Customer Reviews

Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

[By S. T. Joshi:] Acknowledgments; Introduction [an essay about H. P. Lovecraft and his fiction]; [By Lovecraft:] The Rats in the Walls [a short story]; The Colour Out of Space [another short story]; The Dunwich Horror [still another short story]; At the Mountains of Madness [a novella]; Lovecraft on Weird Fiction [excerpts from four letters to correspondents]; [By Joshi:] Lovecraft in the Media [an essay about dramatizations of Lovecraft's fiction in film, radio and television]; Select Bibliography

But there's more: A scattering of achival photos of persons and places in Lovecraft's life; another scattering, this time of brief tributes to Lovecraft excerpted from various writers; introductions by Joshi to each of the featured pieces by Lovecraft; and, above all, footnotes, lots of footnotes, by Joshi at the bottoms of the pages.

Most of the footnotes are pretty useful -- Lovecraft was a sophisticated, scholarly writer, and the typical contemporary (i.e. post-literary, electronic era) reader would miss or be stumped by many of his literary, historical, geographical and foreign language references. But too often Joshi goes beyond helping the reader better enjoy and appreciate Lovecraft's fiction, instead relating the fiction to picayune details of Lovecraft's personal life.

For example, on p. 28, the first person narrator of a story includes this sentence: "My father died in 1904 [footnote 10], but without any message to leave me, or to my only child, Alfred [footnote 11], a motherless boy of ten." Footnote 10 reads: "In fact, it was not Lovecraft's father but his grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips (1833-1904), who died on March 28, 1904. Lovecraft's father had been hospitalized in 1893 and died in 1898, and Whipple Phillips had in effect become his father." Footnote 11 reads: "Alfred: the name is possibly derived from Lovecraft's young friend Alfred Galpin (1901-1983). They had come into contact in 1918 and remained voluminous and close correspondents to the end of Lovecraft's life. When Lovecraft first met Galpin in Cleveland in August 1922, he addressed him as 'my son Alfredus' (Selected Letters, I, 191)."

Give me a break! That's important material for a detailed biography of Lovecraft -- and Joshi has written and had published just such a book elsewhere -- but of little significance to the reader simply trying to get at the meaning and intrinsic pleasure of a work of fiction. Who but a biographical researcher would want to be distracted by such stuff?

So on the one hand Joshi speaks to the stuffiest scholar, and yet often talks down to the reader who's reasonably well-educated. Do we really need to be told what Druids were (p. 30), or who the Marquis de Sade was (p. 32), or what silicon is (p. 66)? Nonetheless, read discriminately, the annotations are helpful for better fathoming Lovecraft.

As to the printing of the volume, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that the typeface of the main texts is large and easy to read. (The annotations are quite small, though.) The bad news is that the text is rife with typos. Dell Publishing, get your act together!

In sum, this book (and its sequel, More Annotated H. P. Lovecraft) probably belongs on the bookshelf of every serious Lovecraft reader, right next to Arkham House' Lovecraft collections. The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft (like its sequel, More Annotated H. P. Lovecraft) is a handy and inexpensive reference for some of Lovecraft's best stories. A warning, though: Don't read Joshi's footnotes on a first reading of a Lovecraft story -- allow yourself to follow Lovecraft's narrative uninterrupted so you can capture the mood and sense of surprise that lie within.

Annotated Lovecraft--it sounds like a great idea, and it is. However, many of the annotations in this book seem unnecessary and irrelevant. Make no mistake, the stories themselves are some of HPL's best--"The Rats in the Walls," "The Colour Out of Space," "The Dunwich Horror," and the short novel "At the Mountains of Madness." A pretty good introduction by S. T. Joshi starts things off, and the final pages include some noteworthy comments on the art of writing horror (taken from some of Lovecraft's letters) and a short essay on the translation of Lovecraft's work into radio, TV, and film. This complementary material is very useful to someone just delving into the Lovecraftian universe, but the annotations are somewhat of a mixed bag.

While some of Joshi's annotations are quite interesting and useful, many seem to me to be totally unnecessary; some, such as biographical material, is interesting but immaterial to the stories themselves. For every chemical Lovecraft mentions, Joshi gives us the chemical formula and scientific name, which is okay if somewhat excessive. When some of the trademark Lovecraft terms pop up (e.g., eldritch), Joshi defines them; however, he also explains to us how aeon is an alternate spelling of eon, immensurable is synonomous with immeasurable, etc.--there are several unneccessary footnotes in each story explaining what seems to me to be patently obvious. Joshi also is fond of taking a notion from the text and explaining how Lovecraft "may have" been thinking of this or that, often ending the note with a quote of several sentences from authors such as Poe, Bierce, etc.--sometimes valid, sometimes not, usually over-the-top. He is also fond of referring back to his own footnotes from earlier in the book each and every time a certain subject is mentioned, which I find annoying.

Certainly, many of the annotations are useful, especially in the short novel At the Mountains of Madness. A good bit of the scientific nomenclature and theories, as well as geographic names, have changed since Lovecraft's time, and Joshi does the reader a great service in explaining what Lovecraft meant, what he was referring to, etc.; such important data contribute much to an understanding of the material and proper placement of the settings of the tales. While I would certainly recommend this book to Lovecraft readers, I would strongly suggest that anyone reading these stories for the first time ignore the footnotes completely. Besides sometimes giving away plot points to the current story and others, the footnotes totally interrupt the flow of your reading. To truly enjoy Lovecraft, you must immerse your mind in his language, structure, and flow. I don't think I can read any of these stories too many times, so rereading is more of a pleasure than a pain. Read these stories, move on to other things, then at some point come back and re-read the stories in conjunction with the annotations. You may well have to grin and bear it through many of the unneccessary, repetitive, and not entirely relevant footnotes, but you will gain some rewarding insights and make some new discoveries in these rich otherworldly tales by horror's greatest writer.

This is definitely not a "beginner's" Lovecraft. For those who are taking their first glance, I recommend "The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)." or "Best of H.P. Lovecraft : Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre ." It is also not an "expert's" Lovecraft, who have already tackled the fine Arkham House "Selected Letters" volumes, or such arcane tomes as "The Philosophy of H.P. Lovecraft : The Route to Horror (New Studies in Aesthetics, Vol. 29)."

What it is, is an "intermediate's" Lovecraft, perfect for those who enjoy his stories, and want to peel back one small layer of the onion and look beneath the surface. The volume focuses on his major works, and the annotations range from the broad, such as definitions of words, to the minute, such as genealogy of local towns. There is a nice selection of photographs of Lovecraft's early homes and some locations of stories. The annotations also include some informative biographical notes that help explain his stories, such as Lovecraft's fear of seafood and the cold, or the fact that he was dressed as a little girl when he was a baby.

Definitely read other editions of his works first, so that you may enjoy his stories as stories. Then, when you want to take one small step further, give this annotated edition a try.

The term "must have" is often overused, but here it can be honestly applied. Remember in At the Mountains of Madness where the narrator repeatedly refers to the frozen landscapes looking like some obscure painter's works? Here you can finally find out who that painter was, and see some of his works! For that alone this book is great, but the rest of the annotations are excellent. Luckily, there is a sequel.

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.

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.)

I wish I had written The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, but I was happy someone did and was very interested in reading it. The stories included in the volume make a fine introduction to H. P.'s work for anyone unfamilar with his stories, but also offer real interest to those of us who have read these stories numerous times. Now we can find out what some of H. P.'s more obscure references meant, definitions to scientific terms he used, as well as insight into his inspirations for the stories. The book has a few pictures of some of the actual sites that Lovecraft used as scenes in his tales and how he got place and charactor names. Contents include "Rats in the Walls", "Colour Out of Space", "Dunwich Horror" and "At the Mountains of Madness". The only complaint I have with this book is there could have been even more annotation.

Never having read Lovecraft before, I found this to be an excellent introduction. This book helps you over two essential hurdles when confronting Lovecraft: his sometimes arcane language and his ideas of bizarre literature. The notes and introductory text get you past each of these and into the heart of the stories, as well as linking these stories to events and places in Lovecraft's life and within his (and other's) fiction. I feel I can now get much more enjoyment from any of Lovecraft's stories than I could if I came to them cold. I get the feeling that the stories presented here are not the cream of the crop, but I think Joshi was trying to present a strong and varied selection of Lovecraft's work in order to whet people's appetites. He certainly succeeded with me. I'm deducting one star because of some minor quibbles, mainly that I wish there had been more and more relevant photographs (namely of some of the places the notes described which Lovecraft used as a basis for the settings in his stories) and that the photos had been captioned (you have to look at the list in the front of the book to find out what you are looking at). This book has made a Lovecraft fan out of me.

S. T. Joshi has worked diligently to make the writings of H. P. Lovecraft accessible to Lovecraft's ever-expanding audience. We have the hardcover editions from Arkham House, the Del Rey trade pb and mass market editions, the Penguin Classics editions, various editions from Hippocampus Press, the wonderful one-volume edition from Barnes & Noble (soon to be reprinted in a corrected 2nd Edition), and the historic edition from The Library of America. The two Annotated editions from Dell (this edition from 1997, and MORE ANNOTATED H. P. LOVECRAFT FROM 1999) are still wonderful editions of Lovecraft's fiction, and if you are coming to Lovecraft's fiction for the first time, these are excellent introductions to the man and his weird tales. This first volume is especially captivating, for not only do you get some of H. P. Lovecraft's most famous and beloved stories ("The Colour out of Space," "The Dunwich Horror," and "The Rats in the Walls") but you get a fully annotated text of the short novel, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. I had difficulty appreciating this lengthy work of fiction when I was young -- but returning to it again and again made me come to love it as one of Lovecraft's finest works, a fantastic tales with moments of chilling eeriness. The one review that mentions that reading the novel in this edition "ruined" it for him strikes me as absurd. I wish I had had these annotations available when first I read AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS -- they serve a wonderful purpose.

But there are other features that make this a very enjoyable introduction to Lovecraft. Included is a lengthy introduction by the editor, S. T. Joshi, who also includes wee introductions to each tale. We also have short quotes concerning Lovecraft from other genre writers such as F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, Tom Ligotti and others. Especially delightful is a chapter entitled "Lovecraft on Weird Fiction," with excerpts from Lovecraft's letters relating to his fictive art; and an Appendix about "Lovecraft and the Media." The book has a number of photos, a reprinting of a WEIRD TALES cover and more. The look of the volume is very attractive, print is easily read. All in all, this is a charming and entertaining introduction to H. P. Lovecraft.

The one real mistake, as had been pointed out elsewhere, is that the book lacks a table of contents. But all is all, this is one of the finest introductions to the Works of H. P. Lovecraft, and if you are coming to him for the first time, these two volumes are a fine place to start. Of course, all three of the Penguin Classics editions of H. P. Lovecraft are also completely annotated -- but they lack the extras that make these two Dell volumes so much fun.


However, it is the second volume in the series, MORE ANNOTATED H. P. LOVECRAFT, that is the better introduction to those coming to Lovecraft for the first time. The book, published in 1999, was co-edited with Peter Cannon (the author of the Twayne biography of Lovecraft, and the author of the wonderful novel concerning Lovecraft's life if he had not died when he did, THE LOVECRAFT CHRONICLES). Although there are a couple of stories that I would have rather seen in this book (I would have exchanged "The Music of Erich Zann" for the boring "The Horror at Red Hook"), the stories in this second volume shew Lovecraft as a Master of Gothic Horror, with such tales as "The Haunter of the Dark," "Pickman's Model" and the delicious "The Hound." "The Call of Cthulhu" is here as well -- and it is one of Lovecraft's masterpieces. (Despite Neal Gaiman, who called the story, in the DVD THE ELDRITCH INFLUENCE, "...a crap story." Wonderful as he may be as a writer of fantasy, Gaiman is extremely perverse in his views concerning Lovecraft. His explanation for Lovecraft's continually popularity is "Lovecraft is rock and roll," a statement that is utterly absurd.) "The Thing on the Doorstep" is also included, and it is a fascinating if not entirely successful Lovecraft tale. I love the little hints in it that are never explained but which taunt the imagination, such as "the pit of shoggoths."

Together, THE ANNOTATED H. P. LOVECRAFT and MORE ANNOTATED H. P. LOVECRAFT serve as splendid introductions to the world of Lovecraft's cosmic imagination. Highly recommended!

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.