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Tara's Reviews > Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales
by
This collection of weird fiction short stories and novellas is slightly inconsistent in terms of quality, but it contains so many genuinely original and thoroughly harrowing, sinister tales that, on the whole, I found it a highly enjoyable—and often exquisitely eerie—reading experience. That said, I’d really only recommend it for hardcore fans of Lovecraft; for everyone else, there are far better—by which I really mean far shorter—ways to get acquainted with him. At nearly 900 pages, this volume is better suited to those who’ve already explored his more famous stories, although you’ll find all of his most popular works here, too, and they are incredibly fun to revisit. If you’re also interested in delving deeper into his oeuvre, in dwelling amongst “all the snarling chaos and grinning fear that lurk behind life,� you will find much to savor here. Lovecraft was a very dark, very strange little monkey.
List of Stories:
Night-Gaunts
Dagon
The Statement of Randolph Carter
The Doom The Came to Sarnath
The Cats of Ulthar
The Nameless City
Herbert West - Reanimator*
The Music of Erich Zann*
The Lurking Fear*
The Hound
The Rats in the Walls*
Under the Pyramids
The Unnamable
In the Vault*
The Outsider
The Horror at Red Hook
The Colour Out of Space
Pickman’s Model*
The Call of Cthulhu*
Cool Air
The Shunned House
The Silver Key
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness
The Strange High House in the Mist
The Dreams in the Witch-House
From Beyond
Through the Gates of the Silver Key
At the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow Over Innsmouth*
The Shadow Out of Time
The Haunter of the Dark
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
To a Dreamer
Afterword: A Gentleman of Providence by Stephen Jones
* = personal favorite
by
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.�
-H.P. Lovecraft
This collection of weird fiction short stories and novellas is slightly inconsistent in terms of quality, but it contains so many genuinely original and thoroughly harrowing, sinister tales that, on the whole, I found it a highly enjoyable—and often exquisitely eerie—reading experience. That said, I’d really only recommend it for hardcore fans of Lovecraft; for everyone else, there are far better—by which I really mean far shorter—ways to get acquainted with him. At nearly 900 pages, this volume is better suited to those who’ve already explored his more famous stories, although you’ll find all of his most popular works here, too, and they are incredibly fun to revisit. If you’re also interested in delving deeper into his oeuvre, in dwelling amongst “all the snarling chaos and grinning fear that lurk behind life,� you will find much to savor here. Lovecraft was a very dark, very strange little monkey.
List of Stories:
Night-Gaunts
Dagon
The Statement of Randolph Carter
The Doom The Came to Sarnath
The Cats of Ulthar
The Nameless City
Herbert West - Reanimator*
The Music of Erich Zann*
The Lurking Fear*
The Hound
The Rats in the Walls*
Under the Pyramids
The Unnamable
In the Vault*
The Outsider
The Horror at Red Hook
The Colour Out of Space
Pickman’s Model*
The Call of Cthulhu*
Cool Air
The Shunned House
The Silver Key
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness
The Strange High House in the Mist
The Dreams in the Witch-House
From Beyond
Through the Gates of the Silver Key
At the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow Over Innsmouth*
The Shadow Out of Time
The Haunter of the Dark
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
To a Dreamer
Afterword: A Gentleman of Providence by Stephen Jones
* = personal favorite
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Reading Progress
April 16, 2018
–
Started Reading
April 16, 2018
– Shelved
April 18, 2018
–
2.73%
"”That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.�"
page
24
And with strange aeons even death may die.�"
April 20, 2018
–
7.86%
"In that shrieking the inmost soul of human fear and agony clawed hopelessly and insanely at the ebony gates of oblivion."
page
69
May 14, 2018
–
22.89%
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up..."
page
201
May 14, 2018
–
24.37%
"When the stars were right, the Great Old Ones could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R’lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them."
page
214
June 6, 2018
–
69.13%
"I have seen the dark universe yawning
Where the black planets roll without aim�
Where they roll in their horror unheeded,
Without knowledge or lustre or name."
page
607
Where the black planets roll without aim�
Where they roll in their horror unheeded,
Without knowledge or lustre or name."
July 23, 2018
–
Finished Reading
December 4, 2021
– Shelved as:
horror
Comments Showing 1-15 of 15 (15 new)
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message 1:
by
Fede
(new)
Apr 20, 2018 04:16PM
You know how to cheer me up, Tara...
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Fede wrote: "You know how to cheer me up, Tara..."Haha glad to hear it. Lovecraft was perhaps just a tiny bit bleak at times... :p
Wow. No doubt H.P. is incomparable. Huh... how do you pronounce " R'lyeh? " :)
Fede wrote: "Wow. No doubt H.P. is incomparable. Huh... how do you pronounce " R'lyeh? " :)"
Good question. I believe it is pronounced like this:
Gotta love Ash’s mastery of language in Army of Darkness, right? :D
Ha ha, I got it almost right then!Yeah, absolutely :D
Congratulations on making it through this enormous book! Have you watched any good movies inspired by Lovecraft’s stories? I haven’t been successful in my quest of finding a really good one yet�
Yes, I root for the far shorter way to get acquainted with him. I have the faint memory of reading some short story ages ago. Very faint though, so it's like I'm reading about him for the first time. I can't think of a better introduction than your review. :)
ղé wrote: "Congratulations on making it through this enormous book! Have you watched any good movies inspired by Lovecraft’s stories? I haven’t been successful in my quest of finding a really good one yet�"Thank you, ղé! It was such a pleasure to read this. I hope you are still enjoying it :) Btw, what do you think of his “Dream Cycle� stories, such as The Silver Key and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath? I found that I was not at all a fan of those, and my dislike for them is really what brought my rating down from 5 stars to 4. I tend to prefer his more traditional horror stories. Those, and all of the insane creatures he came up with :D
As per movie adaptations, the only one I’ve actually seen so far is Re-Animator. The movie is so silly and cheesy and over-the-top that I can’t help but love it, but for very different reasons from the story, which I thought was actually quite frightening and well written. Have you seen it? It’s really a lot of fun:
Florencia wrote: "Yes, I root for the far shorter way to get acquainted with him. I have the faint memory of reading some short story ages ago. Very faint though, so it's like I'm reading about him for the first tim..."Perhaps someday you’ll try another of his stories on for size, hopefully one that’s more memorable ;P He’s not for everyone, but many of these are kind of perfect for reading late at night, preferably during some kind of violent thunderstorm. Thanks for your kind comment :)
Tara wrote: "ղé wrote: "Congratulations on making it through this enormous book! Have you watched any good movies inspired by Lovecraft’s stories? I haven’t been successful in my quest of finding a really ..."I'm not familiar with his Dream Cycle stories. I don't remember having read any of them... Or maybe they were just so unmemorable that I've forgotten them as soon as I've finished them!
I've also seen Re-Animator years ago. It was funny! And completely opposite of what you'd expect of a Lovecraft story! There's something very charming in the cheesiness of 80s movies.
ղé wrote: "Tara wrote: "ղé wrote: "Congratulations on making it through this enormous book! Have you watched any good movies inspired by Lovecraft’s stories? I haven’t been successful in my quest of find..."Haha that could very well be the case! Hopefully I will forget them soon too :D
It was definitely hilarious. And I agree with you 100%, there’s nothing quite as lovable as a good (or adorably bad) 80s movie :)
Having not read anything by him so far Tara, I'll wait for the thunderstorm as a soundtrack to accompany a dip into the grinning fear. Fascinating write-up, I'll look for one you marked with an asterisk.
Ilse wrote: "Having not read anything by him so far Tara, I'll wait for the thunderstorm as a soundtrack to accompany a dip into the grinning fear. Fascinating write-up, I'll look for one you marked with an ast..."Many thanks for reading, dear Ilse, especially since I know you aren’t a fan of the horror genre. I look forward to seeing if you enjoy his unusual style...hopefully your neck of the woods gets a summer thunderstorm soon ;)
Already liked ;) That's a fair share of his major stories, I'd say :)
P.E. wrote: "Already liked ;) That's a fair share of his major stories, I'd say :)"Thought so! Looking forward to seeking out the few I’ve managed to miss :)
