Dark Fantasy- Lovecraft Short Stories

by Clark Ashton Smith, S.T. Joshi (Foreword)

New, and completely pristine. See scans and description. London: Flame Tree Publishing, 2017. First Thus / First Printing of 'Dark Fantasy - Lovecraft Short Stories. H.P. Lovecraft. From the Gothic Fantasy Series'. Special Edition, BG Classic, ISBN 97817866465. Foreword by S.T. Joshi. A stunning form of presentation of originally separately-published stories s of the absolutely peerless H.P. Lovecraft - called "The Man Who Can Scare Stephen King", and of whom King once said, “I think it is beyond doubt that H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.” Lovecraft's innate sense of horror - he instilled his native, inescapable sense of dread in his fiction. Here, 39 stories - 35 by Lovecraft, and four by three authors he influenced so deeply - Robert E. Howard (two) and Clark Ashton Smith and Robert Bloch (one each). Octavo, black boards embossed with a green metallic design by the Flame Tree Studio based on artwork by Slava Gerj and Gabor Ruszkai, decorative endpapers, 480 pp. An extraordinarily handsome - and dread-inducing itself - decorative edition. New, and flawless. Placed immediately in sealed storage, on premises, after listing. Ships in a new, sturdy, protective box, of course; not a bag. L1

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Fiction

472 pages, Unknown Binding

About the author

Clark Ashton Smith was a poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. It is for these stories, and his literary friendship with H. P. Lovecraft from 1922 until Lovecraft's death in 1937, that he is mainly remembered today. With Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, also a friend and correspondent, Smith remains one of the most famous contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales.

His writings are posted at his official website.

Reviews

[handsfeetlegs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll say it!! this is the best Lovecraft collection out there (that's not a complete collection)!! ALL of his best is included in this, and that's my hot take. it's specifically Lovecraft Short Stories, so you won't find any of his novels/novellas in here, such as The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, or [the full text of] At the Mountains of Madness. don't get me wrong, those are really really good, but they're not his best. in fact, I feel like included just a snippet of Mountains of Madness wasn't a great choice, and those pages could've gone towards another story instead, such as Through the Gates of the Silver Key.
ANYWAYS, this book is PERFECT if you're just trying to get into Lovecraft and don't know where to start, or if you already love Lovecraft and just want a really nice and pretty collection. what makes it so awesome is that at the end of every story is a suggestion of other [Lovecraft] stories [mostly included in this collection] if you enjoyed the one you just read. the stories are in order of publication, so it is better to just read em in order, but for most of the stories, especially in the first half, it's totally fine to jump around. I truly do think this is the definitive [non-complete] Lovecraft collection to get, as most "Lovecraft essential tales" don't include many incredible short stories that are in this one. there's even 4 stories written by other authors, Lovecraft's contemporaries, which are pretty good.
also: aesthetically, it's beautiful, one of the prettiest collections out there, somewhat small font but every Lovecraft collection has a small font, lovely page feel, nice font choice and paper color, lightweight, and good margins too.
overall: 9.9/10. if they replaced the At the Mountains of Madness snippet with Through the Gates of the Silver Key, it would've been a 10/10.

[Jesse VanDeWalker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great October read, though it includes only two chapters of “At the Mountains of Madness”. The final part of the three stories that Bloch and Lovecraft passed back and forth would have been nice too.

[Kristen Mori · Rating 3 out of 5]

It can drag. Lovecraft leans on many of the same themes and tropes in his short stories, so it feels a little repetitive to read all of these short stories back to back.

[Beth Doddridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is huge! Most of Lovecraft’s short stories in one place!

[Allerglance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection Lovecraft's mythos. Although, there are some stories that seem like a drag, or that go everywhere, but there's always worth it as the next story is intriguing as always.

The book also has a nice feature of recommendating two other stories that might interest after reading each story