Unspeakable Horrors--on Audio CD. A Review of Three Terrifying Tales From The Pen of H. P. Lovecraft. Read by David Cade.
01/17/2005
Three Terrifying Tales from the Pen of H. P. Lovecraft. (Audio CD) Read by David Cade. Produced by Oneforlevel Studios, London.
For our listening pleasure, actor/narrator David Cade presents three of Lovecraft's shorter short stories: The Music of Eric Zaan, The Cats of Ulthar, and The Unnamable. In the Arkam House anthologies, these stories are ten, four and seven pages respectively, resulting in a mini audio anthology about an hour long. The stories are unabridged but contain numerous small variations from the printed text, likely due to differences in the printed edition used for the readings and to small changes made to make works more appealing to the ear. Readers familiar with Lovecraft's works will have noticed that some of his passages would not come across well as spoken word. Orchestral cuts of violin works by Alfred Schnittke round out the listening experience.
The three short stories chosen for narration make for a nice production. The Music of Eric Zaan immediately takes the reader into the typical Lovecraftian realm and is an intense beginning, the sheer strength of which initially captures and them holds the listener's attention. The second story provides a bit of a respite. The Cats of Ulthar reads like a fairy tale more grim than anything penned by the Grimm Brothers. By now the listener, who is perhaps unfamiliar with Lovecraft, will be wondering why the stories lack detailed descriptions of the worst of the horrific events. In an age where movies in the horror genre are more apt to be comic than scary, and wherein all terror is explained away or diluted for teen viewing, Lovecraft's unspeakable eldritch evils are practically a novelty. As though in answer to such musings, the production ends with The Unnameable, Lovecraft's fictional treatise on his horror style that not only defends why such terrors belie linguistic description but also proves to the listener "There are such things."1 Thus, the disc ends leaving the listener with the feelings that any good piece of horror should cause one to look around carefully before going to bed and perhaps leave on the light.
The production makes only moderate use of musical interludes. Schnitke's pieces provide an aural frame for the disc, playing at the beginning and end of the CD and between each story. The music fades out within the first paragraph and fades back in near the very end of each tale. Thus, Lovecraft's stories themselves, combined with Cade's narration, must sustain the tension and terror. Schnittke's works are icing on the cake, an aural treat. The composer's string works are cacophonous and uncanny melodies largely composed of notes in the minor key. The music blends well with the milieu of Lovecraft's stories and most cleverly with The Music of Eric Zaan, which features the viol as an instrument of terror.
Cade's voice has a tone and timbre that work well for audio narration. Well-spoken, his mild British accent lends the perfect aural patina of "age" to Lovecraft's stories and characters, allowing the listener to more easily place the stories in the gothic and super-antiquated settings so prevalent in the author's works. The accent also helps to imbue the characters with their scholarly and academic backgrounds. Lovecraft's terror-ridden protagonists are always well educated, which is the very plot device that generally gets them into harms way. Cade captures the tension, terror and mystique in the plots, and his personality never overshadows the stories themselves. The reader is always firmly ensconced in Lovecraft's world. By the end of the first story, I was pleased to find myself tense and anxious. By the end of the disc, I found myself wanting to hear more. Perhaps Onforlevel2 studios or Mr. Cade will consider a sequel?
The only negative feedback I can give about the CD are in regards to its jacket and liner notes. David Cade is pictured prominently on the front cover, with no picture of Lovecraft anywhere. The author merely receives a brief blurb on the back liner notes. For internal liner notes, we are given the list of Lovecraft stories featured on the disc, a paragraph about Cade, the narrator, and a list of orchestral works used to compliment the narration. The liner notes include no information for tracking down anthologies containing the three Lovecraft stories, or for tracking down any of Lovecraft's works.3
1At the end of the original theatrical release of Dracula (1931), the actor playing Van Helsing would come out and seemingly try to sooth the audience, but would end his speech with that very line "shudder"
2CD produced by Oneforlevel Studios, London.
Available for purchase at http://www.davidcade.net
3Therefore, I feel compelled to provide the following information myself, so that listeners who would like to read these and other Lovecraft works can find them (in the following Arkam House editions): The Cats of Ulthar and The Unnamable can be found in the anthology Dagon and Other Macabre Tales, reprinted in 1987; The Music of Eric Zaan can be found in the anthology The Dunwitch Horror and Others, reprinted in 1984. Perusing the local library and bookstores (and especially stores for used books) may also prove fruitful as there are a number of anthologies of Lovecraft and other writers of his ilk.