The dream-key of H.P. Lovecraft

books:


	• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath H. P. Lovecraft Ballantine, 1970 average customer review:based on 1 review
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The dream-key of H.P. Lovecraft

_This collection of stories are in my opinion the highest and best creation of Lovecraft's career. They are also the most personal. It is obvious that Randolph Carter is Lovecraft's alter-ego. These stories are the dream map of his life- the source of his inspiration. How many other authors have claimed that their best ideas came from "somewhere else"- often in dreams?

_I would classify these stories as more fantasy, than horror- except that I am not all that sure that they are really fantasy. Perhaps embroidered visions would be closer to the truth. Afterall, he points out that to value waking reality more than dream is a "superstition" that he has come to reject. For as you accompany the author through the fantastic landscapes and cities of this quest they come to seem more and more real, more and more familiar. As one who has repeatedly returned to the same cities in his dreams I am not going to pass judgement about their reality...

_Besides the title story "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", you also have "Celephais", "The Silver Key", "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", "The White Ship", and "The Strange High House in the Mist." All deal with the dream realm.

_It is the story "The Silver Key" that tells us the most about Lovecraft the man. He despised those scientific materialists that sucked the life out of the world. Yet, he had no respect for traditional churches who tried to pass myth off as literalism. This left Lovecraft in a bind (as it has many of us), until he made the breakthrough into the true mysteries- and dream....

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