Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Here are my thoughts. Except for one serious misstep this could have been the definitive collection of Lovecraft's work. 1. The book is oversized but it's gorgeous. The inclusion of numerous maps, photographs and reproductions of letters is one of the greatest attractions. For example, there are photos of Sonja Green that I had never seen before, including some of her years after HPL had died. I wish Donovon Loucks could get a similarly sized book for his collection of photos of Lovecraftian geography. In the meantime I was very happy to see a generous number of his pictures of sites in Providence here. 2. Another major attraction is that it is not by ST Joshi. While I very much respect Mr.Joshi, Lovecraft scholarship has advanced considerably since the 1990s and it is good to have a different voice. Everyone is a person of their times, and the historical context given in the author's lengthy introduction was quite valuable, often skipped over in collections of Lovecraft's stories. There is no apology for Lovecraft's racism here; in fact, it is painstakingly shown how HPL's personal views may have ruined any hope of his marriage succeeding, and how they informed a great deal of his fiction. 3. Having said that, I am glad that, for the most part, this volume uses Joshi's corrected text for the stories, so that some egregious errors are not perpetuated. On the other hand, Mr. Klinger is his own person so he sometimes uses a slightly different version, while providing justification for it. 4. The price of the book is a bit high, but with the current discounts it's not that high. In fact I think it was priced to be able to sell, perhaps cashing in on the current wave of attention Lovecraft is now receiving. 5. This brings me to my major criticism, which is the story selection. Mr. Klinger has his reasons of course, but for pity's sake, why include the entire text of "Herbert West, Reanimator?" This is just a pulp story. HPL himself did not think highly of it. Why not include "The Terrible Old Man" or "The Strange High House on the Mist" or "The Cats of Ulthar?" Surely "Pickman's Model," "The Music of Erich Zann" and "The Outsider" merited inclusion. This latter title perhaps represents how HPL thought of himself in modern America. So in summary, this volume is a brilliant triumph. My regret is that it could have been the one definitive copy of Lovecraft's work, the only one anyone would ever need. Instead even if you get this book, you still need to get at least one more with the inevitable duplication that entails. If you want other options, you can get Joshi's annotations in issues from Dell. Kenneth Hite has given his thoughts on the stories in the altogether delightful Tour de Lovecraft. You don't get any of the stories, just some ruminations on them by a thoughtful reader. It's a different sort of work then biography/annotated text but it is also a bargain price and just plain fun. Finally Dan Clore's masterpiece Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon explores in depth the vocabulary of weird fiction, providing numerous examples of usage from the works of HPL.