Buy Book "Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The Complete Prose Works. Volume 1" in Ukrainian

A classic who was not recognized until his death… his works were published in tabloid magazines… He was almost unknown during his lifetime… but after his death, there was a real BOOM!

And nowadays, Lovecraft is a classic of the genre on a par with Edgar Poe and Stephen King.

The first volume means early stories. Yes, short stories are the main genre in which Howard Lovecraft wrote.

I had heard that Lovecraft’s style is quite difficult to read with many turns of phrase and pathos. Well, I thought it would be worse, but, surprisingly(!), no. The style is certainly heavy and, sometimes, I took breaks when I was reading just one story for about 15 pages to rest, but in general… the author’s style is good (well, not bad anyway).

And you know, in the description of all these plots (and then I saw something that seemed to contradict all the laws of physics, any attempts to describe it will be useless – yeah, something in that style, it’s early Lovecraft), the thought flies in different forms, but the essence… the essence!

“-What do we even know,” he said, “about the world and the universe around us? We have ridiculously few means of perception, and our ideas about things around us are infinitesimally small. We see things only as our nature allows us to see them, and we cannot comprehend their absolute essence. Armed with only five simple senses, we pretend to be able to comprehend an infinitely complex cosmos, even though other beings with broader, stronger, or even completely different sets of senses may not only see things in a completely different way than we do, but may also see and realize entire worlds of matter, energy, and life that are within arm’s reach of us – and yet can never be detected by the senses we possess.”

Although I can say that closer to the middle of the book, I was, so to speak, saturated with the author’s style and needed to be distracted, to take a break with another book. But… this is a classic!

And I recommend reading Howard Phillips Lovecraft and HIS… the first volume of the complete works!

During his life, Howard Phillips Lovecraft was a complex and reclusive person. The man died forgotten by all his friends, and in his creative circle he was known to a narrow circle of people. One of the most famous and iconic writers in the horror genre lived and died alone, although nowadays there is virtually no one who does not know about Cthulhu or the Necronomicon. His works frighten and inspire a lot of people to this day – there are no primitive monsters or monsters here. There is a fear of the great but unknown that permeates every page of this book. Yes, there are indeed many editions of Lovecraft, but this one from the Zhupansky Publishing House is a real work of art with a beautiful cover, beautiful and laconic design, lasso and thick paper, perfect for Lovecraft’s works! In addition, the organization of these works is extremely convenient – they are arranged in the order in which the writer wrote them.

First of all, the translation is good, but I would have liked a longer preface, because the author’s personality is very interesting in itself and it would not hurt to learn more about him before going to the worlds he has invented (it’s good that there is Wikipedia).

Secondly, what a cool design, what wonderful and atmospheric covers – they directly set you in the right mood.

The Complete Prose Works of G. P. are included in chronological order, so volume one contains the author’s early works, in which he writes out, imitates his predecessors and contemporaries-inspirers, and forms his own style. I’m not sure if it was a good idea to start with the early works, but it happened that way. And to be honest, I really liked it. So I have high expectations for his next works.

Lovecraft’s work was greatly influenced by Poe, he and he, one might say, stood at the origins of the horror genre in literature, and I was a little afraid that this influence would be too strong and I would be as bored as I was with Poe’s stories. I was wrong, Lovecraft, in my opinion, writes much better. At least I never got bored reading him, and I can’t wait to start the next volume. Cthulhu is calling 🙂

For me personally, it started a whole era in the horror genre, and it ended with it. In the sense that it served as the basis for all future realizations in this direction. And now everyone who writes in the atmosphere of the unknown and unknowable, adding to this a real threat from unreal creatures, automatically falls into a whole subgenre called “Lovecraftian horror”.

Of course, H.P. Lovecraft was also inspired by other authors who lived and wrote before him. Of course, he imitated other famous writers. But no one will deny the fact that Lovecraft is the king and founder of a special and unique universe.

His life is described as secluded and not interesting at all. Yes, nothing incredible happened to the writer, there was a lot of drama, but no less than other people. But read more: this man worked very fruitfully in his short and uneventful life.

I’m one of those readers who are rarely interested in an author’s biography, even if I really like their work. I’m not inspired by the incredible lives of writers who have led to the appearance of a book on my shelf.

That’s exactly how it was before Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

I really liked this book, it is full of unique images of the horrors of Lovecraft’s world. The translation was done by masters of their craft, and the footnotes greatly improved the understanding of the text. I highly recommend it, especially when you lack something unique.

Zhupansky’s publishing house did a good job on the design of this book. The only thing I didn’t like is that there are no works of his legacy written together with other writers.

I don’t complain about the quality of the paper, which is pleasant to the touch. If anyone else is hesitating to read or not to read, definitely buy it and read it.