Howard Phillips Lovecraft

A cura di C. Aira, A. Finotto e J. Pignet 
 Five short stories by the great American writer of fantasy and horror fiction, who was E.A. Poe's follower and Stephen King's main inspirer: The Alchemist (his first tale written when he was 18), The Color Out of Space (one of the most famous short stories of cosmic horror), The Outsider (considered his best short story by many critics), The Thing on the Doorstep (shocking story of occultism and body transmigration), Imprisoned with the Pharaohs (commissioned by Houdini, the great illusionist famous for his apparently impossible escapes).
 The reader is accompanied by in-depth analyses on Lovecraft's themes (among which supernatural horror), his debt to his predecessors (Poe, Hawthorne, Bierce, Stoker), the gothic novel and the 'double', as well as his influence on writers, cinema, music and games. 
 
 Teacher's Resources available online: Answer Key - Audioscripts - Summing-up Activities
 
 Cinque short-stories del grande scrittore americano della narrativa fantastica e horror, epigono di E.A. Poe e ispiratore di Stephen King: The Alchemist (il primo racconto scritto all’età di 18 anni), The Colour Out of Space (uno dei più famosi racconti di orrore cosmico), The Outsider (da molti considerato il suo più bel racconto), The Thing on the Doorstep (allucinante storia di occultismo e trasmigrazione dei corpi), Imprisoned with the Pharahos (dedicato a Houdini, il grande illusionista famoso per le sue fughe impossibili).

Lovecraft’s Themes

Story 1 - The Color Out of Space

Extension: Supernatural horror

Story 2 - The Outsider

Extension: Lovecraft’s debt to his predecessors

Story 3 - The Thing on the Doorstep

Extension: The double

Story 4 – The Alchemist

Extension: H.P. Lovecraft’s influence and fortune

Story 5 – Imprisoned with the Pharaohs

Extension: Films, games and music inspired by Lovecraft’s works

Summing-up activities

Glossary

in the short story The Call of Cthulhu, published in the pulp magazine  Weird Tales  in 1928. Cthulhu is an Australian lowbudget4 horror film released in 2000 by producer-director Damian Heffernan. It was mostly based on Lovecraft s stories, The Thing on the Doorstep and The Shadow Over Innsmouth and it also features an entirely original soundtrack by Australian musician Jason Sims. The Call of Cthulhu (2005) is a fairly successful cinematic version of Lovecraft s story, distributed by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. It uses silent film techniques to mimic the look of a 1920s-era movie. GAMES  The characters and settings which reproduce Lovecraftian horror have appeared in many video games and role-playing games, like Dungeons & Dragons and the many versions of the Cthulhu Mythos. The games are faithful5 to the original material: the characters face monsters directly and die, or, failing to succeed, they become mad. More modern games like Delta Green have put the emphasis on military equipment and espionage business and the characters fight the conspiracies of the Mythos in a more modern setting. The HPL (Herbert Phillips Lovecraft) engine of the Penumbra trilogy in Fictional Games is named after Lovecraft and the 2010 title Amnesia:The Dark Descent is directly inspired by the American author s work. MUSIC   Metal music, which is usually stimulated by horror literature, found inspiration in Lovecraft s prose. Never afraid to express the darkest sides of their personalities, musicians have used metal to explore many of the Lovecraftian themes: religion, antiSemitism, racism and political unrest. Dark music, like dark literature, is based on dark emotions and gloomy6, desolate atmospheres and includes elements from Metallica other musical styles. Some of the classic Lovecraft-inspired metal songs include Black Sabbath s Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Metallica s Call of Ktulu and The Thing that Should Not Be and Morbid Angel s The Ancient Ones. 4. low-budget: made at a low cost. 5. faithful: true to the original. 6. gloomy: depressing. 84 

S U M M I N G - U P AC T I V I T I E S WORKING ON THE TEXT 1 What is the setting in each short story? STORY SETTING The Color Out of Space The Outsider The Thing on the Doorstep The Alchemist A family castle and woods in France Imprisoned with the Pharaohs 2 Who is the narrator and who the protagonist in each short story? STORY NARRATOR PROTAGONIST The Color Out of Space The Outsider Unnamed protagonist The Thing on the Doorstep The Alchemist Antoine, the last heir of the family, now ninety years old Imprisoned with the Pharaohs 3 Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words given in scrambled order to complete a short summary of the short stories. a. The Color Out of Space. bodies   color   greyer   meteorite   Nahum   people   to study The narrator goes West of Arkam, in New England.The old (1)............................ there have gone away because something strange happened years ago. 85 

Esplora 5 short-stories di Lovecraft: The Alchemist, The Colour Out of Space, The Outsider, The Thing on the Doorstep, Imprisoned with the Pharaohs.

Weird Stories Collana RAINBOWS

Level B1 • Pre-Intermediate - Collana RAINBOWS

Weird Stories

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