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Average customer rating:

Solid Scholarship and Fun Stories
Worth it for every Lovecraft fan
Great, but with a couple of glaring flaws
Good background about Lovecraft
A Tough One to Review

The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft
S. T. Joshi , and Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft
An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia
The Lovecraft Lexicon: A Reader's Guide to Persons, Places and Things in the Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft: Tales (Library of America)
She Wakes

ASIN: 0440506603
Release Date: 1997-07-07

Amazon.com

This attractively packaged collection, edited by preeminent H. P. Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi, is a treat for long-time enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Joshi provides newly corrected text and footnotes for three superb stories--"The Rats in the Walls," "The Colour out of Space," and "The Dunwich Horror"--as well as the novella "At the Mountains of Madness,"acknowledged as Lovecraft's masterpiece. He explains the origins of place and character names, tracks influences from Lovecraft's reading, defines unusual words such as "nefandous" and "cyclopean," and clarifies which of the cited occult texts are fictional and which are real. The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft also includes a biographical introduction, comments from contemporary horror writers, excerpts from letters presenting Lovecraft's own theories about weird fiction, a critical summary of Lovecraft movies, a select bibliography, and numerous black-and-white photographs. Don't make the mistake of thinking that The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft is just another Lovecraft collection: Joshi has distilled decades of learning into well-chosen observations that are a delight to read.

Book Description

Explore the marvelous complexity of Lovecraft's writing—including his use of literary allusions, biographical details, and obscure references in this rich, in-depth exploration of great horror fiction from the acknowledged master of the weird, including the stories "Herbert West—Reanimator", "Pickman's Model", "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Thing on the Doorstep", "The Horror at Red Hook" and more.

Did Lovecraft believe in ghosts or paranormal phenomena? In what story does the narrator fear riding the Boston T?

A pathfinder in the literary territory of the macabre, H.P. Lovecraft is one of America's giants of the horror genre. Now, in this second volume of annotated tales, Lovecraft scholars S. T. Joshi and Peter Cannon provide another rare opportunity to look into the mind of a genius. Their extensive notes lift the veil between real events in the writer's life—such as the death of his father—and the words that spill out onto the page in magnificent grotesquerie. Mansions, universities, laboratories, and dank New England boneyards appear also as the haunts where Lovecraft's characters confront the fabulous and fantastic, or—like the narrator in "Herbert West—Reanimator"—dig up fresh corpses.

Richly illustrated and scrupulously researched, this extraordinary work adds exciting levels of meaning to Lovecraft's chilling tales . . . and increases our wonder at the magic that transforms life into a great writer's art.

Customer Reviews:

Solid Scholarship and Fun Stories.......2006-02-13

You've heard his name, you know he's supposed to be good, you've wanted to read him for quite a while, and now it's time to dive in--but where do you start?

If Lovecraft has been on your list, begin with Joshi's handsomely annotated edition of some of Lovecraft's most important macabre tales. The book begins with a fast but thorough overview of Lovecraft's life and thought and ends with provocative excerpts from his letters as well as an amusing overview of Lovecraft-based movies. Within the stories themselves--including "The Rats in the Walls," "The Colour out of Space," "The Dunwich Horror," and the famous, highly ambitious, and slightly soporific "At the Mountains of Madness"--Joshi has offered a fine selection of explanations and speculations on the origins of Lovecraft's settings, ideas, scientific information, and outright made-up folklore. Some of the photos in the annotations are hard to identify, and Joshi defines words like he thinks the reader has a small vocabulary, but the beginner will leave with a solid overview of who Lovecraft was, what he thought, and what he wrote. Be warned--you will want to read this twice. Come first for the information, but then go through it again without the notes and get the full brunt of Lovecraft's florid yet somehow never melodramatic prose. You will find it is his ability to write extended metaphors about floating corpses without sounding silly that constitutes his ultimate literary achievement.

Worth it for every Lovecraft fan.......2004-12-06

Most reviewers have focused (understandably) on the annotations. However, this book is worth the price for the biographical introduction alone. I've been reading and rereading Lovecraft for probably 20 years, but those few pages gave me some important new insights into Lovecraft's perspective that made me anxious to read them again in a new light. The annotations, review of movies, and other supplements to the stories are gravy.

Great, but with a couple of glaring flaws.......2004-10-10

This and its companion book, /More Annotated HP Lovecraft/, are excellent editions for readers who are deeply interested in the writer and his times, and where he got his ideas from. Joshi's annotations are often very helpful in understanding the stories better.

However, I was bemused to find that, not only is there no index in either book--something that really would have been a big help to researchers--but there is no table of contents! In fact, it is impossible to know exactly which stories are in each book without flipping through the pages. This is simply an inexcusable oversight, and reflects very poorly on the publisher. (I am sure that Mr. Joshi, who is a meticulous researcher, had nothing to do with these flaws.)

Good background about Lovecraft.......2004-02-23

I found the footnotes and forward in this edition to be a welcome addition to one of my favorite author's stories. The last mini biography I read on Lovecraft was bland, but this one was well researched. The collection of stories was a fair offering, too. One minor complaint was that there could have been some better captioning for the photos.

In addition to a biographical foreward there are footnote annotations on the pages of the stories.

Overall, it's a good choice for people who like the Lovecraft stories and would like to learn a little more about the author, and his intents.

A Tough One to Review.......2003-06-30

I've been a Lovecraft fan for decades, ever since I was a kid, and I loved this book. Joshi has taken some of Lovecraft's best works and illuminated each with the bright light of his scholarship.

There is a problem, however: Lovecraft appeals to a certain type of reader (IMO), and I think that the footnotes might detract greatly from the enjoyment of the stories for just such a reader; I know they did for me. Because of this, I feel that this is a great book for the already established Lovecraft fan, but might not be so appealing to someone who has just picked up Lovecraft for the first time. I could certainly be wrong about this, but I personally prefer to read Lovecraft's stuff in a different format, sans footnotes.

However, despite my misgivings, I ended up giving this book a five star rating based on Joshi's immaculate and voluminous scholarship. After all, the footnotes ARE the point here, illuminating, as they do, Lovecraft's eerie and unique prose.

I wouldn't have missed this one for the world.

Average customer rating:

What's with all the notes?
Lovecraft Is Good, Notations are Disappointing
Quality of stories far exceeds quality of annotations
Okay, as far as it goes - pale shade from predecessor
The Contents of This Book

More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft , S.T. Joshi , and Peter Cannon
Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft
An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia
The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature
The Lovecraft Lexicon: A Reader's Guide to Persons, Places and Things in the Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft: Tales (Library of America)

ASIN: 0440508754
Release Date: 1999-08-10

Amazon.com

Following in the footsteps of the 1997 The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, Lovecraft experts S.T. Joshi and Peter Cannon again pay testament to their favorite horror writer, annotating and illustrating 10 of his stories. More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft includes such classic horror stories as "Herbert WestReanimator," "Pickman's Model," "The Call of Cthulhu," and "The Horror at Red Hook." The book also includes several obscure references and photographs of places Lovecraft mentioned throughout his works. This is particularly fascinating, since the popular horror writer used many settings from buildings in his neighborhood, including the house where his aunt lived.

At the beginning of each story is a note on where and when the story was first published, and whether it had been previously rejected by another publisher. Joshi and Cannon also dissect each work, asking such questions as, How did Lovecraft invent the name Herbert West? And, How did Lovecraft create the names of fictional rivers and universities in New England? These questions are well-traced and investigated, a real treat for Lovecraft fans. --Samantha Allen Storey

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

What's with all the notes?.......2003-11-08

First off, lets list the stories. First is 'The Picture in the House' a very short, short story. This is followed by 'Herbert West - Reanimator' which was written for a humor magazine so is broken down into six parts. Then we have 'The Hound', 'The Shunned House'(giant elbows - NOOO!), 'The Horror at Red Hook', 'Cool Air', 'The Call of Cthulhu'(a major thread in the myths), 'Pickman's Model', 'The Thing on the Doorstep'(linked to a few stories by its very setting and characters) and 'The Haunter of the Dark'. These latter stories are very common to Lovecraft collections, so you should already know them. 'Herbert West - Reanimator' is not as easy to find and is the main reason I got this copy.
The book DOES have one interesting feature, which is all the information they add. Still, if I wanted to know so much about Lovecraft I would of bought a book about HIM. Also, the notes sometimes get in the way of the story. I suggest reading the stories and ignoring the notes the first time around. There are also nice photos of places that Lovecraft lived at or used within his stories.

Lovecraft Is Good, Notations are Disappointing.......2003-06-21

The stories are straight Lovecraft, with all of the pros and cons that drags with it. Good creepy fiction, some poor plots and some poor choices of wording.

The main problem that I had with this book though was the annotations. Almost every one of them was mediocre, some were truly bad, many were useless (especially the ones about names...only someone interested in genealogy would care, and they don't frequently use fiction as a source), and one that I saw foretold the ending in such a fashion as to destroy part of the ending. Hence, the annotations were rather poor. The illustrations were worse. There were two useful illustrations in the entire book. Other "luminary" illustrations are things like the pictures of three famous poets' graves. Why? The picture of Paul Revere's house. So? Etc. These occur throughout the book and are quite distracting as you expect them to matter, and are greatly disappointed.

My recommendation is to simply buy a normal version of these works. It is probably cheaper and definately more useful. The stories are decent (although I personally think that they are overrated), but the annotations are frequently annoying and almost always useless.
Harkius

Quality of stories far exceeds quality of annotations.......2002-03-29

While there are some rare nuggets of interesting information in the annotations, I find aspects of this collection to be disorganized, haphazard, and perplexing. The stories, 10 in all, represent a hodgepodge of Lovecraft's greater and lesser writings, arranged chronologically from 1920's "The Picture in the House" to 1935's "The Haunter of the Dark." The editors apparently want to show the evolution of Lovecraft's writing over the years and choose not to build a collection based on any particular theme. This makes for some interesting story selections: "Herbert West--Reanimator" is included, which somewhat surprised me since Lovecraft largely disavowed this work (the idea and format being prescribed by someone other than himself). "The Horror At Red Hook," a strangely unsuccessful story to my way of thinking, as well as the rather formulaic "The Shunned House" can also be found here.

On the plus side, some real classics are given the annotated treatment. "The Picture in the House" is particularly welcome here, as it is perhaps Lovecraft's most horrifying short piece of fiction, and a copy of the referenced infamous picture is included for the reader to view. "The Hound" is an effective if rather traditional horror tale, the annotations for which provide some important information on the French Decadents and other outre movements referenced in the story. "Cool Air" is one of the author's most recognized stories, and the notes stress the fact that the story was written before air conditioning made its way into housing units. "Pickman's Model" is still a disturbing read, even though the ending lacks the punch today it probably had in Lovecraft's time. The three real jewels of this collection are the seminal works "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Thing on the Doorstep," and "The Haunter of the Dark" (one of Lovecraft's final stories and one often given less attention than I feel it deserves). The annotations are very useful in a complex work such as "The Call of Cthulhu," but in many cases they seem forced, contrived, and tiresome. Much of the time, the notes simply define terms such as cyclopean or eldritch, point out obvious concepts and alternate spellings, and endlessly reference other notes in this and the first collection of annoted Lovecraft stories. Worst of all, this book has no table of contents, and one can only see for sure what stories are included by leafing through the pages of the text.

The comments on antiquarian concepts and literary references makes this book worthwhile, but I found it to be less enlightening than I expected. Most of the annotations are unfortunately useless or repetitive. Even the pictures included in these pages, largely of old churches and cemeteries, do not correspond exactly with Lovecraft's settings The many quotes from Lovecraft's letters are interesting, but the letters can and should be read in their entirety in order to avoid mistaken impressions due to missing context. The book is also afflicted with a number of typos, which is something I am sure Lovecraft himself would have railed against. What matters are Lovecraft's stories, when it comes right down to it, and this collection does include some (but certainly not all) of his best fiction. The annotations are welcome additions to the texts, but their usefulness varies widely from page to page.

Okay, as far as it goes - pale shade from predecessor.......2001-12-16

Let it be said up front: this volume makes you ask for more, but more because of the meager offering than of a whetting of appetite, like "Annotated Lovecraft" did. This venture into Lovecraft, although with Joshi and Cannon at the helm, fails to make a lingering impression for various reasons that are closely associated, I believe.
Let us begin with the selection of tales. In the preceding volume we had such interesting tales as At the Mountains of Madness, The Colour out of Space, and The Rats in the Walls, but this follow-up (and I don't know if there's another planned sequel?) has stories that are, in my opinion, less impressionable, such as Herbert West - Reanimator, The Horror at Red Hook, The Thing on the Doorstep, and The Shunned House.
Sure enough, these tales, although not all of them equal in quality, are interesting for the Lovecraft scholar to see annotated, but I think it a just a tad too much of mediocrity for a single volume. Rather I'd seen The Whisperer in Darkness, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, or another long piece (the annotated Shadow over Innsmouth has been published by Necronomicon Press, and The Shadow out of Time's definitive text has only recently surfaced) supplemented by shorter works, as the case was with the first volume.
Another thing is that there are far less annotations than in its predescent, sometimes whole pages going by without any footnote. What is worse, is that some footnotes are totally unnecessary, oneliners, or explanations of words that one can glean from any good dictionary. Again, this is not necessarily bad, it's just that it would have been better had there been one or two thoroughly explored (major) tales, and some others as dessert.
Yet not all is lost. I still recommend this one as a must-have for the inclusion of The Haunter of the Dark, The Call of Cthulhu, and Pickman's Model, and more so for the additional photographs of the sites Lovecraft mentions than for the footnotes - if you're an above average reader of Lovecraft and Lovecraft studies you'll know most of the knowledge handed already anyway. And, let's face it, anything on Lovecraft that has been done by either Cannon or Joshi is worth buying for collector's sake.
The bottom line is: get it, but don't freak out with a joyous expectation of anything remotely as "The Annotated Lovecraft". It's okay, nothing more, certainly nothing less.

The Contents of This Book.......2000-12-31

With so many different Lovecraft collections out there, it may help prospective buyers to know what's actually in this one:

[By Peter Cannon:] Acknowledgments; Introduction [a discussion of H. P. Lovecraft and the selections in this volume]; [Hereupon stories by Lovecraft:] The Picture in the House; Herbert West--Reanimator [a collected pulp magazine serial]; The Hound; The Shunned House; The Horror at Red Hook; Cool Air; The Call of Cthulhu; Pickman's Model; The Thing on the Doorstep; The Haunter of the Dark

Though the title of this volume means that it's a sequel to The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, in fact More Annotated H. P. Lovecraft stands just fine without the previous volume and the two volumes could just as well have been published in reverse order. Indeed, a good argument could be made that More Annotated is the better volume with which to start, especially for Lovecraft novices, since it features a number of shorter, grabbier stories plus Lovecraft's signature (though not his very best) story, The Call of Cthulhu. But the truth is that either volume can be read without the other, though they're complementary.

Oddly enough, though More Annotated contains about twice as many pieces and costs a little more than The Annotated, it's actually almost 50 pages shorter. This is because, unlike The Annotated, it doesn't contain a novella, has only a fairly short introduction which already incorporates introductions to the various stories, lacks individual story introductions by S. T. Joshi and tributes to Lovecraft by various horror writers, and also lacks the appendices Joshi previously included.

Though it looks as though Cannon must have been primarily responsible for selecting and assembling the contents of this volume, once again it appears that Joshi was in charge of the voluminous footnotes (this is, after all, "Annotated H. P. Lovecraft"), judging from their familiar style and approach, just as Joshi prepared the footnotes for The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft and for Penguin's The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories.

Assuming that to be the case, once again Joshi provides plenty of useful and interesting information in his dry and occasionally condescending manner. Do we really need to be told who the Puritans were (p. 13), what Calvinism and anti-Darwinism are (p. 38), or what a satyr and a lemur are (p. 151)?

Some other times, Joshi seems to be talking to himself. For example, in footnoting the first textual mention of Herbert West in the story of the same name, Joshi writes: "It is difficult to know where Lovecraft came up with the name Herbert West. West is by no means a specifically New England name, even though most of the story takes place in New England." In other words, Joshi is wondering aloud how Lovecraft came up with the name, something that might matter to a biographical researcher -- Joshi has already written and had published a long biography of Lovecraft -- but which otherwise provides no insight for or appeal to the interest of readers of this book. (So as far as I'm concerned, in the absence of any evidence, the name Herbert West was invented because Lovecraft thought it sounded good for that character and that story title.)

Such criticisms notwithstanding, More Annotated Lovecraft is a good reference volume for the serious Lovecraft reader and belongs on the bookshelf alongside The Annotated Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, and the Arkham House four-volume set (The Dunwich Horror and Others; At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels; Dagon and Other Macabre Tales; The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions) plus Miscellaneous Writings. Most other Lovecraft collections in print are unreliable, insight-devoid hodgepodges; your money will be better spent bypassing them and instead collecting the volumes set forth in this paragraph.

The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature

Average customer rating:

Joshi does Lovecraft's Seminal Essay Justice
Another Lovecraft/Joshi must-have!

The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature
H. P. Lovecraft
Manufacturer: Hippocampus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft
An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia
The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft
The Shadow out of Time: The Corrected Text
H.P. Lovecraft: A Life

ASIN: 0967321506

Book Description

H. P. Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature," first published in 1927, is widely recognized as the finest historical survey of horror literature ever written. The product of both a keen critical analyst and a working practitioner in the field, the essay affords unique insights into the nature, development, and history of the weird tale. Beginning with instances of weirdness in ancient literature, Lovecraft proceeds to discuss horror writing in the Renaissance, the first Gothic novels of the late 18th century, the revolutionary importance of Edgar Allan Poe, the work of such leading figures as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ambrose Bierce, and William Hope Hodgson, and the four “modern masters” -- Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood and M. R. James.

In this first annotated edition of Lovecraft's seminal work, acclaimed Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi has supplied detailed commentary on many points. In addition, Joshi has supplied a comprehensive bibliography of all the authors and works discussed in the essay, with references to modern editions and critical studies. This edition should be invaluable both to devotees of Lovecraft and to enthusiasts of the weird tale.

Customer Reviews:

Joshi does Lovecraft's Seminal Essay Justice.......2007-01-04

I studied and taught H. P. Lovecraft's work during my years at the University of Chicago, and I read his long essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature" long before most people had heard of it. The new popularity of Lovecraft's fiction--based in large part, for better or worse, on bad films that borrow his titles but have little or anything to do with his work--makes Joshi's annotated version of this essay timely. In 1925 Lovecraft's friend W. Paul Cook asked Lovecraft to write an article about "terror and weirdness in literature." Realizing that he didn't know enough about the genre, Lovecraft systematically read the Gothic literature that preceded him, and the weird fiction that was more or less contemporary with his own work.

His essay remains one of the most thoughtful and insightful discussions of "weird fiction" ever written. Others have used his essay as a springboard for their own work--Joyce Carol Oates' American Gothic Tales and David Punter's The Literature of Terror, for example. But Lovecraft read, understood, and described these stories as only a writer himself and a master of the macabre could. Joshi's notes are excellent (albeit at times opinionated), and the texts Lovecraft cites in his essay deserve new readers. If you're a Lovecraft fan--or if you're a fan of "weird" tales--read this book.

Another Lovecraft/Joshi must-have!.......2001-09-05

Finally, the long awaited annotated edition of HPL's essential essay of horror/weird fiction is here...

The only flaw/drawback to this edition is the decision to keep all annotation notes in the back of the book unlike previous annotated Lovecraft works. Granted, having the annotations at the bottom of the revelant page did slow down a straight reading of only the text in the annotated story collections. However, an indepth reading was not hampered by having to track down the exact footnote/annotation.

Even with this minor design point, your Lovecraft library deserves this new annotated edition of a Lovecraft classic...Once again, S.T. Joshi proves his status as THE Lovecraft scholar with his in-depth research that sheds new light on this classic work for the modern reader.

H. P. Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography

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H. P. Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography
S. T. Joshi
Manufacturer: Wildside Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1592240127

Book Description

Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi's definitive annotated bibliography to works by and about H.P. Lovecraft.

H. P. Lovecraft & Lovecraft Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography, Supplement, 1980-1984

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H. P. Lovecraft & Lovecraft Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography, Supplement, 1980-1984
S. T. Joshi , and L. D. Blackmore
Manufacturer: Necronomicon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Average customer rating:

The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft.
Joshi. S.T. Editor.
Manufacturer: A Dell Trade Paperback.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I31NN2

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THE ANNOTATED SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE
H. P. Lovecraft
Manufacturer: Hippocampus Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: B000P0ZZ78

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More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft
Ed S.T. Joshi
Manufacturer: Bt Bound
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0613220358

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H. P. Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism : An Annotated Bibliography
S.T. & H.P. Lovecraft (related). Joshi
Manufacturer: Wildside Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000P0U762

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More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Manufacturer: Dell Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N793V2

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