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Audiobook editionPaperback · 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
Readers who love storm-lashed settings, haunted houses steeped in family history, and narrators who chase mysteries beyond reason will relish this novella.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A seeker enters the feared house
- Careful preparations fail in the dark
- A reporter helps trace the danger
- Shelter cannot keep the danger outside
- The family past directs the search
- A grave opens onto hidden passages
- Isolation gives inheritance a fearful meaning
- Curiosity pushes him beyond safe choices
- Repeated clues build the dread
Who’s who
- The narratorA collector of horrors who hunts the creature on Tempest Mountain and tells the tale afterward, driven by curiosity he cannot put down.
- George BennettA strong, faithful companion who joins the narrator's night vigil in the mansion and lies near the window.
- William TobeyThe second companion on the vigil, who lies near the fireplace and is meant to stand the next watch.
- Arthur MunroeA lean, clear-thinking reporter in his thirties who helps the narrator study the legends and search the hamlet.
- Jan MartenseA young man of the Martense family who returns from the colonial army and becomes a murdered figure of local legend.
- Jonathan GiffordJan's friend in Albany, who rides to Tempest Mountain in 1763 to learn why his letters stopped.
- Gerrit MartenseA rich New Amsterdam merchant who builds the mansion in 1670 and seeks a remote home for his family.
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The Lurking Fear
by H. P. Lovecraft · 1923
Three men keep watch in a ruined mansion on Tempest Mountain, and by the next flash of lightning two are gone.
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“There was thunder in the air on the night I went to the deserted mansion atop Tempest Mountain to find the lurking fear.”
In short
Would you spend a night in a house the whole valley fears, waiting for a thunderstorm to call something out of the dark? The teller of The Lurking Fear does exactly that.
The Lurking Fear at a glance
- Reading time
- About 35 min25 min fast, 40 min slow
- Length
- 7,840 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1923by H. P. Lovecraft
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Three men wait for the storm
The story opens on a night of coming thunder. The narrator climbs Tempest Mountain with two strong companions, George Bennett and William Tobey. They pass twisted, lightning-scarred trees and strange mounds in the earth. No wild creature stirs anywhere.
He has learned why the mountain is feared. For more than a hundred years, the squatters in the hills have told of a creeping death that seizes lone travelers after dark. A month earlier, a storm destroyed a whole squatter village. The narrator has come to test an idea, that the thunder calls a death demon out of some hidden place.
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Details
- First published
- 1923
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 35 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Lovecraft, H. P. The Lurking Fear. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lurking-fear.
Lovecraft, H. P. (2026). The lurking fear. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lurking-fear (Original work published 1923)
Lovecraft, H. P. The Lurking Fear. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lurking-fear.
@book{lovecraft2026lurking,
author = {Lovecraft, H. P.},
title = {The Lurking Fear},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lurking-fear},
note = {First published 1923}
}
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What is The Lurking Fear about?
It follows a seeker of horrors who investigates a creeping death on Tempest Mountain in the Catskills. After a storm destroys a squatter village, he searches the haunted Martense mansion, studies the family's history and digs into a grave.
Who are the Martenses in The Lurking Fear?
They are a Dutch family who built the mansion on Tempest Mountain in 1670 and withdrew from the world. Their most notable mark is eyes of two colors, one blue and one brown, passed down in the family.
What does the lurking fear stand for?
The narrator calls it a creeping death that comes with thunder, and the legends give it many forms. Readers often link it to themes of isolation, inheritance and the dark side of a place that people have long avoided.
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.
“There was thunder in the air on the night I went to the deserted mansion atop Tempest Mountain to find the lurking fear.”
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