About two years ago, I set about reading a large anthology of H.P. Lovecraft's work. One of the best beloved science fiction writers of the 20th century, H.P. Lovecraft's brand of weird has infiltrated pop culture in every imaginable way; from plush toys in the shape of Cthulu to Lovecraftian mythos in Dungeons and Dragons. Still, despite the major cultural pressure to be familiar with Lovecraft, I had never read anything by him up until that point, and so when I did, I wanted to really throw myself into it. Predictably, when such a monolithic goal is tackled without any forethought, I gave up on it about 30% into the collection. So, now, at the tail end of 2019, I decided to pick up the anthology once more and reread Lovecraft's collection of stories.

For whatever reason, The Nameless City is the first of Lovecraft's stories in my Kindle copy of his collection, so it was my introduction into Lovecraft's style. Centered around an unnamed archaeologist/explorer, the narrator tells us the story of a mythical unnamed city, his descent through the ruins, and his eventual discovery of a strange and unusual undercity hidden beneath. A highly palatable 23 pages, I really liked this story. There is a definite sense of foreboding about the whole thing, and Lovecraft's bloated prose work extremely well to convey a powerful atmosphere. There is a palpable terror as the narrator descends through the ruins, a curiosity as his discoveries become weirder and weirder, and a crescendo of dramatic irony as the reader discovers the truth that the narrator has not yet noticed.

Although I'm certain that there are many of H.P. Lovecraft's works that would leave this story firmly in the dust, I think that this is a really good starting point for getting into his work. For me, it did a good job of setting the tone for the spooky, funky world of the rest of his stories and novels.