Scan barcode
A review by mburnamfink
H. P. Lovecraft Tales of Horror by H.P. Lovecraft
4.0
It's with some dismay that I realized that I didn't actually own any H.P. Lovecraft, and this from a guy who doodled Elder Signs over all his high school notebooks. While his works are public domain, there's something to be said for physical books. This Canterbury Classics edition comes with a beautiful leather binding, an iridescent octopus on the cover, gold leaf pages, and an introduction giving an overview of his life and work. Inside are 26 short stories, arranged in chronological order, and covering the essential Lovecraft: The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, etc.
Reading them all in order is a burden. Early Lovecraft is not great, little gothick tinglers that require much faith and imagination from the reader that this is horrifying. When he hits his stride, Lovecraft is every bit as good as his titanic reputation deserves. The later stories contrast the growing insanity of their narrators against the dizzying cosmological nihilism of deep time, and the ancient civilizations of Elder Things and Old Ones and Mi Go and Deep Ones who once warred over Earth, and who's remnants trouble our dreams.
Selling an collection of free stories is always a little tricky, but this is worth it for the physical qualities of the binding, and for a strong editorial voice. A little bigger than the "core" Lovecraft, a little more portable than the "complete" Lovecraft, this is a great collection for any fan.
Reading them all in order is a burden. Early Lovecraft is not great, little gothick tinglers that require much faith and imagination from the reader that this is horrifying. When he hits his stride, Lovecraft is every bit as good as his titanic reputation deserves. The later stories contrast the growing insanity of their narrators against the dizzying cosmological nihilism of deep time, and the ancient civilizations of Elder Things and Old Ones and Mi Go and Deep Ones who once warred over Earth, and who's remnants trouble our dreams.
Selling an collection of free stories is always a little tricky, but this is worth it for the physical qualities of the binding, and for a strong editorial voice. A little bigger than the "core" Lovecraft, a little more portable than the "complete" Lovecraft, this is a great collection for any fan.