Although The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward is one of the few old-fashioned horror books I have read, I found it quite interesting. The plot isn't as far-fetched as so many plots of modern-day horror stories are, but it's still fiction. The horror/action doesn't unfold too early in the story, but when it does you won't stop reading. The descriptions, in the book, of different regions are so clear and imaginable you will be able to draw pictures and design maps. The ending is unique, almost predictable, that's what makes you want to hurry-up and finish the book. Another thing I like about the book is the use of language. I think it goes perfect with the setting even though I had to read some lines over in order to understand them. To write this book in modern-day language would set it apart from other horror stories in that it wouldn't be as good.

Others have summarized the plot of this excellent story better than I can; I just wanted to mention two things: this is one of, if not the longest Lovecraft work (and the best-structured of his longer works), and it was made (adapted) into a fair-to-middling movie called The Haunted Palace in the early 60's, starring Vincent Price and, I believe, Debra Padgett. I think they had run out of Poe stories.

This is one of THE Lovecraft stories to read alongside The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Dunwich Horror, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. No one writes horror like Lovecraft. His cold and analytical style somehow makes his works even more terrifying. It may be the shock of the rational scientific minds of his character's seeing something that goes beyond explanation that makes his stories so jolting, or the horrifying results of what happens to those rational, scientific, and inquisitive characters, like Charles Dexter Ward, who seek the truth and discover too much of it. But maybe the reason Lovecraft is so scary is because all positive human emotions such as love are abandoned leaving only fear. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is chock full of fear and little else as it takes you through the paranoia of the American colonial days, through the degeneration of a young man's sanity, and through the ancient catacombs of an old house where something inhuman screams from the bottom of a pit. The mystery aspect of the story isn't too hard to figure out, but that may not have been so back in the 1930's when it was first written, but the journey is absolutely terrifying. Lovecraft puts pure fear on paper and that's something no modern horror writer I can think of has been able to do since.

For whatever reason, and I have no ready theory for why it should be so, Horror has proven to be one of the most novel and enduring of America's literary forms. From Washington Irving and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to Edgar Allan Poe's stories and poems, to The Turn of the Screw (Henry James' only worthwhile work), on to the great pulp writers like Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, right on up to the overrated but ridiculously successful Stephen King and the innovative but underappreciated Dan Simmons and Robert McCammon, we just keep churning out great horror writers and stories.

HP Lovecraft earned his place in this company with his supremely creepy short fiction, which injected both intergalactic elements and the mythos that he created involving the dread text of the Necronomicon. At the Mountains of Madness is perhaps his finest work and is obviously the forerunner of such subsequent horror staples as The Thing and Alien. It tells the story of a doomed party of Antarctic explorers who uncover the remains of a lost civilization, the Old Ones. Turns out, these Old Ones bioengineered the Earth, but were vanquished by their own creations, who have now been reawakened by these unwitting explorers.

Lovecraft's writing is mannered and affected, which may keep him from a mass audience, but it retains a certain gothic power and he continues to be a cult favorite.

GRADE: B+

H.P. Lovecraft possessed a truly unique voice and vision. There is perhaps no better example of his art than "At the Mountains of Madness," the superb short novel which is accompanied by three shorter tales in this volume.

The story of an antarctic expedition whose members uncover a shocking ancient mystery, "At the Mountains of Madness" incorporates many of Lovecraft's trademark themes and techniques. The short novel blends elements of mystery, science fiction, and horror with a subtle satire of academia. Lovers of literature will appreciate Lovecraft's references to Edgar Allan Poe.

"At the Mountains of Madness" is also a gripping adventure story, as we follow the narrator into a forgotten world of monstrous landscapes and equally monstrous creatures. Lovecraft's unique prose style--at once elegantly learned and primally disturbing--contributes greatly to the narrative. There has never been a writer quite like Lovecraft, and this brilliant short novel remains one of his best works.

H. P. Lovecraft's "At The Mountains Of Madness" could be the best horror story ever written. For the time period it was written in it is unsurpassed. For originality of the storyline and the sheer terror it inspires it stands next to if not above Stoker's "Dracula", and Stephen King's "The Shining". Lovecraft boldly went where few other writer's dared to follow by creating an entire Universe of unspeakable horrors. The mastery of his chosen craft lies in his ability to hint subliminally at the fears he was writing about, then letting his reader's imagination take over from there. Serious students of the Horror and Supernatural genre who overlook Lovecraft have missed the entire boat. Read and enjoy this book and Lovecraft's other stories but be careful, the fear you find will be in your own mind. Happy Halloween!

This is not a true biography as the title let's on, although it is almost always filed as a biography in any Christian bookstore. Jonathan Edwards, who knew Brainerd personally writes a short biographical sketch, but the book is largely Brainerd's on writings and journals. The journals were not written to ever be published, and the reader will recognize this right away. Therefore they contain honesty and transparency that a typical biography would never come close to.

Largely a prayer journal, it communicates Brainerd's wrestling with God, his confusion, and his incredible heart for holiness. Your heart will be thrilled as you work through this great work. You will refer back to it years after you read it.

We live in a day of "easy belevism". The days we live in are also sadly characterized by a christianity, which implies when it doesn't declare, that life is supossed to be easy for the child of God. The reader will see both of these dilusions dispelled in the life story of David Brainerd. Brainerd,was willing to undergo great hardship to take the true gospel to the natives of his day. His life shows all christians what happens when "glorifing God and enjoing Him forever" becomes ones chief aim in life. This certainly is not a chicken soup for the soul book that can be read with little thought. This book, however, will challenge every christian to live for the glory of God.

Beware! Danger ahead! This man's life and death will change you.

Are you comfortable with your "lot" Christian reader? Content with your religious practice? Satisfied with your progress in things spiritual? Should you be led to feast on the diary of David Brainerd with mind open (to God) and heart sensitive, you won't be. Do you sense that God must be quite pleased with you and all of the efforts you expend for His kingdom? Should you persevere and finish the book, such a sense will be dismantled by God's Spirit!

Buried within the private, personal journals of a young missionary (chronologically speaking - he went home to heaven at age 29) is a depth of spiritual wisdom, fervor for God's kingdom and glory, and love for the Savior, quite unparalleled (if not unrecognizable) in modern Christianity. The mystics would acknowledge in Brainerd what they themselves longed for, a wholesale abandonment to God - His purposes and His will.

Brainerd's growth in grace began with his conversion in 1739. His own words best describe: "My soul rejoiced with joy unspeakable to see such a God, such a glorious divine Being...My soul was so captivated and delighted with the excellency, loveliness, greatness and other perfections of God, that I was even swallowed up in Him...I wondered that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation, entirely by the righteousness of Christ."

One who has been so entirely apprehended by the Almighty is enabled to see his own soul very clearly; and this Brainerd did. The depth of his own depravity was before his eyes each day of his new life and most certainly played a part in his frequent melancholy. But it was balanced and fueled by the awareness of Christ's perfection and the beauty of His perfect remedy for sin.

The missionary was fixated on the promotion of God's kingdom; among the heathen Indians in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, ignorant settlers, and even the clergy, whom he endeavored to instruct, exhort and encourage, even on his deathbed. The hardships and privations he endured in the preaching of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ are quite beyond our ability to imagine. Total self-denial marked him clearly. He faced death at many turns. He was willingly and joyfully spent for his Savior. But, oh what fruit God brought forth! Read and see.

Listen, as he describes for us the essence of true Christianity and its counterfeit, from his journal entry on the Lord's day, May 24, 1746: "Could not but think, as I have often remarked to others, that much more of true religion consists in deep humility, brokenness of heart, and an abasing sense of barrenness and want of grace and holiness, than most who are called Christians imagine; especially those who have been esteemed the converts of the late day. Many seem to know of no other religion but elevated joys and affections, arising only from some flights of imagination, or some suggestion made to their mind, of Christ's being their's, God loving them, and the like." Another entry; June 18,1747, just months before his death in Jonathan Edward's home: "Especially, I discoursed repeatedly on the nature and necessity of that humiliation, self-emptiness, or full conviction of a person's being utterly undone in himself, which is necessary in order to a saving faith; and the extreme difficulty of being brought to this, and the great danger there is of persons taking up with some self-righteous appearance of it...being never effectually brought to die in themselves, are never truly united to Christ, and so perish."

Can we at all identify, dear reader?

Take a journey through the early years of our great land with a courageous servant of God. This is a book to touch the soul, to be re-visited time and again, to be worn out with handling.

But perhaps what makes this journal so compelling, is not the chronicling and inspiration of a remarkable missionary life, so much as the MESSAGE that God anointed. The Church mystical and corporate needs to recover this message today. Delve in and be changed!

I guess THE BEST OF H.P. LOVECRAFT spoiled me. When I got to this book, I found the stories not near as frightening or appealing. There are some fragments in this book, though, and the most important thing is that they ARE fragments. No pastiche authors here, thank you. Then there's a part of the book showing off some of HPL's earlier work. It's interesting to compare his earlier work with his later work, to see how he matured as a writer. By the way, did you know that HPL ghost-wrote a story for HARRY HOUDINI? I didn't either, until I read this book. I give this book 3 stars because I feel that only books that are TRULY OUTSTANDING deserve 4 or 5 stars. Only books that are absolutely terrible and have no merit deserve 1 or 2. So I give this book a conservative 3 stars.

In terms of readability or pure enjoyment, this title ranks low among the myriad Lovecraft titles. However, for the Lovecraft devotee, it offers enlightening insights into the author's writing. There is quite a hodge-podge of tales to be found in these pages. "The Tomb" is a fairly standard horror piece, "Imprisoned With the Pharoahs" is a story ghost written for Harry Houdini which I count among Lovecraft's lesser tales, "In the Walls of Eryx" is a compelling, uniquely Lovecraftian science fiction story set on Venus. "The Horror of Red Hook," while harkening to the types of unworldly themes Lovecraft came to be known for, is a somewhat dense story which I had unaccustomed trouble reading--largely, I feel, because it was written in the third person. "The Festival," "He," and "The Strange High House in the Mist" concern ancient rites and hints of unearthly terrors while also hinting at the dream worlds that Lovecraft so often contemplated; not surprisingly, I find these stories to be the best ones in this collection.

The really interesting parts of this book consist of a number of early tales and fragments. There are four stories Lovecraft wrote during his teens, and it is almost incredible to see the distinctive Lovecraft voice and style so well developed at such an early age. "Poetry and the Gods" and "The Street" are unusual and bear an ethereal air that did not find its way into his mature writings, while "The Beast in the Cave" and "The Alchemist" foreshadow the stories whose fame we now celebrate. The four story fragments are fascinating; though incomplete, they easily fit into a Lovecraftian world in that certain sometimes obscure references point to elements, characters, and themes developed more fully in other stories. One begins to see that all of Lovecraft's tales, Mythos and non-Mythos, share a mysterious thread or foundation. It is for this reason that I would not recommend reading this book without having read some of Lovecraft's better known stories. Certainly, those not yet fascinated by Lovecraft will reap small rewards from reading the fragments and early writings, and the other tales collected here are much less satisfying than those of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Three words can describe this book: tongue in cheek. One of the best written works of horror fiction that any author can ever write about! Only Lovecraft fully knows the potential of using the occult in the work of fiction! This book is a must along with the other books that Ballantine has compiled for Lovecraft! It is also a must for those interested in using Lovecraft's fiction for their rituals, too! I suggest all Masonic Temple of Satan and Order of the Horned Goat members to read up on this.

Part I "The Death of Common Sense"
Using several cases (see other reviews) details the harm of rationalist philosophy applied to law -- the misguided notion that laws can be made "self-executing".
Part II "The Buck Never Stops"
The abstractly laudable desire to maintain absolute impartiality creates an absolute nightmare of red tape -- the focus in this section is on Process spawned by mistrust and the bureaucratic reflex to avoid responsibility for decisions.

Part III "A Nation of Enemies"
Vocal, assertive minorities are able to control government policy-making. Rights over responsibilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the prime example here (see other reviews for details).
Part IV "Releasing Ourselves"
We must have law that allows thinking. Modern law wants to legislate away uncertainty with ever-thicker rulebooks, but uncertainty, risk, is exactly what drives various parties to work together, in the real world. Don't fear gov't authority. Don't think in extremes. Bureaucracy is the enemy of real democracy. Legislation cannot save us from ourselves. In the end, we must rely, as always, on common sense.

Note: rating lost a star because author kept using one example (Glen-Gery Brick Company) again and again, when fresh examples would have been more compelling. Also, as other reviewers have noted, the last section, on what we as citizens can concretely do to help change the situation, was vague and thin.

If this book interests you, you might also be interested in the political writings of Noam Chomsky. He has written an enormous, readable, extremely well-researched corpus of work that concerned, open-minded citizens can use to consider for themselves where they stand on various issues. If we were to hazard a label, Chomsky would be a "libertarian socialist". Try "Manufacturing Consent"... you might not look at your morning paper quite the same way.

I wouldn't agree with the categorization of this book as an "explosive manifesto" (back cover), nor would I call this "incendiary ... stimulating" (front cover). As an American who too often cringes when our country's regulatory red tape strangles expediency and constructive decision making, I'd say "The Death of Common Sense" offers some poignant anecdotes in describing today's bureaucratic morass. Beyond this, author Philip K. Howard documents well the mentality which has spawned our dependency and passivity, and how we can refocus on how democracy is supposed to function.

Mr. Howard's messages, evident throughout, are very obvious: we have substituted innovation with process, created enemies instead of cooperative societies, and squashed case-by-case reasoning under mountains of procedural law. There are so many "rights" covering every interest group that very little gets done for the benefit of the majority. "Trusting in the law" now means being wary of nearly everyone. Although sounding a bit rant-stricken at times, Mr. Howard offers up lots of food for thought ... some amazing stories. It's all pretty interesting and easy to read.

In my opinion, the last (and shortest) of the book's four parts, entitled "Releasing Ourselves," falls short of hitting on a way to get out from under suffocating law. I agree that initiative and responsibility are admirable attributes for executives in both the public and private arenas, and further, that universally applied policies that regulate the most minute procedural detail should instead have flexibility for more real-world applications. However, what happens when the most innovative of directives winds up injuring or killing someone? Will Joe Citizen give up his right (there's that word) to sue? I doubt it. And, as long as legal recourse remains the ultimate equalizer, the happy medium between "buried in the fine print" and "total judgment call" will be awfully hard to come by. Mr. Howard doesn't address this issue.

This is a very good read; however, a better balance between problem and solution would have made this book outstanding.

This is food for thought, not only for law students, lawyers and practitioners but also for the common citizen. In particular, for all those that get lost in the ill conceived red tape of mother bureaucracy, get stuck in fragmentary and nonsensical regulations. Not only the author provides enough examples of organizational lunacy, due to excess of formalism or elaborate distorsions of clear legal texts and principles, but also gives some insights about possible solutions to the problem of the excessive weight of rules and procedures so precise that no one has the chance to think for himself or find a solution to a problem applying common principles.
As Howard points out: "The sunlight of common sense shines high above us whenever principles control: What is right and reasonable, not the parsing of the legal language, dominates the discussion.With the goal shining always before us, the need for lawyers fades along with the receding legal shadows. People understand what is expected from them."
This is a provocative book written by somebody that has been a practicing lawyer as well as a teacher. These two hats permit the author to better size up the frustrations and limitations that paperwork and stupid regulations inflict upon the citizens.
It should be required reading for law students.

If you believe that the best way to study an author is through his works, this book is an outstanding addition to any Lovecraft collection. Other studies of Lovecraft I have seen either dismiss Lovecraft's philosophy and literary theory as being too complex to study or bog down in exhaustive reviews of Lovecraft's letters.

In 'The H.P. Lovecraft Companion', however, Shreffler has done exhaustive research into what Lovecraft's actual literary influences might have been, as is indicated not only by his letters but also by looking at what authors were in vogue at the time Lovecraft was writing and even what books would have been available on the shelves at the Brown University Library in the early 1900's.

Shreffler also makes a rather fascinating digression into actual magical cults in search of the basis for fictional groups such as the Esoteric Order of Dagon and Cthulu cults, and also sketches the history of real magical grimoires to explain the inspiration for the dreaded 'Necronomicon'. The author also gives bare outlines of some of the best/earliest Lovecraft-inspired stories by other authors.

My only complaint would be that even though almost all of Lovecraft's tales are listed in the book, only some of them are presented with 'back story' information regarding the specific details surrounding the location and inspiration for each one. A bonus in the book are several black and white photos of some surviving buildings mentioned in Lovecraft's stories, as well as maps of Salem, Arkham and Marblehead., Mass, and a map of Lovecraft's dreamland and other miscellaneous illustrations. Another bonus is H.P.L.'s "History of The Necronomicon" which is tacked on as an appendix.

What this book really does is extend to the reader a deep understanding of the literary and thaumaturgic influences on H.P.L. and gives an appreciation for Lovecraft's works, both for being ahead of their time as well as being incredibly (in some cases almost terrifyingly) well researched and even plausible.

Highly recommended.

For those just beginning down the road toward H.P. Lovecraft's extraterrestrial horrors, or for those who have visited many times before, this companion book by Philip A. Shreffler may prove an invaluable literary compass. Helpful to the newcomer will be chapters 3 and 4, "The Mythos Monsters" and "An Encylopedia of Characters and Monsters", respectively. In these chapters, Shreffler irons out the myriad people and super-beings which inhabit Lovecraft's intricate worlds, and explains clearly how they relate to one another in the infamous Mythos cycles. He even includes a "family tree" of H.P.L's wicked gods. Long-time fans of Lovecraft will be delighted as well with the rest of the book, which is chock-full of intriguing facts and anecdotes regarding his theories on literature, his personal life, and various inspirations. Written during a time when Lovecraft's work didn't garner as much attention as that of newcomers like Stephen King, this book unfortunately remains out of print. A new generation of admiring readers and publishers has dawned, however, and Philip Shreffler's book is definitely worth a look by both parties.

If you are looking for a good, quick introduction to Sartre's Philosophy, I would not start with _Introducing Sartre_ from Totem Books, but with _Sartre For Beginners_ from Writers and Readers Publishing.

_Introducing Sartre_ focuses more on Biographical information, and brief Literary analysis of Sartre's novels and plays, than on his Philosophical works and their meaning. The illustrations are frequently just "fluffy" caricaturization instead of helping us understand characterization. Why would I want to struggle with trying to determine which figure is supposed to be Aron, Nizan or Sartre?

The book lacks a Glossary (which is further indication of its Biographical/Literary approach rather than Philosophical), and there is no Bibliography (all references must be gleaned from within the text.)

While as a whole, the book was a somewhat interesting read, the weakness of its philosophical examination allowed me to only rate it 3-Stars.

I just finished reading this and was amazed at how much I enjoyed reading about this man's intellectual challenges. While I didn't agree with everything he put forth, I did appreciate his attempt to say what he felt regardless of what others might say in response. While at times [many to be honest] he comes off as a whining, melodramatic, lonely, malcontent there is still something about his body of work that coerced me into attempting to understand the origin of my thoughts and actions over the years. Well worth the few bucks it takes to make it your own!

Pls check status of my review on this book

In reading "Tiger in the Barbed Wire", I re-discovered Howard Simpson, having read an obscure mystery of his ("Junior Year Abroad") quite a few years ago. Believe me, the two books have nothing in common. Howard Simpson has discovered that he has more than one story to tell about his own life, no need to resort to fiction. How many Americans can claim to have served their country in Vietnam for so long, from pre-Dien Bien Phu to our own involvement much later? The late Lou Conein comes to mind but he did not leave a written legacy, nor was he likely to. Simpson not only worte about Dien Bien Phu but he was there, getting out while it was still possible to escape the trap being laid by the Viet Minh. Simpson draws word pictures of what it was like to be in Hanoi before the Geneva accords, when the French thought they still ruled the roost; he draws marvelous descriptions of what it was like to live in Saigon in those days when the French still clung to visions of their empire, looking down at the newly arriving Americans as interlopers. And finally, how that all changed, so dramatically, after DBP. This is a book to be savored by any former American officials in Vietnam. Simpson talks of familiar places that changed dramatically, of French conniving that was usually not in our best interest, of ever changing Vietnamese officials who usually did not understand official US policy, or worse, of ever changing US officials who rarely understood the Vietnamese or what was going on in Vietnam. But it is really Simpson's unique perspective on the French and their involvement that make this such a fascinating read for me. Howard Simpson's book has a spot in my library right along with History" but, truth be told, Simpson's was the most compelling, perhaps because I felt that I could identify with it personally. I look forward to reading his latest memoir, "Black Tie and Bush Hat". For me, Simpson's memoirs are more compelling than his mysteries - but this comes from an old francophile who has spent many years in France, including Marseilles and Paris, as well as Saigon. In short, all of Simpson's well tread venues. When he writes of the Corsican mafia and some favorite watering holes in Saigon, a smug smile comes to my face.

This reference book has proven to be invaluable to me. The ease of use of this reference tool has proven itself time and time again. I would highly recommend utilizing this tool whenever on-line data or software is not available for CAS number searches, nomenclature searches, or chemical structures.

It seems unfortunate to me that this collection's title comes from "The Lurking Fear," a story which I rank very low among Lovecraft's efforts. "Dagon" and "The Temple" are interesting and bear a connection with Cthulhu and his abode beneath the sea. "Arthur Jermyn" reflects Lovecraft's interest in genealogy, history, as well as issues of miscegenation, inbreeding, and hereditary degeneration over time. Several stories can be classified among the dream image motif Lovecraft developed early on in his mature fiction, while "The Outsider" is quite allegorical and fairly easy to figure out in advance of the ending. Two of the best selections to be found here are "The Hound" and "The Unnameable," two ghost stories of a sort. While "The Hound" is less than original, Lovecraft excels in describing the depravity of the minds of the two main characters and in creating a gruesome, well-defined inner sanctum of evil. "The Unnameable" is akin to a campfire ghost tale, but the somewhat trivial conclusion robs it of some effectiveness.

It is rather odd to find "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" in this collection. All of the other stories were written in or before 1927, while "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" bears a birth date of 1931; at this point in his career, Lovecraft was in his prime, and the effective honing of his writing within the intervening four years is quite apparent. This story works on all levels. A young traveler stops off in a strange city shunned by the outside community, discovers an incredibly disturbing town history, and eventually faces a frightful attack by terrifyingly fish-like beings. The atmosphere of Innsmouth is incredibly rich and detailed--you can almost smell the terrible fish odor yourself--and the protagonist's escape attempt is wonderfully suspenseful. The story culminates in a twist that I for one did not foresee, which was a welcome bonus to an already intriguing, satisfying read.

Most of these stories can be found elsewhere (including other Ballantine HPL publications), so even the greatest admirer of Lovecraft can survive without purchasing this item. In addition, the publishing standards of this book seem somewhat low; "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" in particular deserves much better. This book is great if you can't find these stories elsewhere, but dedicated readers of Lovecraft will want to have a product of higher publishing quality.

...seem to be the focus of many of the stories within this book. The short stories are: The Lurking Fear, Dagon (ocean related story), The White Ship (the oceans within our mind?), Arthur Jermyn, From Beyond, The Temple (ocean related story), The Moon-Bog, The Hound, The Unnamable, The Outsider (an almost SAD story) and The Shadow Over Innsmouth (a must for any fan of Lovecraft).
Dagon and The Shadow Over Innsmouth are linked together by the character of Dagon, an elder deep one. The Temple was a new story (to me) and a very interesting one about a German sub that finds...well, I won't tell you, but you can guess.

Despite reading 'The Mountains of Madness'; 'The Tomb'; and particularly 'Pickman's Model' in a brightly lit, populated main hall of the Boston Public Library in mid-day, I was still creeped out of my skin by the writing skill of this author - thus I became an H.P. Lovecraft advocate! But I wanted more. I wanted the full H.P. Lovecraft experience!
I decided to read 'THE LURKING FEAR And Other Stories' (c.1939, 1985) by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, overnight in the small graveyard on K & E. 5th streets, adjacent to the grade school I attended as a kid. So with book under arm, I left my local watering hole at last call and walked down a dark street, took a left, and stood in front of the small 1840s graveyard "where deformed trees tossed insane branches as their roots displaced unhallowed slabs and sucked venom from what lay below". Yup, this will do nicely.
So I hopped the low black wrought-iron spiked fence, sat down near a street light, coupled with a bright beacon October moon which casted "charonian shadows athwart the low mounds that dotted and streaked the region". I sat on a grave and leaned against a chipped and cracked slate headstone, and in this very un-library like atmosphere, began to read THE LURKING FEAR.
I sat comfortably "where the thick weeds grew and cast queer shadows in the light" and suddenly saw a rat run across a nearby grave. Uh, no problem, since rats are as common as seagulls in Boston; I finished part-one of THE LURKING FEAR in dark and shadow, when I suddenly jolted an inch off the grave recoiling my hand like lightning "for it was out of a phantasmal chaos that my mind leaped when the night grew hideous with shrieks beyond anything in my former experience or imagination."
The wind had blown a wet leaf on my hand in the dark and I yelped like a puppy. I resumed reading THE LURKING FEAR after my tachycardia and hyperventilation had subsided. The streetlight went out for some unknown reason and I was forced to finish THE LURKING FEAR, appropriately, by moonlight.
H.P. Lovecraft was criticized for a wordy adjectival writing style which his proponents, including myself, admired for setting 'atmosphere' to his storytelling. His use of the first person narrative only added to the distance of the author from the reader, so the reader would feel absolutely connected with the characters in the story, and, through analogy, feel the terror they experienced. Other writers of horror, particularly the very ineffective Stephen King, have not mastered atmospheric writing. In THE LURKING FEAR the author conveyed this sense of connection as he brought the reader, through the narrative of his nameless investigator, to Tempest Mountain, then inside the Martense Mansion and in the graves and tunnels of the elusive inhuman quarry.
So by the time I finished reading THE LURKING FEAR in this neglected neighborhood graveyard, the author had done his stuff and I was covered in a cold sweat from head to toe. My hands were clammy, unusually white and waxlike, and strangely still as H.P. Lovecraft finished the story describing the multitude of ape-like things which swarmed out of the tunnels near Martense mansion as "the ultimae product of mammalian degeneration; the frightful outcome of isolated spawning, multiplication, and cannibal nutrition above and below the ground; the embodiment of all the snarling chaos and grinning fear that lurk behind life". This last exposition of H.P. Lovecraft in THE LURKING FEAR suddenly made me curious of the name on the headstone I was leaning. It was my name!
They found my body in the morning: I had received the full H.P. Lovecraft experience.