Watchers Out of Time and Others

From the front flap of this 405 page book: "The story themes set forth by H.P. Lovecraft and developed by August Derleth, have been collected into one omnibus of post-mortem collaborations belonging virtually to every period of Lovecraft's work. The tales follow a common pattern. A lineal descendent of the Whateleys, the Marshes, or the Bishops - or a similarly molded character of problematical nature - settles among the rugged hills and dark forests of his New England ancestry or in the neighborhood of a deteriorated coastal town. Occasionally, a nocturnal habitue of the byways and alleys of the Rhode Island capital succeeds the customary figure. Ancient rites and black magic still abet the forces of evil. The vestigial aura of malignancy pervading the landscape and the concomitant pipping of the frogs and whippoorwills give substance to the strange half-whispered tales among the old families. Inevitably the protagonist's curiosity and subsequent investigations prove his downfall - but, fortunately, not before the hasty scrawls of the perennial manuscript have produced those pleasant nostalgic shudders. The resemblances, the, are obvious. But Derleth, cleverly and entertainingly, maintains interest and suspense, rearranging with novel twists and varying distortion the fundamental elements. For devotees of the Gothic tradition, this collection is a feast of good reading, incurring a debt of gratitude to August Derleth for preserving the essence of that eldritch world created by H.P. Lovecraft."

Reviews

News