The Dunwich Horror - by H P Lovecraft

Book Synopsis

In Dunwich, a remote village in Massachusetts, lost in the depths of an inhospitable countryside with dark valleys invaded by brambles, the old stories of witches are still alive and strange subterranean noises resound at times under the hills surmounted by mysterious circles of stones.

On an isolated farm in the region, Lavinia Whateley, a simple-minded albino, gives birth to a child, Wilbur, whose father is unknown. Old Whateley, Lavinia's father, raises Wilbur while arousing the suspicion of the neighboring inhabitants who are frightened by the speed of growth of the child and his repulsive facies. Rumors of witchcraft have always swirled about Old Whateley, and after his death, Wilbur, upon reaching adulthood, became determined to increase the unholy knowledge imparted to him. To reach his goal, he goes to the Miskatonic University of Arkham to borrow the copy of the sinister Necronomicon in their possession. Professor Armitage, understanding the malevolent intentions of his visitor, refuses to accede to his request; thus a captivating illustrated version is born.

Always fascinated by the world of HP Lovecraft, François Baranger, an illustrator recognized worldwide for his talents as a concept artist for cinema and video games, has tackled the "cyclopean" task of putting his main stories into images.

Review Quotes

Lovecraft is undrawable. By definition. Each of his short stories is teeming with adverbs and nouns that insist that no, we will not be able to represent these horrific visions. How does François Baranger do it? What is his strategy? I don't know, but it works. Joann Sfar - French comics artist, comic book creator, novelist, and film director.

About the Author

François Baranger, an illustrator recognized worldwide for his talents as a concept artist for cinema and video games, was fascinated early on by Lovecraft's creatures and visions which populated the darkest recesses of fantasy. Having previously illustrated The Call of Cthulhu, The Mountains of Madness and The Mountains of Madness Vol. 2, to great acclaim, this book is another installation to the captivating series that offers stunning images for unimaginable words.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 - March 15, 1937) was an American author of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, who is now widely recognized as one of the most influential and widely-read authors of popular fiction of all time. Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, since his death he has gained a massive and devoted following of readers who have been captivated by his gripping tales of the supernatural. Amongst scholars, Lovecraft is considered to be an exemplar of a uniquely American strain of gothic fiction, tracing its roots back to Edgar Allen Poe. Deeply influenced by Poe, as well as by Hawthorne, Lovecraft, like his forebears, created an entirely alternate world of sheer imagination that remains one of the most engaging oeuvres of fiction ever created.

Sunken valleys rendered impenetrable by hostile vegetation, wild sabbath around fires on Walpurgis night, nightjar ready to steal the souls of the dying, invisible creature devastating the countryside at night... Far from the grandiose and exotic landscapes of Call of Cthulhu or Mountains of Madness, this short story by Lovecraft takes place in New England, a region dear to the author, where he will place many of his stories.