55 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Thunder rolls over Tempest Mountain, where an empty mansion guards the secrets of a vanished family.
In H. P. Lovecraft’s The Lurking Fear, an unnamed seeker of horror travels to the Catskill Mountains of New York. A night of thunder has left a settlement of squatters dead. Above them stands the deserted Martense mansion, a place villagers fear and the narrator cannot resist.
With George Bennett and William Tobey, he keeps watch inside the old house through a stormy night. His search leads into the history of Gerrit Martense and his secluded descendants. The stakes reach beyond a local legend: something has terrorized this mountain for generations, and he wants to know why.
What you’ll discover
- A vigil in darkness Join three men inside the deserted mansion as thunder deepens the strain of their watch.
- A family behind the fear Follow the Martense history into the isolation and strange habits that feed the mountain’s legends.
- A restless seeker Experience the search through a nervous narrator whose hunger for answers keeps drawing him onward.
- A landscape of dread Enter a lonely mountain world where storms, rough huts, and an abandoned house gather menace.
- The burden of inheritance Explore horror rooted in a family and a place, rather than an unknown stranger.
Who will love it
For readers who love short, atmospheric horror, haunted houses and the uncovering of a family curse. Storms, gloomy local legends and a seeker of horror’s growing obsession add to the dread.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A storm brings a man to the mountain
- Three men keep watch in the dark
- The Martense family and a haunted past
- One man will not give up the search
- Fear of what a family can become
- How Lovecraft builds the dread
Who’s who
- The narratorAn unnamed seeker of horror who goes to Tempest Mountain to find the cause of the terror that haunts the region.
- George BennettOne of two sturdy companions who join the narrator in watching through the stormy night in the old mansion.
- William TobeyThe second companion, who keeps watch beside Bennett and the narrator in the Martense house.
- Gerrit MartenseThe wealthy Dutch merchant who built the mansion and withdrew from the English colonists to live high on the mountain.
- The Martense familyThe secluded descendants of Gerrit Martense, whose strange habits and long isolation feed the local legends about the mountain.
- The squattersPoor settlers who live in rough huts near the mountain and fear its storms and its old house.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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La peur tapie dans l’ombre
by H. P. Lovecraft · 1923
A seeker of horror enters the Martense mansion on Tempest Mountain to uncover the terror haunting the Catskills.
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In short
The Lurking Fear is a horror story by H. P.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A storm brings a man to the mountain
The story opens with thunder in the air. The narrator tells us he goes to the deserted mansion on Tempest Mountain to find the lurking fear. He is not a visitor by accident. He has come on purpose, drawn by tales that have haunted the region for years.
The place is wild and thinly settled. Tempest Mountain rises above the village of Lefferts Corners, and its slopes are thick with trees and loose with rumor. The people there are poor and wary, and many are squatters who live in rough huts far from any town. Strange things, they say, happen on the mountain when lightning plays across it.
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What is The Lurking Fear about?
It is about a man who goes to the abandoned Martense mansion on Tempest Mountain in the Catskills to find the cause of a terror that has haunted the area, after a storm leaves a squatter settlement destroyed.
Who are the Martenses in The Lurking Fear?
The Martenses are a once wealthy Dutch family founded by Gerrit Martense, who built the mansion on Tempest Mountain. They kept apart from their neighbors, and local legend ties them to the dark events on the mountain.
When was The Lurking Fear written?
H. P. Lovecraft wrote it in 1921, and it was first published in four parts in the magazine Home Brew. It is fiction, though it uses real regions like the Catskills and old Dutch settlement history for its setting.
The author
H. P. Lovecraft
1890–1937 · American horror writer
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an American writer and editor born in Providence, Rhode Island. He lived mainly in Providence, but also lived in New York City from 1924 to 1926. He wrote horror stories, including “The Call of Cthulhu,” published in 1928, and “The Dunwich Horror,” published in 1929.
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