Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Tutti i racconti

The disruptive impact of H.P. Lovecraft's world and his conceptions of the cosmos continues to populate our nightmares. The great fantasy writer Fritz Leiber aptly called him, in his well-known essay, “The Copernicus of the horror story.” Lovecraft created a mad and insane cosmos dominated by incomprehensible deities. His importance indeed lies in having given birth to "cosmic horror," a new literary genre with connections to both Gothic and science fiction. The alien mythology of the Cthulhu Mythos—embodied by the various Azathoth (the supreme God), Yog Sothoth, Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Shub Niggurath—was born in a historical period when science was demolishing old certainties and symbolizes the mechanistic and purposeless universe revealed by this shift. At the time of the recluse of Providence, the development of new scientific discoveries had indeed opened up a dark world full of disturbing terrors, making the demons, devils, and trappings of the old Gothic literature represented by authors such as Ann Radcliffe, Charles Robert Maturin, and Matthew Gregory Lewis appear outdated. Meanwhile, psychoanalysis had shed light on the terrors lurking in the unconscious, symbolized by HPL through the Night Gaunts, the creatures that haunted his childhood dreams. Certainly, Lovecraft was not the first to understand and be fascinated by this universe teeming with unfathomable mysteries. But undoubtedly, he was the one who codified and perfected the genre of "cosmic horror." His sources of inspiration are, in any case, very important for understanding his insane universe, starting with Edgar Allan Poe. Poe, in his stories, had explored the madness and monstrosity of human nature. But his genius had made him intuit the potential of the new mysteries lurking beyond time and space. In this sense, his "cosmological" essay "Eureka" remains exemplary. We also cannot forget H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, forerunners of what would later become science fiction. But perhaps the most important writer from this point of view remains the Englishman William Hope Hodgson, whose influence on HPL's storytelling is crucial. In his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature," Lovecraft describes Hodgson's masterpiece novel "The House On The Borderland" (1908) as follows: "The wanderings of the narrator's spirit through countless light-years of cosmic space and kalpas of eternity, and his chronicle of the final destruction of the solar system, constitute something almost unique in contemporary literature." Another of Hodgson's novels of paramount importance is "The Night Land" (1912), perhaps too long but, in any case, remains, over time, a mad and delirious nightmare where the sense of cosmic terror is multiplied to its utmost. Lovecraft always talks about it in his essay: "The picture of a dead planet, sunk into darkness, with the remnants of the human race concentrated in a huge pyramid and besieged by dark, monstrous, utterly unknown forces, is something the reader will never forget." The sense of "cosmic" terror emanating from the pages of these Hodgson novels is hardly found in science fiction itself and thus constitutes a sort of aesthetic manifesto of "cosmic horror." Certainly not to be forgotten is also Fitz-James O’Brien, who, in his "visionary" and apocalyptic tales, foresaw science fiction. Then there is the case of the great Belgian writer of the European fantastic, Jean Ray. Lovecraft had indeed not read him, but both well knew Hodgson's narrative. Thus, connections and analogies can be traced between the literary universes of the two authors, such as in Jean Ray's story "Le Psautier de Mayence," where delirium reaches unreachable heights in the hallucinatory vision of a phantasmagorical underwater city reminiscent of the famous R'Lyeh of "Lovecraftian" memory. It is also impossible to overlook the importance of Arthur Machen and Robert W. Chambers. The former, with his magnificent Pan god and the existence of the Little People, symbolized the terror of losing one's identity due to the pressure of the realm of the unknown. This theme is also found in the stories belonging to the Cthulhu Mythos cycle. Robert W. Chambers is known for his "The King In Yellow" (1894), which became suddenly famous thanks to the TV series "True Detective." Lovecraft had words of appreciation for Chambers. In some moments, in his view, he manages to reach "extraordinary peaks of Cosmic Horror." The stories are linked together by a mysterious book whose reading provokes madness. Initially, the influence of the Irish writer Lord Dunsany was also very important, noticeable in many of the early stories considered specifically “Dunsanian.” HPL thus represents a sort of "trait d'union" between Gothic literature and the nightmares of science fiction. Indeed, even Fruttero and Lucentini already considered Lovecraft a science fiction writer. An atheist and rigorously materialistic, he embraced various political positions in his life, although he remained essentially a conservative. He probably needed protection against the "scraping wings of darkness" of his nightmares. He idealized the 18th century New England as the ideal era to live in. He influenced many writers, with whom he stayed in contact through a dense network of correspondence. Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth (thanks to him and Donald Wandrei, we owe the preservation and publication of all his works through the legendary Arkham House), Fritz Leiber himself, Robert Bloch, and Henry Kuttner were his disciples. Even Colin Wilson fell under his influence, especially in novels like "The Mind Parasites" (1967) and "The Philosopher's Stone" (1969). Today, unfortunately, horror literature has followed more traditional and conservative paths to the detriment of the genuine fantasy of Lovecraft's era. Writers like Stephen King—with his epic novels—and Clive Barker—with his splatter imaginary—seem sincerely very far from the "Lovecraftian" aesthetic. There seems to be no more room for the delirious worlds imagined by Lovecraft, Machen, Hodgson, Clark Ashton Smith, and many other undeservedly forgotten and buried names. Our goal must be to ensure that future generations know and appreciate the mad cosmos of H.P. Lovecraft.

Now Mondadori publishes a new revised and updated edition of all his fiction. An indispensable volume that I strongly recommend even to those who already have the previous volumes. This new edition is based on the original manuscripts established by the foremost HPL expert, namely S.T. Joshi, and published by the legendary Arkham House. It includes the juvenile stories and collaborations. A powerful and essential tome. Also available in ebook format.

H.P. Lovecraft “Tutti i racconti” – ISBN – 9788804644071 – 1644 pages – Mondadori – Modern Classics – Modern and contemporary fiction - Euro 22 - 2015