The work of American writer H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is vast and varied.His short stories represent the majority of his bibliography and cover every dark theme imaginable,with his characteristic and bombastic sryle. Lovecraft's approach to horror was ahead of its time and still resonates with modern readers because it was based in thernes that transcended the human race, in situations that made man insignificant in the cosmic scale of things.
He was deeply influenced by the gothic horror of Edgar Allan Poe and the mysticism of Arthur Machen,but later expanded on those themes with the perils of superstition and scientific progress,the morbid obsession of forbidden knowledge,the unavoidable fate of death and destruction,and the existence of cosmic deities and monsters that once ruled the Earth, and will eventually rule again after the destruction or enslavement of the human race. This mixture of ingredients and the language he used to express his ideas rnade Lovecraft's style a success among lovers of the macabre and me mysterious.
