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Eldritch Tales  By  cover art

Eldritch Tales

By: H. P. Lovecraft
Narrated by: various narrators
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Publisher's summary

Following the phenomenal success of Necronomicon, its companion volume brings together Lovecraft's remaining major stories plus his weird poetry, a number of obscure revisions, and some notable nonfiction, including the seminal critical essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature."

Gathering together in chronological order the rest of Lovecraft's rarely seen but extraordinary short fiction, this collection includes the entirety of the long-out-of-print collection of thirty-six sonnets "Fungi from Yuggoth."

Lovecraft died at the age of forty-seven, but in his short life he turned out dozens of stories that changed the face of horror. His extraordinary imagination spawned both the Elder God Cthulhu and his eldritch cohorts, as well as the strangely compelling town of Innsmouth, all of which feature here.

©2014 H.P. Lovecraft (P)2014 Blackstone Audiobooks

What listeners say about Eldritch Tales

Average customer ratings
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Audiobook Contents

History of the Necronomicon
The Alchemist
A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson
The Beast in the Cave
The Poe-et's Nightmare
Memory
Despair
The Picture in the House
Beyond the Wall of Sleep
Psychopompos; A Tale in Rhyme
The White Ship
The House
The Nightmare Lake
Poetry and the Gods
Nyarlathotep
Polaris
The Street
Ex Oblivione
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
The Crawling Chaos
The Terrible Old Man
The Tree
The Tomb
Celephais
Hypnos
What the Moon Brings
The Horror at Martin's Beach
The Festival
The Temple
Hallowe'en in a Suburb
The Moon-Bog
He
Festival
The Green Meadow
Nathicana
Two Black Bottles
The Last Test
The Wood
The Ancient Track
The Electric Executioner
Fungi from Yuggoth
The Trap
The Other Gods
The Quest of Iranon
The Challenge From Beyond
In a Sequester'd Providence Churchyard Where Once Poe Walk'd
Ibid
Azathoth
The Descendant
The Book
The Messenger
The Evil Clergyman
The Very Old Folk
The Thing in the Moonlight
The Transition of Juan Romero
Supernatural Horror in Literature

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186 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

An Excellent, If Repeated, Performance

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this audiobook to a friend because of the great stories that are told within. Lovecraft can be a bit hard to get into, but if you like horror then this collection has something for everyone. Stories about monsters, dreams, quests and all manner of the macabre never make it a dull.

What did you like best about this story?

Given that this is a collection, it is hard to nail down exactly what the best thing about the volume is. Since I am a fan of Lovecraft, just hearing more of his work after consuming the Dreamcycle is a great privilege.

Have you listened to any of various narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to most of the narrators from the previous Lovecraft volume called Dreams of Terror and Death. I particularly enjoyed the performances of Stephan Rudnicki and Simon Vance. They've just got that voice that conveys terror so well. Armando Duran, a newcomer in this volume, adds an interesting flair to the stories set in the western parts of the United States.

Who was the most memorable character of Eldritch Tales and why?

There are simply too many to count, but Joe Slatter from Beyond the Wall of Sleep always stands out to be as a tragic figure due to the mental strain he undergoes while lacking the sophistication to relay how he feels.

Any additional comments?

I have to say that I am disappointed in the inclusion of stories from Dreams of Terror and Death. I was hoping for the inclusion of works such as The Call of Cthulhu or The Dunwich Horror and hearing quite a lot of the previous volumes content was a let down. However, the inclusion of the history of the horror fiction genre towards the end was a surprisingly interesting addition, though it is ironic Lovecraft wasn't mentioned in it.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The Rest of Lovecraft

More accurately, a miscellany of Lovecraft. Blackstone Audio had already put together two almost definitive multi-voiced collections of the master: “Necronomicon” covering his great horror tales, and “Dreams of Terror and Death” covering his dark fantasy tales. This collection is full of the stuff that most “Best of Lovecraft” anthologies leave out. Included here are the master’s less regarded horror stories, stories already performed in “Dreams” and regurgitated here for filler, his poetry, his collaborations with other authors, and his essay on the history of horror stories, “Supernatural Horror in Literature.”

I feel that the lesser regarded stories are usually lesser regarded for a reason, but I did enjoy listening to them being performed. (Favorite example: the solemn Stefan Rudnicki reading “The Temple” with a slight German accent.) I was didn’t dislike the poetry, but I wonder if that is because it was good or that I can’t tell poetry from doggerel. I enjoyed one collaboration, “The Crawling Chaos,” a superb apocalyptic vision. I hated the others. I would recommend them for the library at Guantanamo. I wouldn’t listen to them again unless a track of Mike, John, and Kevin was added. As for “Supernatural Horror in Literature,” well, look at my latest acquisitions on Library Thing. Thank you, Mr. Lovecraft, I’m sure I will enjoy them.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Awful, awful narration

Would you try another book from H. P. Lovecraft and/or various narrators?

Yes, if it actually had good narrators. Some of the narrators are fine in this but some are just unforgivable.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/a

Would you be willing to try another one of various narrators’s performances?

n/a

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Eldritch Tales?

I don't have any problem with the writing, just with the narration. Necronomicon had a few lackluster narrators, but in particular in this book, some were just awful. I literally could not finish listening to The Alchemist because the narrator was putting on the most appalling half-assed french accent. I could not care less about France or french culture, but even *I* found it offensive how bad the accent was. It was just unpleasant to listen to. I want a refund.

Any additional comments?

I would like a refund, and whoever did the narration for The Alchemist should be fired, or possibly shot.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great collection of odd tales

The readers voices and tones fit the tales perfectly, and really add to the atmosphere of the story. This is a great collection for anyone looking to read/listen to stories of oddities and horror.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
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    3 out of 5 stars

it is an enjoyable listen.. but after two lovecraf

What did you love best about Eldritch Tales?

I did not really like this one. The novelty wore off.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

multiple narrators

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

same above

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No moments that were moving

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

I feel a bit shortchanged

It's all fine and good, but some of the recordings do appear in another audio book by the same publisher. With the change of main theme, I didn't think this would happen.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

60 short stories, 10-20 of any real value

H.P. Lovecraft wrote hundredes and hundredes of short stories, and yet most people has only ever heard about let alone read a handfull of them...
there is a reason for that... 9 out of 10 a near unreadable/unlisenble, being either pure word salad, or worse, just plain boring....
Buuuut the few good works, are pretty damn good

so yeah this is a collection of lesser known works, and I would say 1/5th is pretty good and the rest is garbage
the comedy poem both suprised me and mad me giggle though

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Lesser known Lovecraft

I recently listened to Eldritch Tales written by H. P. Lovecraft and narrated by various narrators. 

This is a compilation of some of Lovecraft's lesser known tales, poetry, short stories, and even some uncompleted works. The stories are very much what one would expect from a master of the cosmic horror genre. They brim with old ones fishing for vengeance, tales of bards from cities that never were, and German submarine commanders dragged into the cold embrace of Atlantis.

To cap the entire thing off, it ends with a treatise written by Lovecraft. It lays out the foundation of the weird tale and horror in literature. It lays its foundations in ancient poems, moves forward to the viking Edda, and step by step follows its progress into the turn of the century. This most intriguing work of study is almost worth the cost of the book by itself as it lays out the progress of horror tales through the ages.

The narrators were many and generally well chosen. Most do an excellent job. While there are a few odd points of narration I would prefer changed, I generally feel it was carried off well.

Conclusion: This is a very Lovecraftian book. Weird tales and horror stories are, generally speaking, a niche interest. Those who want a bit of fright will find delicious delight in these pages. All others may safely stop before opening the cover, the mental gates of forbidden knowledge, lest they hear of cyclopean monstrosities that may warp the steadiest of minds.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Must Have. Exceptional Narration Of Thoroughly Enjoyable Stories.

I can’t really find any fault in this collection. Even if you know Lovecraft inside and out the variety of narrators and their excellent work make every story worth hearing again (and again).

Of note, there are a few of the extremely short (5 minutes or less) stories that are rarely included in books or online and that you have to both know about and dig to find. I had never heard anything about two of them and the others are nice to see included, almost like a surprise bonus.

I also like that some of the purely weird (no Ancient Ones) Stuff is included. It tends to get overshadowed by Cthulhu & Co. but it’s still good. In particular The Street is often panned as a piece of anti-Communist propaganda that marks a low point in Lovecraft’s work (the anti-Commie part is correct) but it’s still a good story when heard and parts of it are very fitting in today’s political climate.

This is a great book and one I highly recommend.

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