11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lovecraftian Book Criticism 101, July 15, 2004
first off, while this is a wonderful book it doesn't actually include any of lovecraft's fiction.
highpoints:
what you will find is a copy of lovecraft's highly informative essay "supernatural horror in literature". this essay traces the roots of weird fiction from its earliest known appearence up to the present (which would've been the early 1930's when this essay was completed). after you've got the basics of what weird fiction is and how it has evolved, you are treated to the fruits of the works mentioned in the essay. included are de maupassant's "the horla", bierce's "the damned thing", and machen's "great god pan".
lowpoints:
each story is introduced with a quote from "supernatural horror in literature" which though seemingly good, in some cases divulges the ending of the particular story. this is another thing that can be maddening about the essay. so, if you'd like to read the stories with an unadulterated perspective, i'd recommend reading them before reading the essay or the story's introduction. one minor quibble is that this version of "supernatural horror" doesn't have an index which is included in the dover edition.
overall:
this is a great collection of late 1800's to early-mid 1900's weird fiction. it includes a sampling of the bulk of the best. the few flaws that are present though rather glaring, do not hinder this from being a fabulous anthology.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovecraft's inspirations, September 12, 2008
One of Lovecraft's great achievements, aside from his tales of cosmic horror, was his non-fiction essay "Supernatural Horror In Literature". Written between 1925 and 1927, then later revised in 1935, it surveys the roots of weird fiction, from its origins in the gothic novel, through great authors such as Dickens and Kipling who dallied in the supernatural genre from time to time, up through "modern" (meaning 1930's) masters such as M.R. James and Clark Ashton Smith.
While the essay itself is readily available, including an excellent
annotated edition, the older stories are harder to get ahold of. Many of them are obscure, rarely published, or part of several larger collections of that author's work, making it expensive to read the stories that inspired Lovecraft.
This book, "H.P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror", collects both Lovecraft's original essay along with twenty one of the stories mentioned. The stories range from the famous, such as Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher", to the obscure, such as Bulwer-Lytton's "The House and the Brain". All of the stories are excellent, and any fan of weird fiction is going to find this a treasure trove.
The stories collected are:
Charles Dickens - The Signalman
Edward Bulwer-Lytton - the House and the Brain
Robert Louis Stevenson - The Body Snatcher
Hanns Heinz Ewers - the Spider
Theophile Gautier - The Foot of the Mummy
Guy de Maupassant - The Horla
Edgar Allan Poe - The Fall of the House of Usher
Ambrose Bierce - The Damned Thing
Marion Crawford - The Upper Berth
Robert W. Chambers - The Yellow Sign
Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman - The Shadows on the Wall
Ralph Adams Cram - Fishhead
Edwards Lucas White - Lukundoo
Clark Ashton Smith - The Double Shadow
Rudyard Kipling - The Mark of the Beast
E. F. Benson - Negotium Perambulans
Hugh Walpole - Mrs. Lunt
William Hope Hodgson - The Hog
Arthur Machen - the Great God Pan
M. R. James - Count Magnus
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lovecraftian Book Criticism 101, July 7, 2004
This review is from: H.P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror (Hardcover)
first off, while this is a wonderful book it doesn't actually include any of lovecraft's fiction.
highpoints:
what you will find is a copy of lovecraft's highly informative essay "supernatural horror in literature". this essay traces the roots of weird fiction from its earliest known appearence up to the present (which would've been the early 1930's when this essay was completed). after you've got the basics of what weird fiction is and how it has evolved, you are treated to the fruits of the works mentioned in the essay. included are de maupassant's "the horla", bierce's "the damned thing", and machen's "great god pan".
lowpoints:
each story is introduced with a quote from "supernatural horror in literature" which though seemingly good, in some cases divulges the ending of the particular story. this is another thing that can be maddening about the essay. so, if you'd like to read the stories with an unadulterated perspective, i'd recommend reading them before reading the essay or the story's introduction. one minor quibble is that this version of "supernatural horror" doesn't have an index which is included in the dover edition.
overall:
this is a great collection of late 1800's to early-mid 1900's weird fiction. it includes a sampling of the bulk of the best. the few flaws that are present though rather glaring, do not hinder this from being a fabulous anthology.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
