H. P. Lovecraft was one of the greatest horror writers of all time. His seminal work appeared in the pages of legendary Weird Tales and has influenced countless writer of the macabre. This is one of those stories.

In the longest of the four Cthulhu Mythos stories in this collection, "The Legacy of Erich Zann," the violin and the music that the ill-fated musician left behind become the target, some fifteen years later, for a mysterious searcher who will stop at nothing--including murder--to obtain them. Edgar Allan Poe's great detective, Auguste Dupin, who's endangered because of his connection to Zann, must not only figure out who--but why. In the original novella, "The Seeds from the Mountains of Madness," it turns out that the famous Captain Oates, whose body was never found after he left Scott's tent in the Antarctic, did not die after all--or, if he did, still retained his ability to function in the world. Sent back to England with a mission to fulfill, Oates seeks the help of an old school friend, a veteran of the Great War--who must also play detective, endeavoring to determine who or what has sent Oates back--and, of course, why! Also included are two short stories, "The Holocaust of Ecstasy" and "The Truth About Pickman." Riveting horror--gripping mystery--from a master storyteller.

At the heart of the universe, the court of the blind idiot god Azathoth dances to the insane piping of demonic flute-players. The sinister music resounds across space and time, blasting the minds and ripping the souls of those who hear it. It is the melody of chaos, the sound of madness, the song of Cthulhu. This book includes nineteen stories and one essay, linked together by the alien and terrible music of the spheres.

When he died in 1937, destitute and emotionally as well as physically ruined, H. P. Lovecraft had no idea that he would one day be celebrated as the godfather of modern horror. A dark visionary, his work would influence an entire generation of writers, including Stephen King, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, and Anne Rice. Now, the most important tales of this distinctive American storyteller have been collected in a single volume by National Book Award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates. In tales that combine the nineteenth-century gothic sensibility of Edgar Allan Poe with a uniquely daring internal vision, Lovecraft fuses the supernatural and mundane into a terrifying, complex, and exquisitely realized vision, foretelling a psychically troubled century to come. Set in a meticulously described New England landscape, here are harrowing stories that explore the total collapse of sanity beneath the weight of chaotic events—stories of myth and madness that release monsters into our world. Lovecraft's universe is a frightening shadow world where reality and nightmare intertwine, and redemption can come only from below.

Retells classic horror stories and includes Poe's and Lovecraft's original texts.

"From Brett J. Talley, the master of Lovecraftian terror, comes thirteen tales of the dark forces that lurk just beyond man's understanding. A scientist who opens a door between dimensions. A creature that devours the dead in World War I's no man's land. A fiddler who can bring forth the gods of old. These are but a few of the horrors retold in the Fiddle is the Devil's Instrument and Other Forbidden Knowledge. Read them if you must but do not forget: there are some things mankind was never meant to know." -- p.4 of cover.