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More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

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While there are some rare nuggets of interesting information in the annotations, I find aspects of this collection to be disorganized, haphazard, and perplexing. The stories, 10 in all, represent a hodgepodge of Lovecraft's greater and lesser writings, arranged chronologically from 1920's "The Picture in the House" to 1935's "The Haunter of the Dark." The editors apparently want to show the evolution of Lovecraft's writing over the years and choose not to build a collection based on any particular theme. This makes for some interesting story selections: "Herbert West--Reanimator" is included, which somewhat surprised me since Lovecraft largely disavowed this work (the idea and format being prescribed by someone other than himself). "The Horror At Red Hook," a strangely unsuccessful story to my way of thinking, as well as the rather formulaic "The Shunned House" can also be found here.

On the plus side, some real classics are given the annotated treatment. "The Picture in the House" is particularly welcome here, as it is perhaps Lovecraft's most horrifying short piece of fiction, and a copy of the referenced infamous picture is included for the reader to view. "The Hound" is an effective if rather traditional horror tale, the annotations for which provide some important information on the French Decadents and other outre movements referenced in the story. "Cool Air" is one of the author's most recognized stories, and the notes stress the fact that the story was written before air conditioning made its way into housing units. "Pickman's Model" is still a disturbing read, even though the ending lacks the punch today it probably had in Lovecraft's time. The three real jewels of this collection are the seminal works "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Thing on the Doorstep," and "The Haunter of the Dark" (one of Lovecraft's final stories and one often given less attention than I feel it deserves). The annotations are very useful in a complex work such as "The Call of Cthulhu," but in many cases they seem forced, contrived, and tiresome. Much of the time, the notes simply define terms such as cyclopean or eldritch, point out obvious concepts and alternate spellings, and endlessly reference other notes in this and the first collection of annoted Lovecraft stories. Worst of all, this book has no table of contents, and one can only see for sure what stories are included by leafing through the pages of the text.

The comments on antiquarian concepts and literary references makes this book worthwhile, but I found it to be less enlightening than I expected. Most of the annotations are unfortunately useless or repetitive. Even the pictures included in these pages, largely of old churches and cemeteries, do not correspond exactly with Lovecraft's settings The many quotes from Lovecraft's letters are interesting, but the letters can and should be read in their entirety in order to avoid mistaken impressions due to missing context. The book is also afflicted with a number of typos, which is something I am sure Lovecraft himself would have railed against. What matters are Lovecraft's stories, when it comes right down to it, and this collection does include some (but certainly not all) of his best fiction. The annotations are welcome additions to the texts, but their usefulness varies widely from page to page.

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

[By Peter Cannon:] Acknowledgments; Introduction [a discussion of H. P. Lovecraft and the selections in this volume]; [Hereupon stories by Lovecraft:] The Picture in the House; Herbert West--Reanimator [a collected pulp magazine serial]; The Hound; The Shunned House; The Horror at Red Hook; Cool Air; The Call of Cthulhu; Pickman's Model; The Thing on the Doorstep; The Haunter of the Dark

Though the title of this volume means that it's a sequel to The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, in fact More Annotated H. P. Lovecraft stands just fine without the previous volume and the two volumes could just as well have been published in reverse order. Indeed, a good argument could be made that More Annotated is the better volume with which to start, especially for Lovecraft novices, since it features a number of shorter, grabbier stories plus Lovecraft's signature (though not his very best) story, The Call of Cthulhu. But the truth is that either volume can be read without the other, though they're complementary.

Oddly enough, though More Annotated contains about twice as many pieces and costs a little more than The Annotated, it's actually almost 50 pages shorter. This is because, unlike The Annotated, it doesn't contain a novella, has only a fairly short introduction which already incorporates introductions to the various stories, lacks individual story introductions by S. T. Joshi and tributes to Lovecraft by various horror writers, and also lacks the appendices Joshi previously included.

Though it looks as though Cannon must have been primarily responsible for selecting and assembling the contents of this volume, once again it appears that Joshi was in charge of the voluminous footnotes (this is, after all, "Annotated H. P. Lovecraft"), judging from their familiar style and approach, just as Joshi prepared the footnotes for The Annotated H. P. Lovecraft and for Penguin's The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories.

Assuming that to be the case, once again Joshi provides plenty of useful and interesting information in his dry and occasionally condescending manner. Do we really need to be told who the Puritans were (p. 13), what Calvinism and anti-Darwinism are (p. 38), or what a satyr and a lemur are (p. 151)?

Some other times, Joshi seems to be talking to himself. For example, in footnoting the first textual mention of Herbert West in the story of the same name, Joshi writes: "It is difficult to know where Lovecraft came up with the name Herbert West. West is by no means a specifically New England name, even though most of the story takes place in New England." In other words, Joshi is wondering aloud how Lovecraft came up with the name, something that might matter to a biographical researcher -- Joshi has already written and had published a long biography of Lovecraft -- but which otherwise provides no insight for or appeal to the interest of readers of this book. (So as far as I'm concerned, in the absence of any evidence, the name Herbert West was invented because Lovecraft thought it sounded good for that character and that story title.)

Such criticisms notwithstanding, More Annotated Lovecraft is a good reference volume for the serious Lovecraft reader and belongs on the bookshelf alongside The Annotated Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, and the Arkham House four-volume set (The Dunwich Horror and Others; At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels; Dagon and Other Macabre Tales; The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions) plus Miscellaneous Writings. Most other Lovecraft collections in print are unreliable, insight-devoid hodgepodges; your money will be better spent bypassing them and instead collecting the volumes set forth in this paragraph.

For those interested in the details of Lovecraft's work, or those who want an introduction to the Master of the Weird, this is the book for you. Joshi continues the superb work begun in The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft in this volume, though it is not without its faults. While More Annotated contains some of Lovecraft's finest works, there are several of H.P.L.'s weaker stories included. The serious Lovecraft scholar might haved hoped that the space would have been better used. With luck a third volume will issued with those stories that deserve a closer look. Still, this is an execellent book, well worthy of the price.

Let it be said up front: this volume makes you ask for more, but more because of the meager offering than of a whetting of appetite, like "Annotated Lovecraft" did. This venture into Lovecraft, although with Joshi and Cannon at the helm, fails to make a lingering impression for various reasons that are closely associated, I believe.
Let us begin with the selection of tales. In the preceding volume we had such interesting tales as At the Mountains of Madness, The Colour out of Space, and The Rats in the Walls, but this follow-up (and I don't know if there's another planned sequel?) has stories that are, in my opinion, less impressionable, such as Herbert West - Reanimator, The Horror at Red Hook, The Thing on the Doorstep, and The Shunned House.
Sure enough, these tales, although not all of them equal in quality, are interesting for the Lovecraft scholar to see annotated, but I think it a just a tad too much of mediocrity for a single volume. Rather I'd seen The Whisperer in Darkness, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, or another long piece (the annotated Shadow over Innsmouth has been published by Necronomicon Press, and The Shadow out of Time's definitive text has only recently surfaced) supplemented by shorter works, as the case was with the first volume.
Another thing is that there are far less annotations than in its predescent, sometimes whole pages going by without any footnote. What is worse, is that some footnotes are totally unnecessary, oneliners, or explanations of words that one can glean from any good dictionary. Again, this is not necessarily bad, it's just that it would have been better had there been one or two thoroughly explored (major) tales, and some others as dessert.
Yet not all is lost. I still recommend this one as a must-have for the inclusion of The Haunter of the Dark, The Call of Cthulhu, and Pickman's Model, and more so for the additional photographs of the sites Lovecraft mentions than for the footnotes - if you're an above average reader of Lovecraft and Lovecraft studies you'll know most of the knowledge handed already anyway. And, let's face it, anything on Lovecraft that has been done by either Cannon or Joshi is worth buying for collector's sake.
The bottom line is: get it, but don't freak out with a joyous expectation of anything remotely as "The Annotated Lovecraft". It's okay, nothing more, certainly nothing less.

Choosing from some of Lovecraft's shorter works this time; S.T. Joshi and Peter Cannon continue their annotations of selected stories. Containing some of Lovecraft's best known works, like "Pickman's Model," "Herbert West-Reanimator," and the seminal "The Call of Cthulhu," this proves to be an easier read than its predecessor. This volume also has some oddities like the racist "The Horror of Red Hook" and the insipid "The Thing on the Doorstep," which Peter Cannon point out in his introduction for just those reasons, a welcome notation that doesn't make apologies for the author. With some unnecessary notations, like defining "satyr" or "lemur" the annotations generally are enlightening and make this worthwhile for anyone who wants to know more about Lovecraft's work.

When I saw MORE ANNOTATED LOVECRAFT in my local chain store, I snapped it up. Loved the photos and the annotations. I hadn't read the weaker stories before, so that was an added pleasure. Actually, I liked those lesser stories more than the editors' introductions would have led me to believe. Although it would have been nice to have seen more of Lovecraft's best stories in this volume, I can understand the mix. If all of his best are annotated first, then readers will have only the lesser stories to look forward to. While I wouldn't wish to rush the editors, I eagerly await another chance to have my Lovecraft experience enhanced.

This book is for anyone who has struggled through some of the archacic terms or just wants to know more about Lovecraft. I eagerly await a third edition.

The stories are straight Lovecraft, with all of the pros and cons that drags with it. Good creepy fiction, some poor plots and some poor choices of wording.

The main problem that I had with this book though was the annotations. Almost every one of them was mediocre, some were truly bad, many were useless (especially the ones about names...only someone interested in genealogy would care, and they don't frequently use fiction as a source), and one that I saw foretold the ending in such a fashion as to destroy part of the ending. Hence, the annotations were rather poor. The illustrations were worse. There were two useful illustrations in the entire book. Other "luminary" illustrations are things like the pictures of three famous poets' graves. Why? The picture of Paul Revere's house. So? Etc. These occur throughout the book and are quite distracting as you expect them to matter, and are greatly disappointed.

My recommendation is to simply buy a normal version of these works. It is probably cheaper and definately more useful. The stories are decent (although I personally think that they are overrated), but the annotations are frequently annoying and almost always useless.
Harkius

I have some mixed feelings about this book as well as The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft. The Pro's to this collection are that it's a great collection of his work and a good start for anyone who wants to get into Lovecraft and the annotated notes are very enlightening for the most part. In the annotation there are a lot of intriguing mentions that sparked my interest in other occultic/metaphysical readings. However the annotations in this book are also probably the only flaw. Despite great insight into the writings of Lovecraft, the annotations inadvertently tend to act as "reading speed bumps" that actually happen frequently, chopping up the rhythms of the stories (there are a few pages where the annotation takes up anywhere from 50 to 75 % of a page). So what I recommend is that for a person new to H.P. Lovecraft, first find another collection so you can enjoy the stories first time around and then get these books and re-read them with the annotations which will give you a more indepth view of Lovecraft's writings. As far as anyone who is already read these stories I'd say you still need to read these books. I tend to use these two books more as a reference than for enjoyment yet feel that they are important books in my HPL collection.

HPLovecraft was the greatest horror writer since Edgar Alan Poe and there have been none as great since. This is the second volume of hopefully a long series that give his stories with a very detailed annotation on words and items in the story that are no longer in common use (the stories were written in the time frame of 1920 to 1935) and the background. HPL created a rich mythos that was very involved. The annotations here provide crossreferencing to other stories. The stories included in this anthology are not all of his biggest or greatest, but the information makes them all interesting. The only warning is that if you have not read these stories before, either read them from some other book or read them with out the footnotes first time. The stories have a flow that sets a mood. Reading the footnotes the first time will disrupt the continuity.