves the curiosity of the protagonist and his uncle regarding the old house. Creepy, eerie, it's everything you want in a haunted house story. Of course, it wouldn't be Lovecraft without a monsters which is what we get at the end.
The Statement of Randolph Carter: The book concludes with a short tale told from the first person in which the narrator describes the events that led to the demise of his friend, an occultist. Together, they discover a portal near an old graveyard and the occultist goes down for a look. We never see what the occultist sees(only go by here say) but apparently it's pretty damn scary. Very good, brief, to the point.
1 comment:
This is a favorite book of mine. It got me hooked on Lovecraft when I was 14 years old.
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