"The Lurking Fear" by H.P. Lovecraft
Although this essay is several years old, it deserves a place here, where Google, et al, can make binary mince-meat out of it and other fans of H.P. Lovecraft can hear the pot-banging call of another fan. —J.
Howard Phillips Lovecraft wrote his strange stories in the early twentieth century. He never had a real novel published in his lifetime since he wrote mainly essays, letters, and weird fiction set (mainly) in the Northeast. He died in 1936 (at age 46) of intestinal cancer and suffered both physically and mentally throughout his life. He is considered by many contemporary authors as the father of modern horror. I've read most of his published fiction but my two favorites are "The Dreamquest of Unkown Kaddath" and "The Lurking Fear".
This story has many of the classic elements you'd expect to find in any Lovecraft story. Although there aren't any worshippers of hideous, mythological creatures and there are no references to the Necronomicon (mainstays of almost all other Lovecraftian stories), it has his dark, brooding atmosphere, an almost embarrassing xenophobia of poor rural folk, and a vicious monster the main character is both repelled by and drawn to.
