A classic tale from the Master of Weird Fiction, H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ chronicles the journey of Francis Wayland Thurston as he examines the notes of his dead uncle and learns of a strange and mysterious cult that worships an ancient monster – Cthulhu – a terrifying human/octopus/dragon hybrid that lives in the hidden city of R’lyeh.
As the narrator plunges further into this mystery, he begins to suspect that this ancient creature may, indeed, be real. If so, what would happen if this ancient evil being was…released upon the world?
One of the strangest and most bizarre stories from the man who put strange and bizarre stories on the map, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ is presented here in its original and unabridged format.
关于作者
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American writer of strange, graphic and bizarrely imaginative fantasy and science fiction stories. Born into a prosperous family in Provincetown, Rhode Island, Lovecraft and his family suffered a series of tragedies – including the institutionalization and death of his father – that forced Lovecraft and his mother to move in with his maternal grandparents and rely on them for financial support. Lovecraft’s education was spotty, but he evinced a strong attraction to literature. He began writing early – the first story in this volume – ‘The Beast in the Cave’ – was written when Lovecraft was fourteen – and showed a strong interest in the sciences as well, including anatomy, chemistry and astronomy. He was a determined and persistent letter-writer, often penning angry screeds to various magazines that contained strong criticisms of the contributing authors (who often feuded with him in print). His notoriety from these efforts would eventually lead Lovecraft to become chairman of the United Amateur Press Association and encouraged him to write more fiction himself. Lovecraft began life as a traditional conservative and was an avowed racist early in his career. But the Great Depression turned him into a socialist who was so far left in his political beliefs that he viewed Franklin Roosevelt as insufficiently progressive. Following the death of his mother in 1919 (she suffered from various mental illnesses), Lovecraft began churning out short fiction in earnest, forming a long association with the magazine Weird Stories. He never enjoyed any real financial success for his writing during his lifetime, however, and died in relative obscurity of cancer in 1937. His work was critically re-examined during the 1970’s and he has since been celebrated as one of the most imaginative and innovative science fiction writers in history.