The Shunned House

By: H. P. Lovecraft

Narrated by: Felbrigg Napoleon Herriot

The house on Benefit street is shunned. With a dark forbidding exteria, a garden overrun by corrupt weeds and bent malformed trees, it simply looks wrong. The locals know its history, know how many people that house has killed, and fear it.Dr Elihu Whipple is not afraid of the house, he's fascinated by it and its history, and now he's decided to investigate its horrifying secret.

Public Domain (P)2012 FNH

Pleasantly Surprised

I'm familiar with Lovecraft as a master of horror, with stories about tentacled interdimensional gods, but I had no idea he'd also written fiction that fell into the "haunted house" genre. I learned of this story through "The New England Legends" podcast, when they covered the house that inspired this story. Having listened to quite a bit of New England history in the last year, as well as the history of this specific house, it was enjoyable to be able to recognize which elements were real history, and what was creative license. The story is thoroughly set in Rhode Island and employees elements that make sense for the kind of turn-of-the-century ghost hunter who viewed himself as "scientific". I loved his choices of weapons for how to deal with the monster, a nice break from well-worn ruts of genre tradition.

If you enjoy the haunted house fiction of Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, Henry James, etc, then you will probably like this story. The history of the house and it's current ambience are setup first, along with some delightful bits of Edgar Allan Poe history. The narrator's history with the house is then established, with the third section dealing with the actual "investigation" of the house. Felbrigg Napoleon Herriot does a very nice job with the narration, just the right pace and emotion for the story. I very much enjoyed the audiobook. I'm going to look for my of Lovecraft's short stories now.

Classic Lovecraft

Lovecraft's mind is a wonder. Can anyone explain it? Napoleon Herriot has the perfect voice and demeanor to deliver the inexplicable.

Not his best

This was a bit hard to pay attention to. It didn’t grab and hold my interest.

I love hp Lovecraft he is one of the greats

loved it I think everyone should read this or listen to it 3 or 4 times

I enjoyed the rise of tension and anticipation.

I enjoyed the rise of the tension and anticipation of what could be at the core of The Shunned House. The payoff to this short story was worth it. The narration was executed perfectly.