DYVERS: D&D Inspiration

Showing posts with label D&D Inspiration. Show all posts

Monday, February 20, 2017

Cthulhu and the Old Ones Sing the Blues: The Beast in the Cave

The Beast in the Cave is the first story published in The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The story was written by H.P. Lovecraft when he was only 14 years old and shows signs of the author's inexperience. The story is short, only six pages, and builds towards a conclusion that makes little sense in connection with the information the author provides his readers.

Still there are hints of the weird fiction elements that would become more pronounced in his later works once the Beast makes its appearance. While it's an early effort by Lovecraft it still has the hallmarks of his prose which make for an enjoyable, if all to light, read. Largely a forgettable story that leaves me unfulfilled.

If you haven't read this one yet, then you're not missing anything.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Beast in the Cave

The Alchemist

The Tomb

Dagon

A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson

Polaris

Beyond the Wall of Sleep

Memory

Old Bugs

The Transition of Juan Romero

The White Ship

The Street

The Doom that came to Sarnath

The Statement of Randolph Carter

The Terrible Old Man

The Cats of Ulthar

The Tree

Celephais

The Picture in the House

The Temple

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family

From Beyond

Nyarlathotep

The Quest of Iranon

The Music of Erich Zann

Ex Oblivione

Sweet Ermengarde

The Nameless City

The Outsider

The Moon-bog

The Other Gods

Azathoth

Herbert West - Reanimator

Hypnos

What the Moon Brings

The Hound

The Lurking Fear

The Rats in the Walls

The Unnamable

The Festival

Under the Pyramids

The Shunned House

The Horror at Red Hook

In the Vault

Cool Air

The Call of Cthulhu

Pickman's Model

The Strange High House in the Mist

The Silver Key

The Dream-Quest of Unkown Kadath

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

The Color Out of Space

The Descendant

The Very Old Folk

History of the Necronomicon

The Dunwich Horror

IBID

The Whisperer in the Darkness

At the Mountains of Madness

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

The Dreams in the Witch House

Through the Gates of the Silver Key

The Thing on the Doorstep

The Evil Clergy Man

The Book

The Shadow Out of Time

The Haunter of the Dark

Cthulhu and the Old Ones Sing the Blues: Introduction

I like big projects and series that tend to push me to accomplish things with my blog that I wouldn't otherwise attempt. It keeps me honest. It motivates me - and right now I need that because I have a lot that I want to do on the blog this year. Anyway, way back in December, 2016 I got this bright idea that I was going to do a complete read through of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction so I purchased a copy of The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft from Amazon and waited.

And waited.

Then it arrived earlier this week and I was thrilled. The book looks to be of a fair quality and I absolutely love the subdued cover.

So here's the deal.

Over the course of this year I'm going to be reading all 69 short stories and novellas contained within this weighty tome. As I go along I'm going to be publishing my thoughts on the stories here on the blog under the series Cthulhu and the Old Ones Sing the Blues because I think that title is hilarious and it's my blog. You're more than welcome to join along in the process as I would love to hear your thoughts as we progress.

Now I should mention that the works of H.P. Lovecraft are in a kind of nebulous space within copyright law as there is a party that claims ownership of the copyright but has not yet produced proof of it so far as I've been able to ascertain online. You see you can read all of his works online, for free, from places like hplovecraft.com and the internet archive yet you have a copyright holder who is trying to assert their claim and from here things get into legal terms that I'm unskilled in describing or involving myself in. So instead I'm going to be very clear from the outset that I will be using quotes form H.P. Lovecraft sparingly and only in furtherance of the discussion of his works as is covered under Fair Use. I have no intention of circumventing anyone's claim on the property and have no interest in being sued. My only goal is to explore his works and to gain from them as a writer, reader, and Game Master.

With that out of the way, welcome to the Cthulhu and the Old Ones Sing the Blues!