The Shadow out of Time: The Corrected Text [Paperback]

H. P. Lovecraft (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 23, 2001

“The Shadow out of Time” is H. P. Lovecraft’s last major story, written in a four-month period from November 1934 to February 1935. It was first published in Astounding Stories for June 1936. And yet, this text has never been published as Lovecraft wrote it -- until now.

The recent discovery of Lovecraft’s handwritten manuscript allows readers to appreciate this magnificently cosmic story exactly as originally written. All previous editions of the story contain hundreds of serious errors, including errors in paragraphing, omissions and mistranscriptions of many words and passages, and erroneous punctuation. But now, the breathtaking scope of this novella -- the story of the Great Race’s conquest of time and space by means of mind-projection, and the hapless fate of Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee as a victim of the Great Race’s quest for all the secrets of the universe -- can, for the first time, be fully understood.

Leading Lovecraft scholars S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz have provided an exhaustive introduction and commentary on the story, elucidating names, places and other elements in this richly evocative story.

A must for all devotees of Lovecraft and weird fiction!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lovecraftians will hail the publication of H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time, edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. Based on the handwritten manuscript that surfaced in 1995 after being lost for 60 years, this edition of Lovecraft's classic tale of time travel and mind transference restores the text as closely as scholarly possible to HPL's original. The editors provide a thorough introduction, annotations and textual notes.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Hippocampus Press (July 23, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967321530
• ISBN-13: 978-0967321530
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,116,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Glad It's Here, but No Surprises, September 21, 2001

By 

Chris Jarocha-Ernst (Marlboro, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shadow out of Time: The Corrected Text (Paperback)

This is the definitive edition of "Shadow out of Time", based on the recently discovered typescript created by Robert H. Barlow in the 1930s from HPL's own manuscript copy. It's also been annotated by S. T. Joshi. However, there isn't anything substantially different from the previously available versions of "Time". There are minor changes in punctuation, spelling, and such, but that's all. This isn't like "At the Mountains of Madness", which had some 5,000 words excised from its manuscript when first published.

That said, it's still one of HPL's best (THE best, in some eyes) stories and a worthwhile volume to have if, like me, you appreciate the annotations Joshi has been making to Lovecraft's work in recent years. If you don't have "Shadow out of Time" in any other edition, this is the edition to get.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another addition to your Lovecraft library..., October 1, 2001

By 

Wendy-Marie Chabot "The Bad Gwen" (Central CT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Shadow out of Time: The Corrected Text (Paperback)

Unlike most recent Lovecraft fiction offerings, "The Shadow Out of Time" focuses on Lovecraft's final tale concerning Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, a professor at the infamous Miskatonic University who undergoes an amazing personality change that leads to a mysterious expedition under the deserts of Australia. Working from Lovecraft's own handwritten manuscript along with the common versions, the result is "The Shadow Out of Time" as Lovecraft himself must have visioned the final product.
Along with the corrected text, there are the marvelous detailed notes, appendices and history that readers have come to realize as the hallmark of a Joshi/Schultz collaboration. And like other Joshi/Schultz edited volumes, "The Shadow Out of Time" is a must have item for the complete H.P. Lovecraft library. Hopefully many other volumes devoted to other Lovecraft classics will follow.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, October 5, 2006

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Shadow out of Time: The Corrected Text (Paperback)

When Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee is seized by a sudden mental transformation, the psychologists diagnose it as the advent of a second personality. But, it is a strange personality, interested in dark and forbidden occult studies. And when Professor Peaslee returns to his own mind, some six years later, he must pick up the pieces of his shattered life.

However, when dark dreams begin to haunt him, dreams that take the form of impossible memories, Prof. Peaslee begins to study himself, so that he can shake off these strange pseudo-memories. However, when archaeologists discover a ruin in the Australian Outback, a ruin of impossible antiquity, Prof. Peaslee's memories begin to haunt him all the more.

This is the first Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) book that I have ever read, and I must say that I am quite impressed. The author did an excellent job of creating and sustaining in the reader the horror that the main character felt throughout his adventure. Pretty much all my life I have heard of H.P. Lovecraft and his horror stories, and I found this one to be a great book to read. I really enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it.