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The Call of Cthulhu
The Call of Cthulhu
Three independent narratives linked together by the device of a narrator discovering notes left by a deceased relative. Piecing together the whole truth and disturbing significance of the information he possesses, the narrator's final line is ''The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.''
Book Excerpt
ndscape in the Paris spring salon of 1926. And so numerous are the recorded troubles in insane asylums that only a miracle can have stopped the medical fraternity from noting strange parallelisms and drawing mystified conclusions. A weird bunch of cuttings, all told; and I can at this date scarcely envisage the callous rationalism with which I set them aside. But I was then convinced that young Wilcox had known of the older matters mentioned by the professor.
II. The Tale of Inspector Legrasse.
The older matters which had made the sculptor's dream and bas-relief so significant to my uncle formed the subject of the second half of his long manuscript. Once before, it appears, Professor Angell had seen the hellish outlines of the nameless monstrosity, puzzled over the unknown hieroglyphics, and heard the ominous syllables which can be rendered only as "Cthulhu" ; and all this in so stirring and horrible a connexion that it is small wonder he pursued young Wilcox with queries and demands for data.
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When the joy of a fan does no longer meddle with the mind, then the story is mediocre. By now I noticed similarities to the Demeter's journey in Dracula, and the complete lack of formatting makes the ebook version get another minus, when it comes to readability.
On the strong side Lovecraft gave unusual examples of how to hook readers, how to draw them into a story, be it by a narration or a series of letters. The trick of excluding grisly details, while making the reader have a very clear suspicion about what happened, has always been part of his signature-style.
Among the roleplayers of Call of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu: This story is not all about Miskatonic university (as it has never been anything special to Lovecraft himself), and clearly uses other places & faculties.
Sadly there are notions, which nowadays are defined as racist, so no more blissful ignorance and overlooking.
On the strong side Lovecraft gave unusual examples of how to hook readers, how to draw them into a story, be it by a narration or a series of letters. The trick of excluding grisly details, while making the reader have a very clear suspicion about what happened, has always been part of his signature-style.
Among the roleplayers of Call of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu: This story is not all about Miskatonic university (as it has never been anything special to Lovecraft himself), and clearly uses other places & faculties.
Sadly there are notions, which nowadays are defined as racist, so no more blissful ignorance and overlooking.
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This was the story that got me hooked on Lovecraft long ago.
The effect is something like the old sense of "sublime". He often describes things as "blasphemous", but they are as likely to blaspheme against geometry as against God.
If you don't want to download it, you can also read it online: inkitt.com/stories/10600
The effect is something like the old sense of "sublime". He often describes things as "blasphemous", but they are as likely to blaspheme against geometry as against God.
If you don't want to download it, you can also read it online: inkitt.com/stories/10600
05/21/2015
Lovecraft had two basic types of stories. One where the thing happens to the protagonist (Herbert West, Whisperer on the Doorstep, Charles Dexter Ward, Mountains of Madness,) and one where the narrator discovers documents, artifacts, etc. and relates someone else's story. This started out as the latter (boring) type, but luckily it ended with a sailor's first-person account of Cthulhu (pronounced, "Smith"). If you can get through the scholarship stuff, the ending is worth it.
01/27/2014
One of my favorite short stories! This is a sci-fi classic. If that is not enough for you to read it, imagine a secret cults, horrible monsters, and a following clues "detective" style to discover the horrors of Cthulhu (best name ever).
A must of H. P. Lovecraft lovers, sci-fi/horror lovers, or just anyone who wants a great fictional short story.
A must of H. P. Lovecraft lovers, sci-fi/horror lovers, or just anyone who wants a great fictional short story.
06/08/2013
A very silly story, told very well, although the language used was rather 'baroque' in its overuse of adjectives and descriptions. This story comes in three parts, building up the tension nicely, but the 3rd part eventually annoyed me with its over-ornate, superficially compunctional pericombobulations.
11/02/2012
It’s appropriately weird that – in this story that culminates in a jellyish-green tentacled monster – it’s the little images that stand out best.
Whether its a man dying inexplicably after a sheath of papers falls out of a window and its him on the head or a 6" statuette of a monster – its claws "gripped the front edge and extended a quarter of the way down toward the bottom of the pedestal.
The depiction of the sifting and physics defying demission of the tomb of Cthulhu (its all wrong geometry) makes the stone buildings and arches as much part of the terror as the wakening monster it harbours.
“They could not decide whether it lay flat like a trap-door or slantwise like an outside cellar door… (Donovan) climbed interminably along the grotesque stone moulding – that is, one would call it climbing if the thing was not after all horizontal.”
Whether its a man dying inexplicably after a sheath of papers falls out of a window and its him on the head or a 6" statuette of a monster – its claws "gripped the front edge and extended a quarter of the way down toward the bottom of the pedestal.
The depiction of the sifting and physics defying demission of the tomb of Cthulhu (its all wrong geometry) makes the stone buildings and arches as much part of the terror as the wakening monster it harbours.
“They could not decide whether it lay flat like a trap-door or slantwise like an outside cellar door… (Donovan) climbed interminably along the grotesque stone moulding – that is, one would call it climbing if the thing was not after all horizontal.”
03/01/2012
The Call of Cthulhu was amazing, for starters. Lovecraft has a strange writing style, but once you get past that into the story, it's incredible.
The only part that confused me was towards the end (spoiler) where he described R'lyeh with angles that behaved wrong, and then there was Cthulhu. :DDD
One of the greatest works of Fiction I've ever read. I loved it, and I recommend it.
The only part that confused me was towards the end (spoiler) where he described R'lyeh with angles that behaved wrong, and then there was Cthulhu. :DDD
One of the greatest works of Fiction I've ever read. I loved it, and I recommend it.
12/16/2011
Arguably H.P. Lovecraft's greatest work. The prose is dense, like many of Lovecraft's other works, but the patience needed is well worth it. Cthulhu is one of the best monsters of all time, a mammoth figure comparable to Satan and Dracula.
10/19/2011
Eh. While I can see how this would have been a riveting sci-fi novel during its time, it definitely reads like a relic of literature today. However, it'll only take about an hour to finish so it's worth checking out if you're a sci-fi fan.
06/14/2011
One of the most intersting early 20th century scifi stories. I enjoyed learning about some archaic english words Lovecraft uses throughout the story. It is also also quite an innovative story when you consider the time this was written and the `newness` of the scifi genre at that time. A must read for every scifi aficionado. Make sure to watch the South Park parody of the Cthulhu cult - hilarious!
05/03/2011