The complete, twelve chapter, unabridged reading by Yours Truly, William Hart (aka CthulhuWho1); now, all in one post for easy access and downloading.
Yes, I did this reading to help promote the Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Universal Studios, 3D movie of, “At the Mountains of Madness.”
And, I also did this as my 2010 Christmas, or Cthulhumas present for all Lovecraftians everywhere!
Please share this with anyone you think might enjoy it.
Merry Christmas/Cthulhumas to one and all!
I hope everybody has had a great year; and that 2011 will be another amazing one for all Lovecraftians!
I happily present you now, with my faithful as possible, 270 minute (4 1/2 hour) rendition of H. P. Lovecraft’s, “At the Mountains of Madness:”
NOTE: If you do a normal click on the MP3 file links in this post, WordPress will play them for you.
If you’d like to download and save the files for yourself, and you are using a PC, right-click, to bring up the right-click menu and use the “Save Link As” function to save the MP3 files to your hard drive.
If you’d like to download and save the files for yourself, and you are using a Mac, I believe that would be ctrl + Click to bring up the right click menu, and use the “Download Linked File” function to save the MP3 files to your hard drive. I don’t own a Mac so please correct me if I am wrong!
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 01 Read by William Hart
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 02 Read by William Hart
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 03 Read by William Hart
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 04 Read by William Hart
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 05 Read by William Hart
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 06 Read by William Hart
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 07 Read by William Hart
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 08 Read by William Hart
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 09 Read by William Hart
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 10 Read by William Hart
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 11 Read by William Hart
H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 12 Read by William Hart
Please let me know if this reading was to your liking by way of comments.
Note: It is very important to me, that I have tried to stay true to every word, comma, pause, sentence, and paragraph of Lovecraft’s writing; so please let me know if you find any errors in these readings that will need to be corrected in a later revision.
Here’s the full text that I used in pdf format, based upon the version at http://www.hplovecraft.com, which matches very well with the Penguin Classics annotated version:
H. P. Lovecraft’s – At the Mountains of Madness
ps
This post of all twelve files is also a test of something wonderful coming this way, very soon… Can you say, “Podcast?”
CthulhuWho1's Blog 
At last! I found another person whose love of HPL is far greater than mere fandom!
Ah, I know, sounds a little strong. -grin-
Really though, I have been a reader and collector of all things Lovecraft and Cthulhu Mythos for most of my life. No one has ever created a world mythos so frightening and packed with the possibility of real. The stories make you think and on a dark night, make you fear.
There was a time many years ago when I got pretty deep into it and frightened myself so bad I couldn’t keep the books in my home!
Now THAT is crazy! Our imagination is our strongest tool and it is easily turned against ourselves if not cautious.
Hmmm. It’s late and I sound like a proper nutter here don’t I? Sometimes I use free association and let the words flow. I get some interesting things that way, but can also sound veddy, veddy odd! -grin-
I’m glad to have found your blog. Thanks for all the work you have put into this. I can’t wait to go look through the pictures you have on Flicker.
I am also going to try and listen to your reading, but I am not a fan of audio books so we’ll see how it goes.
Take it easy,
brett
2034 Tuesday, 21 December 2010
W.H.:
Thank you very much for going to the great effort of faithfully
recording the entirety of H.P.L.’s “At the Mountains of Madness.” I
enjoy having an accurate human-read audiobook version of the text. I
have two suggestions. First, consider posting a bibliographic
reference to the text from which you read. Second, you might host the
files on the Internet Archive (archive.org). I will certainly
subscribe to your podcast.
Jay,
I’ve not only added the bibliographic reference you requested, but I’ve added a pdf copy of the text I worked from too.
I will look into the Internet Archive; and if it fits in with my current plans, and will help me get my items out to more people, I will contribute.
Will
Yes, this was an excellent reading, and precisely what I feel that a lot of Lovecraft’s horror requires. The thing is, Lovecraft’s world of horror doesn’t frighten me, but I can still feel a bit of his characters’ fear, and this reading definitely facilitated that. I think I’ve read The Hound both as prose and comic before, but also forgotten most of it. So when it comes to the artistic license’ I’d have to guess. But I’m pretty sure I know what it is, and I liked it just fine. Obviously I’m far from being a purist.
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Thanks for the reading. It’s great
Roland
from The Netherlands
W.H.:–
This is an amazing accomplishment. I hope to return to listening and commenting at your YouTube channel to-day, after I’ve done some work on ye rough of my new tale. Your readings are superb, and addictive. I don’t want them to stop. I would love to hear you do a double-feature of “The Hound” and “The Unnamable.”
yr obt Srvt,
W.H.P.
I can say Podcast!
And now that I’ve listened to all of these episodes, I’ll be looking forward to more. I already listened to the Fungi from Yuggoth, though I may indeed have to look through the pdf to make more sense of it. Not that there was anything wrong with the reading. I just have an easier time understanding writing, since I can quickly jump back and forth between different paragraphs.
And while looking through the blog posts with the “MP3 Files” tag I also came across the interview with Fritz Leiber. You’ve got a veritable treasure trove here!
Gillsing,
That’s the beauty of this blog to me.
My “treasure trove” becomes your “Treasure trove!”
I don’t feel like I have a right to keep these items to myself, and find it great fun to share them as far and wide as I can.
That’s why my motto here, and on my other sites is simply, “What’s Mine, Is Yours.”
I’m not doing this for a job or money; I’m doing it because I want the photographs I’ve taken, and recordings I’ve made to be around long after I’m gone.
I watched Alzheimer’s destroy my mother’s mind, so that the person she was disappeared long before she died; and I have to assume that a similar fate might be in my future. So at age 57, I’m going to give all I can of my interests to others, so that what I’ve collected, photographed, scanned, and recorded can go on without me if I suffer the same fate my mother did. Besides, who needs an excuse to have fun sharing stuff?
Please download and share all of my stuff that you can!
Will
@cthulhuwho1
Dear William Hart, Is there any chance of you doing other Lovecraftian stories?
Like from Clark Ashton Smit, Robert E. Howard and their likes?
Here a gift from the WWW with audio stories from Clark A. Smit:
http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/spoken-word/
Hope you like it.
And you’re right, You don’t need any excuse in having fun reading, writing or sharing things you like. In Dutch there is a saying “Wie schrijft die blijft”, meaning as much as “He who writes, stays alive” or “He who writes will remain”
You are 57, (I was born in 1957) young enough to have years of fun ahead.
And although your mother died of Alzheimer doesn’t have to imply you will die the same way. Anyway,
Good luck,
Roland
Netherlands
I’m so glad I came across your site as I was reading news about the film project. I too would like to thank you for taking the time to produce this excellent recording. I very much enjoyed listening and I’m now downloading The Hound. All the Best to you for this New Year. William- from the UK.
William,
You are very Welcome!
And I Thank You for taking the time to listen too!
Please search this blog for MP3 files, and help yourself to anything that you or friends of yours might like with compliments.
Will
I first became acquainted with H.P. Lovecraft while listening to LibriVox on my iPhone, though they only have selected short stories. Searching for more of his works in audio file, I came across your blog. I’ve already downloaded this book to my phone (makes it easier to carry around).
Thank you very much for taking the time to narrate it. I very much like your voice and suits the genre perfectly.As soon as I’m finished with this title, I plan on downloading more of your recordings.
Mario,
Thank You for finding my blog, and for the compliment on my reading! I also hope you’ll find other things here to listen too, and that you’ll try the links to Digital Meltdown (Under Audio Books), which will lead you to a Lovecraftian audio feast!
Happy listening to you,
Will
Dear Will,
In your post on Yog-Sothoth.com, you mentioned having seen a draft of Del Toro’s script – is this publicly available anywhere?
With thanks, James
James,
My response publicly and privately is that I assume there are still copies out there, nothing is ever truly gone from the Internet; but all of the copies I ever saw have been removed, and I can’t say where you might find one. I complied very quickly to avoid legal problems when I was asked by the Producers to remove the copy I had posted here at one time; and I believe most others did the same.
Will
Have just finished listening to part 3 and begun part 4 and continue to enjoy your project immensely. I think that Lovecraft comes across as I had forgotten about that great scene where the curious regularities of the higher mountain skyline are described. I am greatly looking forward to the movie adaptation, but it will not be possible for the army of artists and technicians at the studio’s disposal to create an impression as powerful as that which Lovecraft achieves through his written words. I’ve read a Lovecraft quote that suggested he did not care much for moves in general, and no doubt he would suspect any effort by cinematographers to render stories of cosmic horror. Do you know if he enjoyed story-telling on the radio and had any hopes for his work being rendered in that medium?
I’ll have to look through several volumes on Lovecraft for a definitive answer on his interest or hopes for radio versions of his stories; but I’m willing to make an educated guess that H. P. Lovecraft, whom never liked any changes being made to his stories by editors, would have hated the way radio programs were rewritten by a writing team, including deleting whole scenes, and added entirely new scenes for the radio version to work in the time they had available, or to fit commercials into the story. Try telling any Lovecraft story in a 30 or 60 minute radio format, and you’ll quickly see that something has to give. Try listening to the November 1, 1945 Suspense (radio drama) version of The Dunwich Horror, starring Ronald Colman and William Johnstone (available for free download from hplovecraft.com at http://www.archive.org/download/SUSPENSE2/45-11-01_The_Dunwich_Horror.MP3) and you can ask yourself what Lovecraft would have thought of this version compared to his original writing.
Truly excellent! Thanks for making the entire book available for download. You have a great voice.
Alan Smithee (A name you can count on in Hollywood!),
Thank You for the compliments on my reading of H. P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness.
And you are truly Welcome!
Hearing my own voice over and over during the editing left me unable to tell if anyone would find the recordings worthy of listening to; especially compared to some of the great recordings already done by other more professional readers.
So it is very rewarding to receive positive comments!
Have you tried my rendition of The Hound yet?
Will
Masterfully done!
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Hi Will, great reading. I love what you’ve done with the tone of the story : it is supposed to be a rational account of the irrational by a modern scientist and I think you get that perfectly. A lot of readers get a bit Vincent Price with the material, but HP always wrote as a sane man faced with the unknowing and unknowable. Good work.
All the best from the UK,
David
Greetings from Fullerton, California!
(Within ear-shot and eye-shot of Disneyland’s nightly fireworks.)
Hello David,
Just a short note to Thank You for taking the time to post your comment about my reading of H. P. Lovecraft’s, At the Mountains of Madness!
I wanted the reading to showcase the reluctance of Dyer having to finally tell his story.
Some people get it, and some don’t; but I am very glad you did!
Please try my performance of Lovecraft’s, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward; and let me know what you think of that one too.
Will
I know this comment is extremely after-the-fact, but I appreciate this effort so much! Your voice and reading are fantastic. Thank you so much for going through this trouble!
Dear Peyton,
Your comment is not after-the-fact for me! As long as I’m still around, it will always make my day when anyone says my readings have worked for them too! Thank You for taking the time to write your comments for me. And I hope my other readings will work for you as well. Thanks Again! Will Hart aka CthulhuWho1.
Hi Will,
I also wanted to express my gratitude for your work. I barely started it, but already enjoy it a lot. Thanks again,
Helen.
You are Very Welcome!
I don’t know how to sound not insulting, but you did ask for comments, so…
Your voice is not a good fit for this book. It’s too masculine and deep and cowboy-ish. Lovecraft’s narrating characters are nerdy and bookish, erudite and verbose, and vaguely feminine, like Lovecraft himself.
Nevertheless, thanks for reading this book. I was looking for a free audio version, and yours was the first I stumbled onto.
Your comment is very welcome! After all, it’s just a matter of personal taste for each of us. And your assessment of my voice as “masculine and deep and cowboy-ish,” is actually very accurate; so I can’t argue with you over it.
I do question the basis for your belief that Lovecraft’s characters are, “vaguely feminine, like Lovecraft himself.”
And while several of his characters fainted while stressed, many others were very strong characters that did what they had to do.
I never met the man himself, or saw a video of him, or heard a recording of him; but I have read nearly every first-hand account of those who knew him personally, and I don’t believe feminine was how they described him.
But your mileage may vary; so I’ll just say it was great fun hearing from you.
And I hope you’ll find, or create, a reading of At the Mountains of Madness that works best for you too.
That’s another reason why I’ve created The Gateway; and I enjoy hearing other’s readings too!
Will Hart
Another thank you from another Will. There seem to be quite a few Williams or variants thereof here.
I have had this page open on my ipad for about 3 weeks, listening to a chapter here and there before bed. I just finished this evening and loved it. I found I focused on different parts listening, to when I read it, so it brought new sections to life more vividly for me.
I will now finally move on from this page, perhaps to my favourite, the case of Charles Dexter Ward. Unless I find The Dunwich Horror, as I have yet to read or hear that one to date.
I haven’t listened back to check if it’s my imagination, which it could well be, but i think you pronounced detritus differently the two times I noticed the word.
Thanks again,
Will
Will,
I’m truly pleased you enjoyed Lovecraft’s, “At the Mountains of Madness” as read by me!
And I hope you will let me know if you think my performance of Lovecraft’s, “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” brings new life to this tale also.
As far as my pronouncing the same word two different ways… I like to say that sometimes happens when my mood swings from American to British, vice-versa, or somewhere in-between! I’m surprised you didn’t mention “epoch”…
As far as “The Dunwich Horror” sample the seven audio versions of H. P. #Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror at: http://CthulhuWho1.com/#dunwich until you find one you like!
Thank you so much for your wonderful reading and for providing it free of cost. My boyfriend and I are both disabled and have trouble reading text. We like to listen to audio books and talk about them and we’re enjoying this one a lot. We’ll look for more of your readings. Thanks again!
Dear Amy,
Thank you for taking the time to leave your very welcome comment on my reading here!
With your interest in, and need for Lovecraftian audio, I hope you will use “The World’s Largest H. P. Lovecraft Audio Links Gateway!” that I created at:
https://cthulhuwho1.com/2013/09/07/the-worlds-largest-h-p-lovecraft-audio-links-gateway/
And I hope you will also join “The World of H. P. Lovecraft Audio” group that I founded on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/762333087176224/
Will
Great job! Thank you so much for taking the time to record and share this incredible story.
Dan,
You are very welcome!
And now, I hope you’ll check out the very special version of “The Hound.”
Yes, It’s Finally Here!
93 Years in the Making:
H. P. Lovecraft wrote it in 1922.
William Hart read it in 2010.
And in 2015, Graham Plowman brought it to Life, with his beautiful and original score!
You can hear it today, on Bandcamp, at:
https://gplowman.bandcamp.com/album/hp-lovecrafts-the-hound
Once you’ve heard Lovecraft’s words scored by Graham Plowman, you won’t want to hear them without his music ever again!
Will Hart
Wow!
Thank you for this, thr narration is good and it’s free! I was looking for HPL books on amazon audible, but this is much better.
Again, Thanks.
Rishabh,
You are very welcome!
But, please see The Gateway here for hundreds of other free readings of Lovecraft by many other great readers too!
Will
This is great. I was not aware of this reading! Downloading right now