The Essential Lovecraft

De: H.P. Lovecraft, Leslie S. Klinger - editor

Narrado por: Edoardo Ballerini, Marc Vietor, Scott Brick, Simon Vance, Jonathan Davis, Jay Snyder, Mirron Willis, Kevin Kenerly, Dan Bittner, Chris Ciulla, Vikas Adam, Gregory Connors, Jason Culp, Timothy Andrés Pabon, full cast

Forty-eight of H.P. Lovecraft’s most important stories are brought together in this collection–available only from Audible–selected and with introductions by the award-winning, best-selling Lovecraft editor Leslie S. Klinger. Howard Philips Lovecraft was the early 20th-century genius who, almost singlehandedly, pioneered horror and scientific fiction, only to die in near-obscurity. Rediscovered by critics and scholars in the 1970s, Lovecraft’s work has influenced—by their own admission—every major horror or science-fiction writer of today.

Full cast of narrators include:

• Fred Burman
• Kevin Pariseau
• Matt Godfrey
• Peter Berkrot
• Robert Fass
• Timothy Andrés Pabon
• Paul Woodson
• Avi Roque
• Raphael Corkhill

Foreword narrated by Leslie S. Klinger

Chapter 1: The Tomb narrated by Fred Berman

Chapter 2: Dagon narrated by Gregory Connors

Chapter 3: Polaris narrated by Simon Vance

Chapter 4: Beyond the Wall of Sleep narrated by Dan Bittner

Chapter 5: The Transition of Juan Romero narrated by Raphael Corkhill

Chapter 6: The Statement of Randolph Carter narrated by William DeMerritt

Chapter 7: The Doom That Came to Sarnath narrated by Peter Berkrot

Chapter 8: The Terrible Old Man narrated by Chris Andrew Ciulla

Chapter 9: The Cats of Ulthar narrated by Vikas Adam

Chapter 10: Facts concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family narrated by Simon Vance

Chapter 11: The Temple narrated by Sascha Rotermund

Chapter 12: Celephaïs narrated by Simon Vance

Chapter 13: From Beyond narrated by Mirron Willis

Chapter 14: Nyarlathotep narrated by Kevin Kenerly

Chapter 15: The Picture in the House narrated by Neil Hellegers

Chapter 16: Ex Oblivione narrated by Jason Culp

Chapter 17: The Nameless City narrated by Jonathan Davis

Chapter 18: The Quest of Iranon narrated by Avi Roque

Chapter 19: The Outsider narrated by Raphael Corkhill

Chapter 20: The Other Gods narrated by Vikas Adam

Chapter 21: The Music of Erich Zann narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

Chapter 22: Herbert West: Reanimator narrated by Jay Snyder

Chapter 23: The Unnamable narrated by William DeMerritt

Chapter 24: The Hound narrated by Raphael Corkhill

Chapter 25: The Lurking Fear narrated by Jay Snyder

Chapter 26: The Rats in the Walls narrated by Paul Woodson

Chapter 27: The Festival narrated by Fred Berman

Chapter 28: Under the Pyramids narrated by Jonathan Davis

Chapter 29: The Shunned House narrated by Robert Fass

Chapter 30: The Horror at Red Hook narrated by Chris Andrew Ciulla

Chapter 31: He narrated by Marc Vietor

Chapter 32: Cool Air narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon

Chapter 33: The Call of Cthulhu narrated by Matt Godfrey

Chapter 34: The Silver Key narrated by William DeMerritt

Chapter 35: Pickman’s Model narrated by Chris Andrew Ciulla

Chapter 36: The Strange High House in the Mist narrated by Kevin Kenerly

Chapter 37: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath narrated by William DeMerritt

Chapter 38: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

Chapter 39: The Colour Out of Space narrated by Gregory Connors

Chapter 40: History of the Necronomicon narrated by Simon Vance

Chapter 41: The Dunwich Horror narrated by Marc Vietor

Chapter 42: The Whisperer in Darkness narrated by Kevin Pariseau

Chapter 43: At the Mountains of Madness narrated by Scott Brick

Chapter 44: The Shadow over Innsmouth narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

Chapter 45: The Dreams in the Witch House narrated by Dan Bittner

Chapter 46: The Thing on the Doorstep narrated by Jason Culp

Chapter 47: The Shadow Out of Time narrated by Kevin Kenerly

Chapter 48: The Haunter of the Dark narrated by Neil Hellegers

©2024 Leslie S. Klinger (intro) (P)2024 Audible, Inc.

Very well done!

The narration was fantastic! Before this audiobook set I had very little experience in lovecrafts work, this was a great listen.

Great collection

This is a great one stop shop, but honestly it's just for Lovecraft fans. Most of his works aren't that good, especially his early stuff. It is interesting to hear the bad stuff alongside the legitimate masterpieces like At the Mountains of Madness or The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

All the Lovecraft you need

At the time of writing, this audiobook is available on Plus which is great. I've always wanted to read some of Lovecraft's stories.

Personally, I like the idea of the stories more than the actual stories themselves.

The narration is quite good and I found Edoardo Ballerini to be excellent. So much so that I'm listening to another audiobook that he narrated now. I didn't like the editor's notes on the stories however. As another review mentioned, the apologies about Lovecraft's racism and other flaws just go way overboard. And I really disliked the way Cthulhu is pronounced by the editor. He says it's the way it's supposed to be pronounced but after years of hearing it differently, I just didn't like it at all. Luckily the narrator of Call of Cthulhu pronounces it the way one would expect.

Great Introductions and Narration

While I’m not a fan of all of Lovecraft’s stories, this a great way to experience almost every piece of his work. The introductions by Klinger provide valuable context to each work, and he never attempts to avoid the bigotry that plagues much of Lovecraft’s writing. There are some genuinely great ideas here, even if the writing never lives up to the potential— it’s a shame that he died so young, as his writing seemed to only improve as he grew older and more comfortable with his collection of mythologies.

it is a good effort in general however...

I enjoyed the perfomance od the VAs resding the books, most of them were intense as the stories themselves deserved. However, the worst part of the production were the intros. I tortured myself with the first 2 of them and proceded to skip most of the rest; the ones I could not (having my hands occupied) confirmed my decision. I was actually hyped to have son context of the times when the book where written; factual information, not opinions presented in a factual format. What a wated opportunity.

Lovecraft Marathon

Even breaking this book into four 13 hour reads between other books, the read was a long haul. At least I can say I covered Lovecraft as a bucket list item, even if the enjoyment was not quite there. Narrators were great..

The Most Socially Just of the Many HPL Colllections

Editor guides you by hand through the mean, mean world of a bigoted man he and other SJWs somehow adore.

A good Lovecraft Collection... BUT...

First off, this is a very good and complete collection of Lovecraft work, so I recommend it highly as a lifelong fan... The actors who read the stories are quite good, and as a lifetime Lovecraft fan, I feel it is important to have a collection like this out there. So if you are already into Lovecraft, or are getting into his work, this would be for you either way.

HOWEVER... I have one big gripe with this particular collection, and that is the editor and his notes. I like having some history on Lovecraft, but the editor seems to go out of his way to do literally EVERYTHING I hate that other editors have done with Lovecraft...

Modernism. As with many others, this editor goes into long boring apologies and apologies about lovecraft's racism and other personal flaws, and quite frankly, it's tiresome.

Yes, Lovecraft was a xenophobic, neurotic, racist, twerp whose pros had many flaws (again, I am a lifetime avid fan of his).... But I ask, "So what???" I certainly don't endorse any of these personal flaws, but I also recognize that those was made him into the person who made a very interesting and enthralling world that has influenced pop culture for a hundred years...

So, yes, I might not like him at a dinner party, but I still love his work, and the need to apologize for it all is just played out.

Also, the editors pronunciation of Cthulhu annoys me even though he claims it's the one that Lovecraft himself came up with himself. (He pronounces it "Klu-Lu," but I like the more popular, "Ka-Thu-Lu.")

In summary, get the collection, and maybe just fast forward through the editor's notes.

A perfect into into love craft

I have been interested in love crafts work in passing but have never read any of his books for one reason or another but I saw this and decided to pick it up. It starts with some of the history of love craft and at the start of each story it talks about another snippet of his life around the time he wrote that story and I found these small snippets very interesting and I now find myself even more interested in his history and the other books that where not included in this collection. And of course the books were awesome I didn’t love all of them but if you like the genre you will have to find some interesting stories in the 50 hours

Great, but is it “Cthulhu” or…. Lulu🙄

The editor kept mispronouncing the name of Lovecraft’s most notable invention—Cthulhu, pronounced Ca-thu-lu not Clu—lu! Though, the author himself makes much ado of the weird combination of letters comprising the name of the alien god, narrators (many of those in this book in fact) and fans of the Cthulhu universe, have used the former pronunciation. The mispronunciation by the editor is so jarring that it impacts one’s ability to fully appreciate immersion into the universe presented in the book. Otherwise, the performances were amazing, and the back stories of the stories provided context for understanding the circumstances and the psychology of the author when these stories were being written… A very worthwhile read!😊