Great Tales of Horror

H.P. Lovecraft wrote horror stories like no other author before of after him. In the pages of Weird Tales and other pulp-fiction magazines of the 1920s and '30s, Lovecraft pioneered a new type of story that fused the thrills of supernatural horror with the visionary concepts of science fiction. His unique style of cosmic horror revolutionized the modern horror tale through its depiction of a vast universe indifferent to human existence and populated by incomprehensibly alien monsters.This volume collects twenty of Lovecraft's best-known horror stories, including several that laid the foundation for the Cthulhu Mythos, a pattern of myth and lore that represents the high point of his writing and once of the most original contributions to fantastic fiction of the past century. Selections include:"Pickman's Model" The monsters in Richard Upton Pickman's paintings were so hideously lifelike you might easily believe that they had been painted from real life."The Rats in the Walls" The nightly scramblings of foraging rats in the walls were disturbing enough -- but what horror did their destination belowground suggest?"The Call of Cthulhu" An island risen from the depths of the Pacific Ocean houses a denizen whose emergence in our world portends the end of life as we know it."At the Mountains of Madness" In the wastes of Antarctica, an exploration team discovers the remnants of an inconceivably ancient pre-human civilization -- and evidence that whatever wiped it out may still be at large.H.P. Lovecraft: Great Tales of Horror