This story, which feels very much like Edgar Allan Poe and a little like The Hound of the Baskervilles, is notable because it’s the first to mention Lovecraft’s famous fictional grimoire, The Necronomicon. When they steal a jade amulet from a grave, they begin hearing the baying of a hound, and things go badly from there. In the second story, “The Hound” (Weird Tales, 1924), a couple of friends who are bored with the normal pleasurable pursuits of life turn to graverobbing and build a museum filled with the objects of necromancy they uncover. After his investigation, our narrator realizes that he knows too much - now he’s a target of the Cthulhu cult, too. The narrator of the story discovers all this while investigating some strange notes left by his granduncle, a professor who died unexpectedly. There are secret religious cults on Earth who chant to Cthulhu and look forward to his return. Cthulhu is related to the Elder Gods, an ancient race from space who will someday come back and wipe humanity off the Earth and restore themselves as rulers.
He’s got a scaly body, tentacles, short wings, and the top of his head is vaguely human. He looks like a cross between a dragon, a giant octopus, and a man. In “The Call of Cthulhu,” the first story in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos which was published in Weird Tales in 1928, we learn from our narrator that Cthulhu is a monster who lives in a sunken city in the South Pacific. Roberts’s voice and cadence helped evoke a suitably sinister ambiance. This version (there are others) is 4½ hours long and contains four important Lovecraftian stories: “The Call of Cthulhu,” “The Hound,” “The Dunwich Horror,” and “Dagon.” The narration is excellent Mr. I listened to Naxos AudioBooks’ version read by William Roberts, which I downloaded at for $4.95. If you want to get a good quick culturally-relevant dose of Lovecraft, I recommend The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories which is available in several editions.
Think of it as “required reading.” Even if you don’t read horror or weird tales, Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos pops up regularly in fantasy literature, games, television, music, and art, so it’s a good idea to get a little of it under your belt. For this reason alone, all true fans of these genres must experience H.P. Lovecraft’s name is almost sure to come up, especially if they’re over the age of 50. "In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” Ask any writer of horror, fantasy, or weird fiction who their influences were and H.P.
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