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Rating: Even when one is introduced to cosmic horror at the age of 13 years, ordering a book by mail entirely by chance just because the cover looks insanely cool, I can assure you that you end up being sucked into a vortex from which it's almost impossible to escape. In one sentence, I have summarized how I came to know Howard Phillips Lovecraft: possibly the most brilliant writer of the 20th century in horror literature. It was enough for me to order “Chilling Stories” in eighth grade and spend the sum of Lire 6900. That’s it: after finishing the last page, I was already completely enthralled.
Gianni Pilo edits this (very) essential and concise collection, but in my humble opinion, it's more than effective and capable of touching the deepest and darkest recesses of the soul from these 21 stories onwards, with that adrenaline-pumping style able to give the reader goosebumps without mincing words. The superb mastery of the author manages to fully engage anyone transported into Lovecraft’s bizarre and occult vision of the world and universe. Perhaps no one before him had managed to transport readers into such a claustrophobic and terrifying dimension: there was Poe, sure, but his was a very different kind of horror, perhaps less “direct,” if you can understand what I mean.
Of course, in “Chilling Stories” the essential chapters of the Cthulhu cycle are missing (it would have been nice to include The Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror, At the Mountains of Madness… ); the salient traits of Lovecraft's alter-ego – Randolph Carter – are missing (there are no The Statement of Randolph Carter, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath…); the most picturesque landscapes from the “Dunsany-influenced” period are absent (The Nameless City, to name one); several exemplary tales regarding the unsettling deities of the repulsive cosmic pantheon (Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, Dagon… etc.) are missing, and I could continue mentioning various masterpieces that could have easily been included in this little book, but in that case, it would have been much longer than the 318 pages it comprises.
To be fair, as an introduction to this peculiar writer, “Chilling Stories” is not bad at all. If, on one hand, it is perplexing that a story with a rather weak ending like Medusa was included in the collection, on the other hand, The Curse of Yig, rather than The Hound or Cool Air, are an excellent calling card for those wishing to venture into the dark lair of Providence and its surroundings. Indeed, they outline in broad strokes the salient concepts of Lovecraftian literature, such as the imaginary New England (Arkham, Miskatonic University, etc.) and a (alas only) slight nod to the cosmic horror so dear to the author (the excellent From Beyond).
How can one not be captured by the necrophilic and stale smell of death from The Tomb? How can one not be struck by the grotesque and Darwinian ending of Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family? Not to mention the chilling Herbert West–Reanimator, one of the highest points of the Providence master's inventiveness. Along these lines, I also feel like mentioning The Exhumed, The Lurking Fear, The Horror at the Cemetery. Pure genius, I dare say.
This volume makes you want to explore more of Lovecraft, as I indeed did back in the day: obtaining the complete works is the next step, which I did when I was a bit older and had more developed literary knowledge compared to the enthusiastic “cool” of my adolescent comments. Every year, not being able to read Lovecraft's entire production (unfortunately), I do give this excellent volume a read. Absolutely recommended to those who don’t know him yet and want to get an idea of the author, in essence a more than excellent starting point.
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