The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (Fantasy and Horror Classics)

A cosmic odyssey. A city of gods. A dreamer's sanity tested by the architecture of fantasy. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is the most extensive and celebrated narrative within H. P. Lovecraft's cycle of Dreamlands stories, an epic novella that stands apart from his usual tales of bleak, material cosmic horror. The story follows Randolph Carter, a recurring Lovecraft protagonist and an aristocratic dreamer, on a desperate and fantastical journey. Carter is obsessed with a gorgeous, majestic city he has seen in his dreams, but which vanished from his memory just before he could enter it. He resolves to seek out this place, which he believes is the legendary Kadath in the frigid waste--the home of the Great Ones (the gods of the Earth) who preside over the Dreamlands. This novella is a unique blend of high fantasy adventure and Lovecraftian dread, trading the gloomy New England settings for vivid, surreal landscapes. It explores the themes of escapism, the nature of reality, and the terrifying idea that beauty and wonder can be the most dangerous kind of cosmic lure. To find the city of your heart, you must first survive the horrors of your mind.