Publisher's Synopsis
The seventeen stories selected for this compilation range from the fantastic to the outright bizarre, exposing the dark dreams and obsessions that plagued the short life of H.P. Lovecraft, the master of supernatural horror and fiction. Often known as either The Cthulhu or Lovecraft Mythos, his later works of short fiction are the foundation for the dark phantasmic mythology that has driven a cult following like none other before or since in literary history, inspiring countless writers and artists around the world over the last century. In the feature story 'The Call of Cthulhu', a manuscript is found amongst the papers of a deceased professor's estate, including pamphlets, newspaper clippings, and a strange statuette, all pointing to the same horrific truth-the return of the Dark God Cthulhu and his corpse-city R'lyeh. Furthering the research of the professor, the narrator is taken on a journey to the deep Pacific, as he discovers first-hand the fate that awaits all those who oppose the ancient cult devoted to the liberation of the monstrous being from the shadow time of Earth, that yearns to emerge from Its abyssal prison and sway all humankind to Its will. And while the aethereal beast from the darkest of ages past was forced back long enough to sink again with the ruins of Its nightmarish and impossible city, It is not beaten... Cthulhu lies in wait only for the stars to align once more. Also included are sixteen more terrifying tales from the twisted dreams and visions of the master of horror and the macabre: Azathoth, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, He, The Whisperer in Darkness, Cool Air, The Evil Clergyman, Ibid, The Book, History of the Necronomicon, The Strange High House in the Mist, Ex Oblivione, The Nameless City, Hypnos, The Horror at Red Hook, What the Moon Brings, and The Haunter of the Dark.
