OtherWor(l)ds

Say what you want about his verbose writing style, in the 1920s and 30s H.P. Lovecraft invented some of the most original, nightmarishly detailed monsters ever to haunt the pages of horror and weird fiction. There’s often the sense of the author striving to describe the indescribable . . . and pulling it off. From the better known Cthulhu, who has risen from the depths to make a mark on current pop and genre culture, to creatures like the Shoggoth from At the Mountains of Madness–a train-like “nightmare plastic column of foetid black iridescence” “with myriads of temporary eyes forming and unforming as pustules of greenish light”–Lovecraft’s monsters have inspired other creations in all corners of speculative fiction. This Lovecraftian Bestiary at The H.P Lovecraft Archive website collects many of his best monster descriptions.