The Roots of Horror in the Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft Horror Book Review

When I noticed that no one had reviewed this book, I decided I would be the first. 


As a long time reader and admirer of Lovecraft and an English major, I love the idea of looking at Lovecraft in a scholarly fashion and trying to decipher where his ideas came from and how they were developed.  St. Armand starts by looking at the short story, “The Rats in the Walls.”  Maybe not the most well known of Lovecraft’s work, but he takes it as example of how Lovecraft viewed the idea of horror and the gothic sensiblities from which it came and then took those ideas and spun them through his own psyche.  A fantastic work of historical and psychiatric criticism, that highlights not just one short story but all of Lovecraft’s work.  I highly reccommend this book, if you can find it. I interlibrary loaned a copy and was sad when I had to send it back.  It’s a marvelous book, short and interesting.  It has really sparked some fantastic ideas about the nature of horror for me to explore.