The long lost sorcerer’s handbook, compiled in 800 A.D. by the “Mad Arab” Abdul Alhazzred lives on in the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft…
More fun ads like this here: https://archive.org/details/ads_20230409/page/n47/mode/2up
The long lost sorcerer’s handbook, compiled in 800 A.D. by the “Mad Arab” Abdul Alhazzred lives on in the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft…
More fun ads like this here: https://archive.org/details/ads_20230409/page/n47/mode/2up
For those interested, this is the so-called Simon Necronomicon. It’s a peculiar thing and not the real one, if there ever was. Still mighty fun.
I have read it. It is lame. The only cool part is that sigil on the cover.
Yeah, to do anything cool you need that pesky copper dagger of inannu

I can’t imagine the utter disappointment of the undoubtedly many customers receiving their order an unpacking it: the real Necronomicon was supposed to be bound in human skin while this one is in mere leather (real or faux?) ;)

I have a necronomicon :) My friend got it for me as a housewarming gift many many years ago.
Mine is a lot thicker than that one, though? I’d love to see one of these in person to compare them.
Multiple people wrote a “necronomicon” the most famous one(Which might be this one, it looks similar), is Simon’s Necronomicon. It got the most traction as a tool for chaos magic despite being panned(like every other necronomicon) as being a fraud.
So you might have a different necronomicon from a different author.

despite being panned(like every other necronomicon) as being a fraud
is there any indication that it was ever a real book, even apocryphally? I thought it was wholly invented by Lovecraft, did he get it from somewhere else? and if not, what does it mean to be a “fraud” of an entirely fictional book?
It was invented by Lovecraft. The authors cashing in on it by writing versions of it are all from long after he had died.
I thought it was wholly invented by Lovecraft
Yeah I think that’s right. Here’s a wikipedia entry. Lovecraft invented it and developed a fictional history for it, but he never wrote it as a book. It was a fictional book that made appearances in the mythos of his actual books.
I’ve read a bunch of Lovecraft, and enjoyed most of it. IMO he was shit at character development, but fantastic at creating a mythos and foreboding atmosphere of evil lurking just under the surface.
Yeah fraud is the wrong word for this as there is no original book. At least Simon’s was written by a guy who did practice ritual magic and was somewhat recognized in the NY occult scene. I don’t know about the others so they may be more obvious cash grabs.
Might not be the real thing, but it does come with an orb to ponder.

There’s some good stories in this collection… I might have to give it a go again

Oh I thought it was this collection of short stories https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1335019.Necronomicon