“In the beginning was terror” is how the Holy Scriptures would probably begin according to Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890–1937). “Fear is the most ancient and powerful of human feelings, and the oldest and most powerful fear is the fear of the unknown,” one of the strangest writers of the 20th century stated in the essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature,” confirming this thesis with all his works. The collection includes recognized masterpieces of Lovecraft’s sinister phantasmagoria, in which some doctrinal provisions of the Golden Dawn are so clearly and systematically traced that many authoritative commentators involuntarily thought about some kind of magical transcontinental inspiration of the American writer by secret order knowledge. It seems that “Necronomicon” will be a real breakthrough in understanding the complex and contradictory creative heritage of the master of “black fiction” and the first serious attempt to convey in Russian all the pristine power of this unique author, visible in his heavy, sometimes seemingly clumsy syntax , and in a bizarre and archaic vocabulary. In general, it should be noted the extreme enigmatism of Lovecraft’s texts, full of “disturbing strangeness,” incorporating into his author’s myth very dark aspects of esoteric knowledge, demonological rituals and occult practices; one should not forget about the mystical connotations that refer to rare and often fantastic sources. Nevertheless, some literary critics tried to classify the work of the American writer, alien to any ethical didactics, as science fiction and the Gothic novel. “There's more to a true supernatural story than a mysterious murder, half-decayed bones and a shroud with rattling chains. “It should have a palpable atmosphere of boundless irrational horror of otherworldly forces,” answered the master, demonstrating complete indifference to positivist science and the fate of humanity. — Horror literature is a separate but important branch of human expression and will therefore only appeal to a very small audience. And yet, who said that black fiction is so hopeless? The Ptolemaic cup, shining with splendor, was carved from black onyx.”