At The Mountains of Madness

Read as an audio book by Caden Vaughn Clegg, “At the Mountains of Madness” is a science fiction-horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft.

Written in February/March 1931 and rejected that same year by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length. It was originally serialized in the February, March, and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories. It has been reproduced in numerous collections.

The story details the events of a disastrous expedition to the Antarctic continent in September 1930, and what was found there by a group of explorers led by the narrator, Dr. William Dyer of Miskatonic University. Throughout the story, Dyer details a series of previously untold events in the hope of deterring another group of explorers who wish to return to the continent.

By the 1920s, Antarctica was one of the last unexplored regions of the Earth, where large stretches of territory had never seen the tread of human feet. Amongst others, this mysterious place gave Lovecraft a lifelong interest in Antarctic exploration.