H. P. Lovecraft, one of the great obsessive writers of the 20th century, naturally chose the pulp genre of "weird horror" in which to exorcise his acute anatomical alienation and existential torment. Within the matrix of his grotesque yet complex mythology, Lovecraft was able to conjure a hideous universe lying just beyond our own; his relentless style and language forging a convoluted, midnight-purple literary form which ultimately achieves a veritable...