A Beautiful Books audio first, produced by Paul Kent.

To look at our photograph of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, you wouldn't think he was that weird. Quite unprepossessing, in fact. Yet within that rather ordinary looking exterior were whole universes just waiting to be born.

For HP Lovecraft, as Howard is known to posterity, was the creator of some of the strangest and yet most influential horror, fantasy and sci-fi stories ever written, ten of which we decided to set to audio for you to download - if you dare, that is.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds and that the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of Enlightenment, Romanticist, and Christian humanism.  Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.  Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades, and he is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.

These all-new productions featuring the considerable voice talent of Rupert Degas were produced for Beautiful Books by Neil Gardner - and the superb music is by Jon Nicholls.

Details

• ISBN 9781905636587
• Publication date: 2009
• Format: MP3 unabridged
• Read by Rupert Degas
• RRP: £8.99