Tales of H. P. Lovecraft

Volume 1

By: H. P. Lovecraft

Narrated by: Rupert Degas

Ten tales of horror, mystery, imagination and just plain down-home weirdness from the master of the macabre. Lovecraft is commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th century. Stephen King has called him "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."©2009 Beautiful Books Ltd (P)2009 Beautiful Books Ltd

Several stories included

This audio book included several of the more obscure Lovecraft stories. 10 stories in all
The Alchemist
The Festival
The Beast in the Cave
Beyond the Wall of Sleep
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn
The Descendant
The Hound
From Beyond
Cool Air
The White Ship

Great selection of tales, I am looking forward to the remaining volumes!

Be ye warned as nightfall approaches

H.P. Lovecraft is frightfully good at making the hairs on your body stand on end as he weaves tales of death and horror. His marvelous tales are rooted in the the Occult and will leave you frightened to your wits end.

Pretty good ... but some reading flaws

Enjoyed this a lot - I prefer single author collections over singleton short pieces; many of the other audible available Lovecraft works are singletons only. However, the reader does not do accents very well. His normal narration is fine, but some of the accents are somewhat ludicrous at best and barely understandable at worse. This exacerbated by the very occasional addition of sound effects. I do hope this reader does more volumes, but skips the accents and the unnecessary effects.

From the "Meh" to the "Actually Kind of Scary"

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely! Lovecraft is a seminal work for those who love sci fi/fantasy and has inspired many much-loved modern works. This collection is a good introduction to him and some of the pieces were actually a bit scary.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Tales of H. P. Lovecraft?

When Lovecraft made you really feel how trapped and dead that man lost in the cave was.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Anything involving primates

Any additional comments?

This collection has some of his more obscure works (which are kind of "meh" - they aren't particularly scary and the endings are almost nonsensical even by Lovecraftian standards) and a few that are actually a bit scary when you think about them. There's a bit too much "spooky music" in between stories, but I'd still recommend this short collection. That last hour to 1.5 hours was amazing.

Quite the disappointment

I have been a fan of Lovecrafts's since I was a boy, but these stories are a waste of a credit. They have no build-up of suspense, they have no surprise endings, they have no substance in the body of work. Run away from this book.