The Call of Cthulhu

The Call of Cthulhu is one of Lovecraft's best-known works. It is the only story written by Lovecraft in which the extraterrestrial entity Cthulhu himself makes a major appearance. Narrator Francis Wayland Thurston, recounts his discovery of the strange notes left behind by his granduncle, George Gammell Angell, a prominent Professor of Semitic languages at Brown University. At first the story revolves around a small bas-relief sculpture found among the papers, which the narrator describes: «My somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature.... A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings». The sculpture is the work of Henry Anthony Wilcox, a student at the Rhode Island School of Design who based the work on delirious dreams of «great Cyclopean cities of titan blocks and sky-flung monoliths, all dripping with green ooze and sinister with latent horror». Frequent references to Cthulhu and R'lyeh are found in papers authored by Wilcox. Angell also discovers reports of «outre mental illnesses and outbreaks of group folly or mania» around the world (in New York City, «hysterical Levantines» mob police; in California, a Theosophist colony dons white robes to await a «glorious fulfillment»)… Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. He is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre. Some of Lovecraft's work was inspired by his own nightmares. His interest started from his childhood days when his grandfather would tell him Gothic horror stories.