Your message reminded me that I have a very old Lovecraft book with many different stories in it. It has a picture of a skeleton on the cover. The book belonged to my parents, and the stories are based on the supernatural…
The way he writes is different from how books are written these days. They are classic stories. I remember one about a skeleton standing at someone’s door. I’ll have to look through the book one day and see what’s in there. It could fall apart on me if I’m not careful.
It reminds me of “The Portrait of Dorian Gray.” The artist who painted the Dorian Gray picture for the movie donated it to the Chicago Art Institute after the movie was made. Ivan Albright was the artist, and he painted a lot of macabre pictures. Dorian Gray topped the cake. That movie sent my husband running out of the theater. (he was just a kid at the time.)
I think the skeleton story must be “The Outsider.” Frankly, I think that all middle school students should read this story. It’s a wonderful (and sad) “fitting in” story that would probably help a lot of young teenagers express their fears and frustrations about fitting in with their peers.
BTW, I feel I should mention, for the sake of parents who don’t know who Lovecraft is, that he did not have a very “Christian” life. He wrote in the early decades of the 20th Century. He lived with two aunts, and was reclusive, only coming out at night. He was an atheist. He was a homosexual, although whether or not he ever had any lovers is uncertain.
None of this matters in his stories. But it does, perhaps, explain some of his stories, which delve into “being outside the norm.” Only instead of being homosexual, his characters tend to be “fish people”, or people who are slowly turning into fish people! And sometimes his characters are dead, and that’s why they don’t fit in with others!
There is a vein of humor that runs through all the Lovecraft stories–think of Daddy pretending to be a boogey man or a mad dog (see Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books), and scaring his little children, who scream and then beg Daddy to “do it again, please!” That’s kind of what many Lovecraft stories are like–scary, but fun.
The one exception, IMO, is Colour Out Of Space. This story is about the dangers of “radiation.” Lovecraft enjoyed reading scientific journals, and he knew about early atomic theory. There is nothing at all “fun” about Colour Out of Space. It’s a good reminder to all of us of our own fragility. I think it’s one of his best. Unfortunately, from what I understand, the movies based on this story are pretty stupid. The problem is, the story moves much more slowly than is appropriate for a movie; the “transition” and demise of the Gardner family takes place over many months (as they are affected adversely by the “colour” that fell out of space), and it’s subtle at first. This isn’t the stuff that movies are good at depicting–it’s best in a written story so that we can empathize with the family and wish with all our heart that something, someone could help them, please! Their friend in the story tries to help them, but he can’t…soooo sad! (And he’s a hero for standing by the Gardners.)
Again, it’s yet another story about a family who, through no fault of their own, is “different” than other families. A common theme in Lovecraft stories, probably because of his own “differences.”
Not the point of view that I would have chosen to write that scene. But up until that moment it was (and still is) one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever read. Just that last scene kind of killed it for me.