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At the Mountains of Madness & Other Weird Tales

At the Mountains of Madness & Other Weird Tales

By&
NovellaClassicsCosmic Horror
Pages
192
Published
1936
Language
English

Synopsis

A scientific expedition to Antarctica uncovers something ancient and terrifying in the ruins of a lost city. The survivors' chilling account reveals a history far older and more horrifying than humanity could ever imagine. This classic tale of cosmic dread explores the limits of human knowledge and the sanity that crumbles when faced with the truly alien.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

DarkTenseMysteriousThought-ProvokingAtmospheric
QuestSurvival

Genres

Classics Cosmic Horror Horror Literary Fiction Science Fiction Mystery Paranormal Short Stories

Authors

H
H.P. Lovecraft

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft spent most of his life in New England. After his father's institutionalization in 1893, he lived affluently until his family's wealth dissipated after the death of his grandfather. He then lived with his mother, in reduced financial security, until her institutionalization in 1919. He began to write essays for the United Amateur Press Association, and in 1913 wrote a critical letter to a pulp magazine that ultimately led to his involvement in pulp fi...

E
Enrique Breccia

Enrique Breccia is an Argentine comics artist and illustrator, son of the cartoonist Alberto Breccia. He illustrated the Libros del Zorro Rojo edition of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, and drew the graphic novel Lovecraft, written by Hans Rodionoff and Keith Giffen. His comics work includes Life of Che and long runs on Argentine and Italian series.

Characters

William DyerProtagonist

Miskatonic University geologist who led the expedition and narrates the events as a warning against further polar exploration.

Lieutenant DanforthSupporting

A geology student who accompanies Dyer on the exploratory flight across the mountain range.

LakeSupporting

Biologist who leads a side camp into the mountains, making the expedition's first unsettling fossil discoveries.

GedneySupporting

A graduate student whose disappearance from Lake's camp becomes one of the expedition's central mysteries.

PabodieCameo

Engineer whose drilling equipment design makes the expedition's deep Antarctic borings possible.

All characters in At the Mountains of Madness & Other Weird Tales

Frequently asked questions

  • Is At the Mountains of Madness connected to Lovecraft's other stories?

    Yes. It belongs to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, the loosely shared setting running through much of his fiction, and references the Elder Things and other mythos elements — but it tells a complete, self-contained story and can be read on its own.

  • What other stories are included in this edition?

    It depends on the printing. "At the Mountains of Madness" has been reprinted for decades in different anthology groupings, bundled with different Lovecraft stories by different publishers, so the additional contents vary by edition rather than being fixed.

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