The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

by H.P. Lovecraft, Leslie S. Klinger (Editor), Alan Moore (Introduction)

"With an increasing distance from the twentieth century…the New England poet, author, essayist, and stunningly profuse epistolary Howard Phillips Lovecraft is beginning to emerge as one of that tumultuous period’s most critically fascinating and yet enigmatic figures," writes Alan Moore in his introduction to The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft. Despite this nearly unprecedented posthumous trajectory, at the time of his death at the age of forty-six, Lovecraft's work had appeared only in dime-store magazines, ignored by the public and maligned by critics. Now well over a century after his birth, Lovecraft is increasingly being recognized as the foundation for American horror and science fiction, the source of "incalculable influence on succeeding generations of writers of horror fiction" (Joyce Carol Oates).

In this volume, Leslie S. Klinger reanimates Lovecraft with clarity and historical insight, charting the rise of the erstwhile pulp writer, whose rediscovery and reclamation into the literary canon can be compared only to that of Poe or Melville. Weaving together a broad base of existing scholarship with his own original insights, Klinger appends Lovecraft's uncanny oeuvre and Kafkaesque life story in a way that provides context and unlocks many of the secrets of his often cryptic body of work.

Over the course of his career, Lovecraft―"the Copernicus of the horror story" (Fritz Leiber)―made a marked departure from the gothic style of his predecessors that focused mostly on ghosts, ghouls, and witches, instead crafting a vast mythos in which humanity is but a blissfully unaware speck in a cosmos shared by vast and ancient alien beings. One of the progenitors of "weird fiction," Lovecraft wrote stories suggesting that we share not just our reality but our planet, and even a common ancestry, with unspeakable, godlike creatures just one accidental revelation away from emerging from their epoch of hibernation and extinguishing both our individual sanity and entire civilization.

Following his best-selling The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Leslie S. Klinger collects here twenty-two of Lovecraft's best, most chilling "Arkham" tales, including "The Call of Cthulhu," At the Mountains of Madness, "The Whisperer in Darkness," "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "The Colour Out of Space," and others. With nearly 300 illustrations, including full-color reproductions of the original artwork and covers from Weird Tales and Astounding Stories, and more than 1,000 annotations, this volume illuminates every dimension of H. P. Lovecraft and stirs the Great Old Ones in their millennia of sleep.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Classics, Science Fiction, Lovecraftian

852 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 2014

About the author

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.

Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

— Wikipedia

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t say I like H.P. Lovecraft. His text is suffused with overt racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, more subtle racism, blah blah blah. I can't say I like reading H.P. Lovecraft. Reading him is a slog. This book, while beautiful, was a slog. The annotations were generally interesting but there was a point where I did not need any more Euclidian geometric details. Which got the annotations. Unlike the non-Euclidian ones. Which generally make my eyes glaze over though they clearly scared the shit out of H. P.

BUT.

But H. P. Lovecraft put his thumb on something fundamental about America. About who we are. About the things that make us tremble, all the way down. About those terrors, just beyond the edge of the firelight.

I can’t say this text is satisfying. Again and again, the climax of the Lovecraftian story is some revelation about how freaking terrifying the dark is rather than the triumph of Buffy [or Shadow or the Winchesters or Kirk or Spock or Buck or Arthur frelling Dent over the dark.] But I am not afraid of the dark. What terrifies me is the evil I’m complicit in.

Anyhoo. This book has a great introduction by Alan Moore and many elucidating notes and appendixes, some of which were not about architecture. I can’t say that it’s a good book. If I wasn’t 16 frelling days into a nasty cold, I’m not sure I would have finished it. It worked better with mucus than many stories I’ve read in my time. But man, Lovecraft lurks in the genesis of so much of Pax Americana. It's fascinating seeing where the shadows started.

I can say that I like having read H.P. Lovecraft.

edited to add: great interview with Neil Gaiman and his lawyer about the book available here: http://www.raintaxi.com/conversing-ar...

[Mattia Ravasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Video review

Like reading Lovecraft alongside a friend. A friend with a good sense of humor, and an unhealthy obsession for the minutiae of Providence topography.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This annotated collection of some of Lovecraft's tales was quite a treat! I enjoyed the introduction to the book, as it described how some of the tales were selected for inclusion. These were annotated (some with illustrations) to compliment the text, and the stories appeared in the order that they were originally published. As a Lovecraft fan, I have most of his works collected in various hardcover volumes, so these stories really weren't "new" to me--more like visiting some favorites. However, I liked the annotations for the most part, as they added an extra element to the individual stories.

My only slight complaint with this book is that with the weight of it (over 900 pages!), the binding came undone in a few places, leaving some loose pages. Obviously, this is more because it is a paperback version and HUGE, but disappointing for when it comes time to display on the shelves.

Overall, a great collection, that I recommend to fans of Lovecraft's style.

Highly recommended!

[Amy H. Sturgis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practically perfect in every possible way. Leslie S. Klinger presents the major "Arkham Cycle" stories by H.P. Lovecraft in this elegant volume, and his annotations enlighten and enhance the reader's experience (with historical context, magazine cover artwork, photos of relevant sites, etc.) without stepping on the toes of other critical editions of Lovecraft's stories, such as S.T. Joshi's annotated collections. This is the perfect introduction for Lovecraft newbies, but there's much here to delight well-informed Lovecraft devotees, as well. I have two copies: one to remain pristine for pleasure reading, and one for adding my own notes, highlights, etc. for further study and contemplation. Highly recommended.

[Shadowdenizen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Post-Read:
I think I would have benefitted from getting the physical copy of this book. Annotated digital editions are always a bit awkward.

So, everyone knows about the fiction. You either love or hate HPL. This book is a decent selection of his more accessible, Mythos-centric stories.

The annotations are interesting and marginally more insightful than other annotated HPL fiction, if not entirely illuminating to those already familiar with HPL and the era in which he wrote. [See my sidebar comment below, which was written as I first started reading this; my opinions on the usefulness of the annotations did change/mellowed a bit as I read through.]

***
Pre-Read:
Curious to see what notes Klinger brings to the table that Joshi didn't.

Either way, it's always interesting to read new takes/opinions/tidbits on the works of the Old Man from Providence.

[Emma Sea]

eeep! lookit the cover!

we wants it.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book. first lovely printed cover and when removed reveals a elegantly embossed silver on black binding.

To read Lovecraft in an historical context, in association with the stories is wonderful. Inside are photographs, maps, events, along with news and adverts of the times. another important aside is the entries related to Lovecrafts' work some excellent scholarly research that shows that he now deserves a place among the classics.

If you have read Lovecraft before and feel that theirs nothing new to add you are wrong. Here we have a labour of love that is beyond measure, a tome of genuine importance for litrary/historical study. Place this along bronte, dickens, Maupassant etc.

[Wilum Pugmire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoy'd the entire book, & reread several of ye stories for the joy of drinking in the excellent writing, the superior prose style, the vast intellectual depth of imagination. I enjoy'd moft of Leslie's annotations, although I found some that were odd and, shockingly, some that were completely wrong regarding facts. The hundreds of illustrations were a wonderful addition. I am very pleas'd that Klinger has announced that he will be working on a second volume, NEW ANNOTATED H. P. LOVECRAFT--BEYOND THE MYTHOS, the stories in which will mostly be HPL's non-mythos work, his dreamland novel and such.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure that I'll review every story in this excellent collection, but I'll maybe add a few thoughts as I go along.

Dagon : The 'lost at sea' story line reminded me somewhat of stories by William Hope Hodgson and H.G. Wells, both of whom were writers admired by Lovecraft. The story itself is fairly straight forward, but effective nonetheless due to Lovecraft's trademark vagueness in respect of detailing the horrors encountered by the narrator. Some interesting annotations regarding WWI U-boats and early 20th century ideas of volcanology and the creation of land masses. It might have been useful to have included a comparison of the latter with Lovecraft's inclusion in At the Mountains of Madness of the then controversial theory of plate tectonics. Off to a good start, though.

I will pass over The Statement of Randolph Carter, saying that it is worthy of inclusion, having a certain sepulchral charm.

Beyond the Walls of Sleep has something of the flavour of a science fiction story, with a savour of planetary romance (without there being any planets or romance! I think it's that the etheric travel across the voids of space reminds me of the mechanism by which Esau Cairn arrived on the planet Almuric in Robert E. Howard's novel of the same name) a taste of Spiritualism, a soupçon of Taoism and a helping of Lovecraft's own cosmic horror. In which we are also introduced to Lovecraft's perception of 'backwoods folks' as being degenerate, a fraught issue about race, racial purity and white supremacism which jars a modern-day sensibility and, as it has been endlessly debated, I shall not refer to again, although it can be taken as read that I deplore all such sentiments. Anyway, the story is a good one, redolent of an unimagined reality lurking just the other side of the duvet.

Nyarlathotep is a very short story, but punches way above its weight in terms of significance for Lovecraft's Mythos, as it introduces the first of his pantheon of elder gods. Spanning millenia in its few pages, it exhales a cloyingly doom-laden atmosphere.

As I seem to be making comparisons between these stories and other works, I'll proffer another one here: Eschatus: Future Prophecies from Nostradamus' Ancient Writings by Bruce Pennington. Pennington's luridly apocalyptic illustrations of the coming of the Antichrist, the end of days, and the chaotic collapse of civilisation closely fit my conception of Lovecraft's description of the advent The Crawling Chaos.

The Picture in the House is a fairly straight-forward example of The Old, Dark House trope. No supernatural shenanigans in this one, the focus being upon the degenerate backwoods folk of the rural Arkham country. Robert E. Howard did it better in Pigeons from Hell. Some nice Lovecraftian description of environment and character, though.

Herbert West : Reanimator: According to Klinger's note, Lovecraft felt that this was an inferior story, "having little literary merit". Ironic, then, that it is possibly his most popularly recognisable title thanks to the cult success (if that's not an oxymoron) of the film Reanimator and its sequels. The film is actually quite close to the story in many of its plot elements, though it doesn't capture Lovecraft's sense of Gothic darkness, the graveyard scenes being better exemplified on screen by the classic James Whale 1931 film, Frankenstein .

Anyway, I love this story which, as well as having more than its fair share of horripilating chills, is interesting in its depiction of the moral decline of both its title character and its unnamed narrator, West's assistant. I had forgotten West's experiments with embryonic lizard cells, which struck me as suggestive of modern stem-cell research, though the story is hardly a good advertisment for such.

Having made effective use of a matter-of-fact narrative style befitting the character of a scientific medical researcher, the last part of the story (it is told in six short parts, originally published separately as individual tales, so necessitating a degree of recapitulation at the beginning of each section) becomes more vague, as if the psychological toll of the narrator's experience was becoming too much for him. At the end, I was left to wonder just how much of the foregoing story was reliably reported. Wily old Lovecraft!

The Nameless City feels like something of an antecedent of At the Mountains of Madness, in that the narrator discovers something of pre-human history from frescoes on the walls of an ancient city. The latter is much more developed and the better work, but The Nameless City is a nice taster.

Now that I'm into it, it looks like I will be reviewing every story to a lesser or greater degree.

Klinger draws a few parallels between Lovecraft's The Hound and Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, with which I wouldn't disagree - jaded upper-class aesthetes indulging in a bit of devil worship after the manner of Sir Hugo Baskerville; spectral hounds; the dark moors and the secluded country house - but strangely makes no mention of the elements of vampire-lore evident towards the end of the story. The characters of St. John and the unnamed narrator are drawn briefly, but their repellent natures are expertly made evident and I find them somewhat more hideous than Herbert West: at least he had (at the beginning, anyway) some higher purpose in mind for his blasphemous activities. The protagonists in The Hound are simply bored and their violations are conducted purely for their own depraved amusement. Truly horrific.

I like the blurring of time in The Festival, the atmosphere of antique buildings and a strange, isolated and fallen populace. It has overtones of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kaddath and undertones of the film The Wicker Man and C.S. Lewis's The Silver Chair , in my mind, at least.

The Unnamable is, as Klinger notes, a vehicle for Lovecraft to defend his literary habit of not describing the horrors his protagonists (or, perhaps, victims!) are encountering. It's clear that this is a stylistic choice rather than a paucity in vocabulary or a deficit of imagination. As a reader, Lovecraft's device either enhances your enjoyment by teasing your own imagination, or frustrates the curious impulse to gaze directly upon the uncanny. Or, perhaps, it works best when it evokes both of these reactions in the mind of the reader? The story itself is enjoyably effective in proving Lovecraft's point to those already inclined to his view, though whether it would win any converts from those who prefer their horror blood-spattered and graphic, I'm not sure.

I almost passed over reviewing The Call of Cthulhu as I usually balk at offering my opinion on classic works - what can I say that hasn't already been said? Anyway, with no pretention of great literary criticism, here I am adding a few personal impressions - I like the narrative device of having Francis Wayland Thurston's account of his investigation into the Cthulhu Cult incorporate the statements and depositions of others, such as those of his great-uncle Prof. Angell and the celebrated Inspector Legrasse. The slow, piecemeal gathering of hard evidence, vague impressions and implied meanings is very effective in achieving the brooding, doom-laden atmosphere of an impending apocalypse, delayed but not averted. I wondered if the island upon which Johansen finds dread R'Lyeh was the same island as the one which appeared in Dagon, but Klinger wondered it before me - an intriguing idea, though, as Thurston does comment that the sunken city was a tomb for several of the Great Old Ones, not just old Tentacle-Face.

The Silver Key is an interesting short story which starts with some reflections on science and religion, both considered with some degree of scorn, detailing the descent of the dream-master, Randolph Carter, into a life of mundane ennui, only to rediscover his old fantastical life via the discovery of the eponymous Silver Key. A time-travel element is subtly introduced, creeping up almost unnoticed, and demonstrating Lovecraft's great skill at creating his literary effects. On its own, I guess it's an interesting and atmospheric story, though a relatively slight one. However, as one of the linking pieces in Lovecraft's Dream-Cycle, it becomes more significant. If you want to read the whole cycle, you won't get it in this volume, but it shouldn't be too hard to find as, for example, in this book:
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

[Bob Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een verzameling van kortverhalen (al zijn enkele best lang!) van H. P. Lovecraft. ‘Horror’ zoals ik het graag heb: geen rondvliegende ledematen, maar otherworldly, sinister, kosmisch, psychologisch, geheimzinnig en fantastisch (in de originele zin van het woord).

Lovecraft weeft een samenhangende en overtuigende mythos aan elkaar doorheen zijn verschillende verhalen. Een ijzingwekkende sfeer druipt steeds van de pagina’s: je bent als lezer nooit volledig op je gemak. Enkele favoriete verhalen in deze collectie: Dagon, The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow over Innsmouth, At The Mountains of Madness en The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Die laatste twee zijn ook meteen de langste verhalen. Lovecraft bewijst in deze vertellingen vooral een meester te zijn in het construeren van een verhaal aan de hand van een dreigende opbouw.

Belangrijk om nog mee te geven: in sommige verhalen is het racisme van Lovecraft pijnlijk duidelijk. Een kind van zijn tijd, al is dat uiteraard geen excuus voor sommige passages.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

As is my wont in October, I always like to read a bit of horror. Normally I read a few books in that genre, but this year, with the recent publication of "The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft," I decided to pay my respects to the Master of the genre. This was no light undertaking, as not only is the book over 900 pages long (with 22 stories, a 50 page introduction, and various appendices and endpapers), but it's also heavy as hell.

Ever since I first read the collection "The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre" all the way back in 1999 or so, I've been an obsessive Lovecraft fan. And yet, with the exception of both that book and also the Modern Library collection of his work, I very rarely read through any of his collections, usually reading his stories here and there when the whim suits me. This was the first time in awhile where I decided to sit down and read an entire Lovecraft collection, from the first story to the last. The fact that the stories in this new collection are arranged in chronological order lets one track the progress that Lovecraft made as a writer throughout his career.

Of course, no collection of Lovecraft can be claimed as definitive because there will always be a few stories that don't make the cut that are bound to dismay some (in this collection's case, I can't believe that both "The Outsider" and "Pickman's Model" weren't included, yet the far inferior "Herbert West: Reanimator" was). Still, this book does a good job of selecting some of Lovecraft's most classic and representative stories, and it was a pleasure to re-read some of these for the first time in many a year (though one thing that slightly enhanced a few of the tales was the fact that I made many trips to Providence last year, and thus could better envision some of the real-life locales that Lovecraft wrote about). There are a lot of annotations (over a thousand, I believe), most of which are pretty informative and usually not too obtrusive. There's also a nice selection of photographs and illustrations, including the original b&w illustrations that graced the stories in their original pulp publications back in the day: obviously these vary in quality from good to insipid, though I did find the "Amazing Tales" ones of "The Shadow Out of Time" both whimsical and charming (especially the ones reproduced on page 742).

To wrap things up, I would recommend this book to any Lovecraft fan, and I think it would make a nice gift for the upcoming holiday season.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully done book. A wonderful celebration of HP Lovecrafts work. Five stars all around for the lovely illustrations, annotations. Lots of historical and cultural references. I've read a fair amount of Lovecraft but this is "the" book to get for any fan. You get tidbits here and there.. for example he was not happy with the Herbert West (Reanimator) story. I also did not realize some of the stories were firstly featured in Weird Tales. My only issue was the heft of the book, it's a tome. Not one to take to bed with you.

[Ksenia Anske · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first time reading Lovecraft and...wow. What Lewis Carroll started with a rabbit hole, H.P. Lovecraft stretched through aeons of years into the abysses of our darkest, most primal and cosmic horrors (in some cases tinged with obvious allegories to sex). I'm still processing all of the 800+ pages I've read. The only thing I didn't like—but what undoubtedly Lovecraft fans would revere—were precisely the annotations and the illustrations. Being unfamiliar with Lovecraft's work I wanted to read his stories without being interrupted, and the red text in the margins felt like interruptions. In a few cases the illustrations told me how a story would end before I figured it out on my own. Aside from that, a fabulous volume.

[KC · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 This is an epic collection of H.P. Lovecraft's stories and tales and when I say epic, I mean it. I was often distracted by all the additional information, photos, and foot notes although interesting. I will have to go back to this book multiple times to achieve a greater sense of this prolific writer, but also I just need to read a non annotated version of his books. He has been inspired by the likes of Dante (Devine Comedy), Mary Shelly, Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He has also inspired Rod Sterling and Shirley Jackson to name a few.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really fantastic stories here and I think the annotations add a lot of context. Although sometimes it goes a little too into details I didn't care much for. I would have liked more images, but I guess for Lovecraft, unlike the other Annotated books I've read, most of that it is newer and still copyrighted.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This came in the mail as a holiday gift from the fellow who was my nextdoor neighbor in Loose Hall at Grinnell College during my freshman year there. Although he, being ahead of me, only stayed on additional year at the school we have maintained a much appreciated friendship ever since. His influence on me has been significant.

Athough there has been a great deal of material by Lovecraft published in recent years, such as co-authored stories, newspaper articles and correspondence, most of his complete, published work has been available in cheap paperback editions since my adolescence, during which time I devoured it. Consequently, this volume contains nothing new from him. It doex, however, contain materials about him: two essays, marginalia and several appendices. Furthermore, the stories presented within are not always those originally published, efforts having been made to restore them in accord with their original intent.
So, in appropriating this book I reread some, but not all, of the Lovecraft stories while reading all of the materials contributed by others.

Having read a good deal about Lovecraft previously (even once making a point of visiting one of his Providence homes), the two introductory essays had little that was new. The marginalia and appendices offered more original material, much of it geographical and spuriously biographical (as, f.i., a listing of the known faculty of Miskatonic University in the fictional Arkham, MA). The research that went into some of this would be of great interest to a Lovecraft scholar, which I am not. As a more general reader, I would have preferred that some of the reproductions and photographs were larger.

Overall, this volume is beautifully designed, though a little too hefty for easy handling.

[Rick Slane · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those not new to Lovecraft this volume contains the novels and short stories involving his fictional town of Arkham, Mass. and the fictional Miskatonic University located near the center of the state. Many of the other locations and buildings mentioned were real with pictures and artwork included. Lovecraft has been accused of racism, misogyny, class prejudice, dislike of homosexuality, and antisemitism. I did not find much evidence of this. His parents were both insane. He followed Edgar Allen Poe. I see Poe writing with his thesaurus, picking the most antiquated, obscure, or longest words he could find. In his early stories HPL sometimes used words like indescribable to describe his horrible creatures. HPL was not a literary writer but he was literate, widely read, and kept a detailed journal and wrote many letters. He influenced horror and sci-fi writers such as Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, and Robert Bloch. I think the authors of The Martian and Ready Player One could have improved their work by reading Lovecraft. Artists could be inspired to render on canvas what HPL put in print. This is a coffee table book-too big to take to bed with you. Characters travel to Antarctica, Australia, and the Sahara Desert while also exploring New England seeking out of the Old Ones, ancient races and creatures. Meteors fall from the sky, bodies are exchanged, and haunted places are examined.

[Kanaheik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've long been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, and am very familiar with S.T. Joshi's rather brilliant annotations on his work, though I often find myself at odds with his interpretation of his work. I can't dispute his reasoning, I just don't agree with it, but that's just a sign of good literature.
As this was a new annotation, by a completely different author, I was excited to see what sort of new insights we might glean, or just a fresh perspective. Instead, I was treated to more or less a dictionary of terms and phrases, or an amateurish, poorly thought out reasoning on why H.P. may have included certain phrases and material. Pages would go by with no annotations whatsoever, and the few that were there seemed tacked on, or put in just to have something there.
The introductory biography of H.P. was the best of the book, which came across a fairly balanced viewpoint of a deeply troubled man, with all of his flaws on open display, but also his strengths. Racist and xenophobic anglophile, yes, but also someone who deeply cared about the written word, and was instrumental in focusing a number of young writer's careers, with little to no credit given to himself.
TLDR; Skip this annotation, re-read S.T. Joshi's far superior version.

[Carol Storm · Rating 5 out of 5]

The wonderful, amazing director of my small town public library went out of her way to purchase this gigantic new collection of stories by horror master H.P. Lovecraft, knowing that it's precious and indescribably exciting to a chosen few in our community.

This is a big, dictionary sized collection, and on every page there are pictures, illustrations, diagrams, photographs of real life places, and notes that explain all of Lovecraft's obscure allusions to science, folklore, New England history, and the occult. He loved to use obsolete and hard to understand words and all of them are defined in the margins, which is a huge help. It's amazing how easy it is to pick up this book and find yourself rereading an entire story in just few minutes!

My only complaint is with the selection. The obvious classics are all here, like THE DUNWICH HORROR, THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS, and SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. But I wish the editors had included THE LURKING FEAR and my personal favorite THE TEMPLE. Still this is the most exciting Lovecraft collection to come along in years!

[Heidi Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a Lovecraft fan, this beautiful new annotated edition is a dream come true. It's not comprehensive of HPL's short stories, but includes a nice selection of his best, as well as the novella-length "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," and "At the Mountains of Madness." It's also chock-full of historical, biographical and scientific notes, as well as reproductions of a number of original "Weird Tales" covers and illustrations.

It's big, and it's heavy, but it's well worth the back and eye strain a reader could incur. (And surprisingly affordable at a $40 cover price.)

[Erin the Avid Reader ⚜BFF's with the Cheshire Cat⚜ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read almost every story in here omitting 'At the Mountains of Madness' since I've read that story twice already. Other than this obscure Lovecraft story called 'The Tree', almost every story Lovecraft has written is in this wonderful compilation of stories with some great annotations and a kick-ass intro by Alan Moore himself. YASSSS!!!

[Jose Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finalizado "en las montañas de la locura"

[Gregg Wingo · Rating 5 out of 5]

While reviewing and reading esoteric pieces on H. P. Lovecraft, I realized I never reviewed this tome of his great works. The more you read of and about Lovecraft, the more you realize that the Klinger's choice of dedicating this book through HPL's quote "I am Providence" is perfect. The essence of Lovecraft is his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island and New England in general. Warts and all, HPL was a New England antiquarian dedicated to preserving the history and creating a mythology of the region for the 20th century but rooted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Klinger's notes and photographic choices bring this relationship fully to the reader. His Foreword places Lovecraft in his milieu as a flawed man and an obscure author.

Klinger does an excellent job of relating the classical studies of Lovecraft and the underlying threat of his parents' insanity to his work. As Klinger states HPL's earliest works such as "Dagon" already contain "...signature features: truly alien beings, experiences and sensations that cannot be processed by human brains, and a deep sense of doom." Lovecraft also steps off with something more than horror, his work is embedded like Verne and Wells with "...the juxtaposition of modern technology...and exploration." This anticipation of sci-fi in his works reaches its fruition in "The Colour Out of Space":

'...Lovecraft's favorite story, is the first major tale of his to combine classic science fiction (before the genre even existed) and horror...that terror could come from the stars....The banal descriptions of the fruitless scientific investigations contrast starkly with the inexplicable, gradual destruction....Preceding the famous Orson Welles broadcast of 'War of the Worlds' by more than ten years, the story brought the fear of alien invasion."

This concept of madness induced by alien intelligence and the fear of the universe wrapping around us still influences SF as the recent success of "Arrival" with its Lovecraftian hexapods illustrates. Fritz Leiber argues that Lovecraft reached his highest level of science fiction in "The Dreams of the Witch House" by - in Klinger's words - "...an effort to imagine the fourth dimension, or hyperspace....Lovecraft proffers a scientific explanation for seventeenth-century witchcraft as well, involving higher mathematics."

This book contains in total twenty-two short stories, novellas, and novels laid out in chronological order, thus, allowing the reader to follow the evolution of Lovecraft as a writer. It also has an introduction by Alan Moore and seven appendices on various aspects of the man and his legacy. It is a definitive collection of Lovecraft's best stories and their development. No fan should not own and read its updated texts.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

[This review will address only the annotations in this edition of Lovecraft’s works, not the works themselves. If you’re a fan of Lovecraft already, you don’t need my opinion of his stories; if you aren’t, this volume isn’t for you anyway.]

The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft is a massive, beautifully-produced volume. Fans of HPL will be sorely tempted to add it to their collections. For those so tempted, herewith a few words of caution.

In spite of its bulk, this is not a complete works of HPL: selected works only, though mostly well selected. If you’re seeking a complete works, look elsewhere. If you’re expecting to find a particular story, check the Table of Contents first.

The annotations by Leslie S. Klinger are best described as uneven. Klinger is quite good when providing geographical details that ground the stories in the New England of Lovecraft’s day. He is also usually helpful when describing bygone concepts, e.g., “Rural Free Delivery”, that are unfamiliar to modern readers.

Other annotations, though, are less helpful, and some are downright wrong, even embarrassingly so. How, for example, to explain Klinger’s note on the word palæogean: “A Byzantine dynasty from the eleventh century to the seventeenth century CE.”? (A reference, by the way, that makes absolutely no sense in the context of the story.) Not only is the name for that dynasty Palæologus, but the Byzantine empire ended in 1453, making two errors in one brief note. Palæogean, on the other hand, is a geologic period consisting of the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene epochs. Being vaguely familiar with both terms, I was able to verify these facts in under two minutes via Wikipedia. Sadly, this is not the only example of Klinger (or his research assistants) getting easily verifiable facts spectacularly wrong.

That’s when he’s bothering to provide any facts at all, mind you, for Klinger has a bad habit of disappearing for pages at a time, occasionally popping in to tell us, for example, that “strown” means “strewn” (no kidding?) and then taking another long break. Why bother defining slightly obscure or obsolete English words easily found elsewhere while leaving the reader to fend for himself throughout enormous stretches of Lovecraft’s stories? Especially since committed HPL fans are already aware of — relish, in fact — Lovecraft’s devotion to archaisms like “Esquimaux” and “shew”.

Klinger partially explains this in his Editor’s Note: “…many of the notes serve the function of glossary.” Surely a Glossary is a glossary, and an annotation should strive to be something more. In any case, this doesn’t excuse the gaps — or the errors.

(Note that Klinger’s glossary idea sometimes fails on its own terms, leading him to further error. To HPL’s use of the term “leprous fire”, Klinger appends the note, “The narrator uses the term ‘leprous’ in a very loose fashion…there is certainly nothing in the symptoms of leprosy that could be characteristic of a fire.” Is it actually possible that Klinger has never read Act I, Scene V of Hamlet?)

The illustrations and photos are mostly illuminating, though again, there are many pages left empty where an illustration would help tremendously. And certain odd choices leave the reader scratching his head, as on page 398, where a marvelously detailed pen-and-ink drawing of a Dictaphone faces, directly across from it on page 399, a photograph of… exactly the same machine.

Other oddities abound. One note reads, in its entirety: “Are we to understand that the reanimated corpse sought to return to its grave? Why?” First, these stories are after all weird fiction. By definition many things are left half explained or unexplained. That’s a large part of the thrill. Second, the reader’s own imagination can likely supply an explanation without prompting. What’s the point of Klinger’s question? Is he expecting me to drop him an email with a reply? Was this a note to himself that wasn’t intended for publication? In this and other cases, the annotation is more baffling than the event described.

Klinger, known for his New Annotated Sherlock Holmes*, indulges himself just a bit too often by references to Sherlock Holmes stories, a lazy trick that lets him pad his annotations with material he has readily to hand without really throwing any new light on Lovecraft. Klinger’s Sherlockian background leads him astray in another way. Holmes devotees are well known for treating the stories as though they actually happened (though with an unmistakable twinkle in the eye), and annotators have usually honored this conceit. Klinger often treats Lovecraft’s stories similarly, noting that, say, a certain document “seems to have disappeared” or some such. But Klinger doesn’t maintain this approach consistently. Often, he simply points out that a place or person named by HPL doesn’t exist and never has, undermining the sense of verisimilitude the other annotations are presumably meant to create.

All-in-all, Klinger’s annotations feel a bit slap-dash, as though the work was rushed into print to capitalize on HPL’s current popularity. I’ve not yet read S.T. Joshi’s original annotated works of Lovecraft; if nothing else, Klinger’s volume has made me eager to seek them out.

*A work with similar shortcomings, but that’s a review for another day.

[JaumeMuntane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Difícil encontrar palabras que hagan justicia a esta joya de edición que sin duda se ha ganado el calificativo de imprescindible para los amantes de Lovecraft.

La selección de relatos, en mi opinión, es muy lograda e interesante. Además, la posibilidad de leer y releer estos grandes relatos con las anotaciones de Klinger y/o del traductor (muchas de ellas interesantes) junto con el apabullante despliegue gráfico (multitud de fotografías, dibujos originales, manuscritos y dibujos del propio Lovecraft...) hacen de este libro una joya y un regalo para los amantes de la narrativa lovecraftiana.

Los relatos que configuran esta edición anotada son:

- Dagon (4/5)
- La declaración de Randolph Carter (4/5)
- Al otro lado de la barrera del sueño (3/5)
- Nyarlothotep (3/5)
- El grabado de la casa (3,5/5)
- Herbert West, reanimador (4,5/5)
- La ciudad sin nombre (4,5/5)
- El sabueso (3,5/5)
- La ceremonia (3,5/5)
- Lo innominable (2,5/5)
- La llamada de Cthulhu (5/5)
- La llave de plata (3,5/5)
- El caso de Charles Dexter Ward (5/5)
- El color que cayó del cielo (4/5)
- El horror de Dunwich (5/5)
- El que susurra en la oscuridad (3,5/5)
- En las montañas de la locura (5/5)
- La sombra sobre Innsmouth (5/5)
- Los sueños en la casa de la bruja (4/5)
- El ser del umbral (3,5/5)
- En la noche de los tiempos (3/5)
- El morador de las tinieblas (3/5)

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pues después de casi tres meses, por fin he terminado este tochazo que me ha devuelto toda la mítica y la mística de la obra de Lovecraft en la impresionante edición de Akal. La nota evidentemente tiene que ser un cinco, empecé a leer a Lovecraft cuando estaba en el instituto, así que si me he hecho con este omnibús ha sido porque sabía desde el principio lo que me iba a encontrar (creo que el único relato que no había leído nunca es Herbert West: Reanimador). Sí que es cierto que leído años después, hay un par de historias que se me han caído un poco (En las Montañas de la Locura y En la Noche de los Tiempos) y otras que han escalado posiciones (El Horror de Dunwich o Nyarlathotep), aunque me mantengo en que lo mejor de todo sigue siendo El Caso de Charles Dexter Ward.

No hay mucho que decir sobre la obra de Lovecraft que no se haya dicho ya, fue un genio literario que creó una factoría de terror con su propio sello, generaciones de autores y lectores que beben de estos relatos, de su forma de escribir, del universo mítico que imaginó, compuso y construyó, y que constituye un legado que ojalá continúe incluso cuando lleguen extraños tiempos.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an awesome volume, great language (non-modernized). and all out a lot of fun and scares.

[Carolina Urquidy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cada dos años aproximadamente me aventuró a releer a Lovecraft y cada vez lo disfruto mucho más. Trato de que sean ediciones diferentes, y me gustó mucho esta edición anotada.
Para quien no lo ha leído, da una introducción larga del autor, pero muy interesante que pone en perspectiva su vida y ayuda a comprender un poco mejor lo que escribio.
Aunque sabía muchas cosas, me gusta ponerme en mood. Me gustó mucho la selección de los cuentos y novelas cortas, no se cual es la mejor forma de comenzar a leer a Lovecraft, pero esta está interesante, tiene cuentos muy disfrutables y novelas, si bien son largas y complejas, me gustan mucho.

[Eric Layton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey! It's Lovecraft. What more is there to say. :)

[Judith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've been hearing authors refer to H.P. Lovecraft for years and my curiosity got the best of me so I finally investigated. I can see why he's famous within his cult of followers, but he is not for me. More like Edgar Allen Poe than Stephen King, he writes with such a heaviness that one feels buried at the outset. It's one thing to read a horror story and quite another to be so overwhelmed with gloomy details that you feel exhausted and haunted before you actually get to the action part of the story. And he's a racist to boot. I'm not sorry I read him because now when I read a reference to his works, I'll know what they're talking about. If you want a sample of his works, may I suggest "Rats in the Walls."