Many of the Cthulhu stories, such as “The Dunwich Horror” and “The Whisperer in Darkness”, are actually tedious. They are too long; our interest is apt to flag; our “willing suspension of disbelief” may not hold to the final page. All too often we read on without compulsion, without belief, without very much actual enthusiasm.
Lovecraft often seems so intent on introducing and exploiting the “Mythos”, he loses sight of some of the basic elements which are essential in a good short story: economy of wordage, verisimilitude, mounting suspense sweeping to a single climax followed quickly by the final denouement.
Referring to the “Mythos”, Edmund Wilson concluded: “It is all more amusing in his letters than it is in the stories themselves.” Of course it was not intended to be amusing in the stories, but I think Wilson’s meaning is clear.
When it still possessed the freshness of novelty, the Cthulhu Mythology afforded a vast amount of entertainment. But with the passage of time the novelty has evaporated and the myth has become threadbare. Lovecraft used it in story after story and his disciples have exploited it since his death and it now seems wrung nearly dry of interesting effects.
It remains, of course, an integral part of the bulk of Lovecraft’s work. To attempt to dismiss it as incidental or unimportant would be to close our eyes to the facts.
In my opinion however, Lovecraft’s future reputation as a writer of fine horror stories will rest on a very few of his early tales in which the Cthulhu Mythos is either entirely absent or at most still in its formative stages in Lovecraft’s own mind. These early stories which I mean to mention were published prior to the appearance of the first generally accepted “Mythos” story: “The Call of Cthulhu” (WEIRD TALES, February, 1928)
These stories are: “The Hound” (WEIRD TALES, February, 1924); “The Rats in the Walls” (WEIRD TALES, March, 1924); “The Music of Erich Zann” (WEIRD TALES, May, 1925); “The Outsider” (WEIRD TALES, April, 1926); “Pickman’s Model” (WEIRD TALES, October, 1927)
Of these I think the best of all is “The Music of Erich Zann.” This piece, which might have been written by Poe, has everything which many of the “Mythos” tales lack: compression, sustained and rising suspense culminating in a powerfully effective climax followed almost immediately by the end of the story. Stylistically and structurally, I think Lovecraft never surpassed it. I think it probable that the old German mute will go on sawing his accursed viol in that ghoul-infested garret long after great Cthulhu has lapsed into silence! This story, like Poe’s masterpiece, “The Cask of Amontillado”, seems literally above criticism. There are no wasted words. The brief story unfolds with a remorseless inevitability. Nothing could be omitted, nothing added, nothing changed which would improve its quality. In its particular genre it remains a pure masterpiece.
After “The Music of Erich Zann”, I would cite “The Rats in the Walls.” Actually, I very nearly voted it first place because it achieves a pitch of sheer grisly horror which exceeds the taut terror of “The Music of Erich Zann.” On the other hand, it does not possess quite the same degree of purity and compression. But it is a masterpiece of its type, and again I can think of no Lovecraft story after “The Music of Erich Zann” which equals it. As a matter of fact, one almost feels that Lovecraft has gone too far in this particular story. Something inside one rebels as the ghastly eldrich grottos reveal their loathsome secrets. Perhaps it is simply that one instinctively refuses to believe that homo sapiens could ever descend to such a hellish sub-level. But this is a philosophical comment, not a criticism of the story.
“The Rats in the Walls” begins in the somewhat leisurely manner which has come to be associated with rather old-fashioned gothic ghost stories, and for some little time nothing really hair-raising happens. But once the full horror comes to light, it simply overwhelms us. We see at once that the leisurely start was intended to lull us a little. Certainly it kept us interested enough to continue, and we did perhaps expect some pretty formidable horrors—but nothing like what we finally encounter! For sheer inhuman horror those twilit grottos under the evil foundations of Exham Priory have yet to be surpassed.