*Title: The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft
Date Read: 22 October 2009
Available Online?: YES
Briefly: This lengthy tale concerns the strange unearthly events which took place in the small rural village of Dunwich, Massachusetts, in the early decades of the twentieth-century. In particular in concentrates on the enigmatic Whateley family and the rumours of their meddling in wizardry and the dark arts.
Afterthoughts: I’m sure most readers are wholly familiar with the fiction of H. P Lovecraft but this is my first foray into the Lovecraftian universe, and the mythos that is contained therein. I’ve got to say I’m impressed, very impressed; not least by the depth and breadth of Lovecraft’s incredible imagination. I wouldn’t by any stretch say that this tale is scary, but the lead up to Halloween definitely befits a reading of it. If I had one criticism, then it’s a small problem I had with Lovecraft presenting the dialogue of the Dunwich locals in a phonetic way – it’s kind of hard to read at first. However, with a bit of practise and a lot of verbalising, proceedings get a little easier. On the plus side (?), Steinbeck (my dog) gets all hyper when I start talking in a Dunwichian accent. So maybe this feature of the story is actually a good thing 
. Anyway, my thanks to Tolmsted and Paul for encouraging me to dip a toe into Lovecraftian ‘waters’.
Notable Quote: There was a hideous screaming which echoed above even the hill noises and the dogs’ barking on the night Wilbur was born, but no known doctor or midwife presided at his coming. Neighbours knew nothing of him till a week afterward, when Old Whateley drove his sleigh through the snow into Dunwich Village and discoursed incoherently to the group of loungers at Osborne’s general store. There seemed to be a change in the old man—an added element of furtiveness in the clouded brain which subtly transformed him from an object to a subject of fear—though he was not one to be perturbed by any common family event. Amidst it all he showed some trace of the pride later noticed in his daughter, and what he said of the child’s paternity was remembered by many of his hearers years afterward.
Rating: 
*Story read as part of my 31 Shots of Shock reading challenge.
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