Tour de Lovecraft: The Tales
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A wide-ranging and friendly journey through H.P. Lovecraft's tales of cosmic terror and wonder¸ the Tour de Lovecraft is the ideal companion to the work of the twentieth century's greatest American horrorist.
Kenneth Hite has spent decades reading and re-reading Lovecraft and his heirs¸ slipping through their forests of verbiage to discover the solid literary ground beneath. With his game designer's eye for structure and connection¸ in this book he reveals the threads and themes that run throughout Lovecraft's masterpieces. The Tour de Lovecraft alternately ambles and careens through all fifty-one of the Master's horror tales in chronological order from "The Tomb" to "The Haunter of the Dark¸" offering cheerful opinion¸ incisive literary criticism¸ playful speculation¸ and the occasional unhinged rant. It's a response to Lovecraft¸ and to his occasionally humorless critics¸ that offers you Edmund Burke's Gothic perspective on Cthulhu side-by-side with "The Haunter of the Dark" considered as Grail quest.
ISBN 10: 0-9816792-0-X ISBN 13: 978-0-9816792-0-4 AOP1001
Praise for Tour de Lovecraft!"Kenneth Hite's Tour de Lovecraft is indispensable. Thorough¸ insightful¸ and compellingly readable¸ it's a perfect introduction for newcomers to Lovecraft and an endlessly fascinating review for long-time Lovecraft addicts. This is the companion-book to Lovecraft's fiction-I read it entirely in one sitting¸ and I know I'm going to read it again many times over the coming years."
- Tim Powers¸ author of Declare and Last Call
"Lovecraft can be terrifying for all the wrong reasons. Kenneth Hite's charming and accessible Tour makes it much¸ much simpler. This is a sharp¸ engaging survey of Lovecraft's most important stories¸ sure to bring inspiration to new fans and fresh epiphanies to longtime devotees. And I'd recommend it to any teacher looking for an introductory critical companion to the fiction itself."
- Stephen H. Segal¸ editorial director¸ Weird Tales magazine
"The prospect of Ken turning his strange illumination upon Lovecraft's corpus was too delightful to resist. My attention was rewarded¸ as will be yours¸ with his many insights¸ associations¸ and criticisms of these familiar tales."
- John Scott Tynes¸ creator of Delta Green¸ from his Foreword
"Simply put¸ Ken Hite knows his stuff. If you have any interest in Lovecraft beyond Cthulhu kitsch¸ you owe it to yourself to read this."
- Richard Dansky¸ author of Firefly Rain
"Tour de Lovecraft is an insightful and witty romp through the fiction of the twentieth century's master of horror."
- Daniel Harms¸ author of The Necronomicon Files and The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia
Tour de Lovecraft: The Tales is © 2008 by Kenneth Hite. All rights reserved.
Please don't pirate this book¸ or the Terrible Old Man will be Terribly Upset.