Customer Reviews

The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature

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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.

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.

Good book. I bought it for a class (Supernatural Literature) but actually enjoyed reading it. If you enjoy supernatural lit., you'll like this book because it explores different aspects and different authors of this genre.

This book is an excellent addition to any Lovecraft fan's library. The real meat of this essay is in its introduction, where he defines the supernatural horror genre. The other sections deal with the history and evolution of the modern (for his time) weird tale. Throughout these sections he examines and reviews various weird tales or stories that have examples or elements of the weird tale in them. There are some familiar names among them, but readers should discover some other stories that might be worth a read. The essay has been annotated very well by Joshi and he has made it extremely easy to track down many of the stories, tales, and events mentioned in the essay. He has also written a preface that talks about the history of the essay, some of the revisions Lovecraft made to it, and the other events that were going on in Lovecraft's life as he wrote this essay. I highly recommend this book for Lovecraft fans, especially those who might be trying to emulate his work.

Joshi's annotations make a useful reference work more so. Lovecraft's essay has been a staple for criticism of horror and Gothic literature for decades. Joshi's annotated edition takes the reader past the introduction of primary sources and draws important connections between them. The edition's selected bibliography of referenced authors is equally useful, especially for the newcomer to the genre. -FCA

For those who would like to understand the weird fiction that helped inspire H. P. Lovecraft to write his classic tales of horror, this is the book. But the book is so much more than just an annotated edition of Lovecraft's seminal essay. The contents of the book are:

Preface;

Introduction by S. T. Joshi;

SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE by H. P. Lovecraft
I. Introduction
II. The Dawn of the Horror-Tale
III. The Early Gothic Novel
IV. The Apex of Gothic Romance
V. The Aftermath of Gothic Fiction
VI. Spectral Literature on the Continent
VII. Edgar Allan Poe
VIII. The Weird Tradition in America
IX. The Weird Tradition in the British Isles
X. The Modern Masters

Appendix
The Favourite Weird Stories of H. P. Lovecraft
(This is, of course, Joshi's idea of what HPL's favourite tales were, from statements culled from Lovecraft's correspondence &c. And what are HPL's most-beloved weird tales?
Algernon Blackwood: "The Willows"
Arthur Machen: "The Novel of the White Powder"
Arthur Machen: "The Novel of the Black Seal"
Arthur Machen: "The White People"
Edgar Allan Poe: "The Fall of the House of Usher"
M. P. Shiel: "The House of Sounds"
Robert W. Chambers: "The Yellow Sign"
M. R. James: "Count Magnus"
Ambrose Bierce: "The Death of Halpin Frayser"
A. Merritt: "The Moon Pool")

Notes

Bibliography pf Authors and Works

Index

The bibliography is a real bonus, listing not only the finest tales by these writers but books that critically explore those works of weird fiction. This is a wonderful reference work that one can keep besides one's writing or reading desk, into which one will continually dip. Excellent. And Hippocampus Books are always so well made, sturdy and handsome.

For some reason I'd thought there would be more to this book than what I got. I guess the main text is a medium length essay by Lovecraft on the history of the "weird tale." Then there's some additional supplementary text and bibliography provided by S.T. Joshi, who's a big name Lovecraft scholar.

But, it seems to only touch on some of the highlights of the "weird tale" genre, rather than being the wider-ranging history I was hoping for.

I'm thinking books like The Evolution of the Weird Tale and The Modern Weird Tale : A Critique of Horror Fiction might be more of the literature survey I was hoping for. We'll see. Though they're a bit pricey, so I might have to wait a while before picking them up to look over...

Maybe I'll see if they're available at the library before shelling out hard earned cash again. Fool me once...