A collection of short stories which I found to be of varying enjoyment.

Dagon

I had already played/sat through this in a VR walking simulator adaptation. It is also the first stories in this book that I would associate with Lovecraft’s classical themes, conjuring images of great Beings from the distant past that sleep in the depths of the ocean.

The Alchemist

The Alchemist started out strong, but the “Secret” the protagonist discovers at the end I saw coming from far away and I was disappointed to find out that this was supposed to be the climax.

Polaris

Fun little story about a man swapping is waking life with his dreams.

A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson

I found the form of English in this to be particularly annoying. I think it is supposed to be an older form, which is also only used by the narrator and not when he’s quoting another character. Further, I’m not certain what the point of this story was supposed to be.

Nyarlathotep

Stargate, gone wrong. Story itself was alright, but I really liked the somber adjectives.

Beyond the Wall of Sleep

The previous five stories I read were curiosities by comparison. This one was the first to really grab my attention and I couldn’t put it down.

Felt like a more fleshed out version of Polaris.

The White Ship

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. A cautionary tale, or something like that; Not sure.

The Terrible Old Man

I liked the idea, but thought it too short for its intended effect.

The Unnamable

Slow to start and rather disappointing ending, though there were some quite phenomenal paragraphs in between.

The Hound

Pretty good, lots of fun descriptions of the indescribable. Was intrigued from the very beginning and all the way throughout.

The Statement of Randolph Carter

Feels like a different version of The Hound. I thought it was good while reading, but looking back now, find it lackluster.

The Cats of Ulthar

Short but didn’t feel too short. A well crafted, self contained story.

Hypnos

Mediocre and not very interesting except for the last page, which I thought was really good.

The Other Gods

Found it pretty mediocre. The story was alright and it wasn’t particularly fancy language-wise either. Its also told in third person, which I generally prefer, but having the narrator be one of the characters takes much less literary work to immerse the reader in the story.

Felt similar about Hypnos, except that Hypnos has a pretty cool twist on the last page which is missing here.

Ex Oblivione

Too short, not much to say about it.

The Picture in the House

Although a bit hard to read with the heavily accented language, I liked it. The ending didn’t seem to have the desired effect on me though, leaving me more confused than anything else. Maybe the story is supposed to be as simple as it seems, but I felt like I was missing something.

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and his Family

One of the more gripping stories, though the long family histories in the first half were a bit overwhelming. Were I to read it again for the first time, I would draw a family tree with all the relationships. The hook at the beginning made it more interesting, but the ending wasn’t sufficiently justified in my opinion.

The Music of Erich Zann

I liked the music as a narrative device. Thematically similar to Hypnos, though lacking the singular punch at the end. The horror elements in this story are merely hinted at, placing the task to determine their nature entirely on the reader’s imagination. While I think this is a more challenging way to write a convincing story, it works quite well in this case, not least due to the unusual way it is portrayed, through music.

The Moon-Bog

A bit more fairy-tale like than the other stories. Didn’t get much out of it.

The Tomb

Filled with mystery in the beginning, it left me rather disappointed by the end. A mystery with too little information can be just as uninteresting as one with too much.

Pickman’s Model

Lots of build up but ultimately unsatisfying. The minor twist was very predictable but written like the greatest revelation. I liked the visceral descriptions of the paintings though.

The Festival

I was enraptured by the journey underground but found the end disappointing. Would have been better if the first and last paragraphs were exchanged.

From Beyond

One of my favorites. Shares themes with Pickman’s Model but more direct.

The Outsider

Very different perspective from the other stories. Reminded me of Odd Attachment from Ian M. Bank’s The State of the Art.

The Rats in the Walls

One of my favorites. I think the reason it works so well is because it only dabbles in the supernatural a little bit, mostly in the form of dreams/hallucinations but otherwise tells a relatively realistic story, yet equally if not more horrifying than the wilder cosmic horror stories more commonly associated with Lovecraft. The twist at the end I thought was handled well.

There is one paragraph however which I found very confusing.

I retired early, being very sleepy, but was harassed by dreams of the most horrible sort. I seemed to be looking down from an immense height upon a twilit grotto, knee-deep with filth, where a white-bearded daemon swineherd drove about with his staff a flock of fungous, flabby beasts whose appearance filled me with unutterable loathing. Then, as the swineherd paused and nodded over his task, a mighty swarm of rats rained down on the stinking abyss and fell to devouring beasts and man alike.

First, in German, a Herde (herd) always refers to a flock of animals, while Hirte (shepherd) always refers to a person guiding said flock. In English however, apparently a “swineherd” refers to the shepherd and “swine herd” to the animals. The second point of confusion stems from the last sentence, as it is not clear who is doing the falling and who is doing the devouring. The rats are said to be “raining down”, implying a fall in the physical sense; however, this interpretation does not really fit into the wider context of the story. An interpretation which makes more sense is that the rats are falling as in “falling to madness”, and in this, devour the shepherd and flock.