The Call of Cthulhu
A 1928 horror story by H. P. Lovecraft in which a researcher assembles reports, artwork, and a sailor’s account of the sleeping entity Cthulhu.
Cosmicism: A literary and philosophical outlook in which humanity is insignificant within an immense, indifferent universe. The story turns Cthulhu’s discovery into a confrontation with humanity’s cosmic insignificance.
H. P. Lovecraft: An American writer of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, best known for stories of cosmic dread. Lovecraft wrote the story and connected it to his recurring mythos.
The Call of Cthulhu (short story sections): The three named sections of Lovecraft’s story: “The Horror in Clay,” “The Tale of Inspector Legrasse,” and “The Madness from the Sea.” Their sequence turns an isolated discovery into corroboration and finally direct testimony.
The Call of Cthulhu (1934 reprint): A 1934 Arkham House edition of Lovecraft’s story, published in the collection The Outsider and Others. This early book reprint helped preserve the story beyond its original pulp appearance.
Frame narrative: A narrative structure in which an outer account presents one or more embedded stories or documents. Francis Thurston’s investigation frames the testimony and records that make up the plot.
Weird Tales: An American pulp magazine founded in 1923 that published fantasy, horror, and supernatural fiction. The magazine published the story in its February 1928 issue.
Narrative puzzle: A story structure in which clues and partial accounts invite reconstruction of an underlying event. Thurston’s compilation asks whether seemingly unrelated reports describe one phenomenon.
The Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game): A horror role-playing game first published by Chaosium in 1981, drawing on Lovecraft’s fiction. Its title and investigative structure adapt the story’s cosmic-horror premise into a game.
Epistolary novel: A novel told through documents such as letters, diaries, newspaper reports, or other written records. The story borrows documentary techniques, though it is a short story rather than a novel.
The Cthulhu Mythos: A shared fictional universe built from supernatural entities and settings introduced by Lovecraft and later writers. This story supplied the mythos with its defining entity and many of its recurring ideas.