For October 6
Plot:
While going through the effects of his late uncle, George Gammell Angell, professor emeritus of languages at Brown University, Francis Wayland Thurston discovers a small bas-relief depicting a creature, an amalgam of “an octopus, a dragon, and a human.” He further describes it: “A pulpy tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings.” Below the creature, hieroglyphics were inscribed.
According to Professor Angell’s notes, a young man by the name of Henry Anthony Wilcox brought the bas-relief to him, asking him to translate the hieroglyphics. A student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Wilcox had made the bas-relief, including the inscription, after something he’d seen in dreams.
Wilcox is taken ill and sent home. After some days, he recovers with no memory of having been ill. The strange dreams cease.
Among his great-uncle’s papers, Francis finds accounts of other similar dreams, experienced mostly by artists and poets.
The Professor had seen something like this before. In 1908, Inspector John Raymond Legrasse from New Orleans came to consult a gathering of the American Archaeological Society in St. Louis about cult of voodoo adherents who practiced human sacrifice.
From here, arise stories that seem to indicate a cult dedicated to an image much like Wilcox’s exists in nearly every far-flung corner of the world. They chant a phrase in an unknown language which means, “In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”
Thoughts:
A warning to anyone who might be thinking of reading this gem, which is often considered Lovecraft’s masterpiece. Lovecraft uses racist language and stereotypes unapologetically. People of mixed-raced are “mongrels,” and they are (whaddya know?) the bad guys—assassins, and often not terribly bright. “Degenerate Esquimaux” practice Cthulhu rites. He doesn’t have much good to say about sailors, either. Lovecraft was a racist and a snob.
Lovecraft’s prose is often lush and heavy, a throwback to 19th-century purple passages with phrases like, “My uncle, it seems, had quickly instituted a prodigiously far-flung body of inquires amongst nearly all the friends whom he could question without impertinence…”
Even if Lovecraft was long-winded, he knew how to build suspense. What might appear at first as no more than an ugly sculpture made by a young man whose unsettling dream interest the narrator’s great uncle becomes a symbol of a threat to the entire world. It’s evil enough not to mind devouring humans for breakfast. How to stop it? It’s deathless.
This is a longer story, broken into three chapters. It takes a little longer to get through, but I think if the reader has time, this is not a bad little yarn. The racism, however, spoils it.
Bio: H.P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. He is best known as the creator of the Cthulhu myths, involving “cosmic horror,” that is, a horror that arises from the danger that surrounds us mortals, but it keeps so far from our everyday lives we don’t and can’t see it. Those who seek knowledge of it are often driven insane or die.
Lovecraft originally wanted to be a professional astronomer. He maintained a voluminous correspondence, particularly with other writers. Though his work is now revered as seminal in horror and dark fantasy, he died in poverty at the age of 46 of cancer of the small intestine at his birthplace, Providence, Rhode Island.
Lovecraft was an early contributor to Weird Tales magazine in the 1920s. Among his best-known works are “The Dunwich Horror,” “Dagon,” and “The Call of Cthulhu.”
The story can be read here:
The story can be listened to here:(1:29:36)
Title: The Call of Cthulhu
Author: H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)
First published: Weird Tales, February 1928
Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old 
I also find a lot of racisim in Agatha Christie, which spoils many of her books for me.
All art, regardless of medium, is – sadly – a reflection of the times in which it is created. For both good or ill.
All too true. In a review, especially in a work regarded a seminal and important in horror as this, I feel obligated to warn people, however.
Even in the racist time and place Lovecraft lived, Lovecraft stood out. And oddly enough, his one brief marriage was to a Jewish woman.
Lovecraft was an odd fish. (To the non-Lovecraft aficionado, this is a nod to Lovecraft’s story, “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” )
Yes, that’s been my experience, too. A shame, because as a kid, I loved Agatha Christie.
Lovecraft is indeed a important figure in horror literature and everyone has heard of Cthulhu. I have not read this gem but I am hesitant to do so. There are many works from back then and the 19th century, which does not feature racist and snobbish language, just think of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Jules Verne, etc., which is why I am hesitant to read Lovecraft’s books.
I agree, which is one reason why I bring this aspect up. It makes for suspenseful reading—Lovecraft is a master at that—but the white supremacy stuff is a bit hard to take.
The original Shelley is great and not all like the Hollywood movies. It’s quite deep, asking what it means to be human.
Yes I certainly agree with that