One of the masters of 'weird fiction', H. P. Lovecraft expanded the vast
boundaries of the horror genre with his vividly imagined stories of exotic
and fantastical otherworlds, nightmarish dreamscapes or the supernatural
terrors lurking beneath the surface of small-town America.The shadow of New
England's witch-hunting past hangs over many of the tales, as in 'The
Shunned House' and 'The Dreams in the Witch House', in which malevolent
spectres return to haunt the region. Others, such as 'From Beyond' and 'The
Shadow Out of Time', depict the catastrophic results when cosmic channels
of time and space are opened, while stories such as 'Polaris' and 'The Doom
that Came to Sarnath' portray the downfall of mythical civilizations.