Gruselkabinett, Folge 138: Die Ratten in den Wänden

Geschrieben von H.P. Lovecraft

Erzählt von Hans Bayer, Jonas Baeck, Dagmar von Kurmin und Horst Naumann

Der Amerikaner Delapore entschließt sich im Jahr 1918, den Stammsitz seiner Familie in Südengland zurückzukaufen und aufwendig zu restaurieren. Zu Anfang des 17. Jahrhunderts ist dort, bis auf ein Familienmitglied, unter mysteriösen Umständen die gesamte Familie zu Tode gekommen

• Sprache: Deutsch
• Herausgeber: Titania Medien
• Erscheinungsdatum: 31. Aug. 2018

H.P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American author of science fiction and horror stories. Born in Providence, Rhode Island to a wealthy family, he suffered the loss of his father at a young age. Raised with his mother’s family, he was doted upon throughout his youth and found a paternal figure in his grandfather Whipple, who encouraged his literary interests. He began writing stories and poems inspired by the classics and by Whipple’s spirited retellings of Gothic tales of terror. In 1902, he began publishing a periodical on astronomy, a source of intellectual fascination for the young Lovecraft. Over the next several years, he would suffer from a series of illnesses that made it nearly impossible to attend school. Exacerbated by the decline of his family’s financial stability, this decade would prove formative to Lovecraft’s worldview and writing style, both of which depict humanity as cosmologically insignificant. Supported by his mother Susie in his attempts to study organic chemistry, Lovecraft eventually devoted himself to writing poems and stories for such pulp and weird-fiction magazines as Argosy, where he gained a cult following of readers. Early stories of note include “The Alchemist” (1916), “The Tomb” (1917), and “Beyond the Wall of Sleep” (1919). “The Call of Cthulu,” originally published in pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928, is considered by many scholars and fellow writers to be his finest, most complex work of fiction. Inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and Lord Dunsany, Lovecraft became one of the century’s leading horror writers whose influence remains essential to the genre.

Rezensionen für Gruselkabinett, Folge 138

[mirekluza · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

This audio adaptation of the Lovecraft's "Rats in the walls" starts well, but it suffers from rushed ending (I think it was also changed a bit, the events are not so clear in the book). It could earn 4 or 5 stars if only the play was lengthened and slowed down. Lovecraft's stories work by slowly inducing feeling of dread and also by not spelling horrors in details, but rather leaving space for imagination. Here it looks like there was specified time limit to squeeze in and rush to fit in it.