Customer Reviews

A Subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosophy of H. P. Lovecraft (Milford Series. Popular Writers of Today, V. 62)

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This is a companion piece of sorts to Joshi's magisterial biography of Lovecraft, delving more into Lovecraft's literary and philosophical positions, and less into the details of his day-to-day life. Unavoidably, there is some duplication between the biography and this material.

Few writers are lucky enough to have a biographer-critic who achieves a good balance among sympathetic understanding, broad literary appreciation, and unbiased dissection, but Lovecraft is fortunate to have Joshi, who does have such a balance. Joshi's lack of an academic position is, however, a pretty clear indication of the low esteem the literary establishment has for Lovecraft scholarship. In the past 40 years I've seen Lovecraft's literary reputation rise steeply in academia, but he has quite a ways to go, and some academic critic who's looking for a writer to champion has only to pick up this book and find a superb introduction to the writer, his work and thought. Recommended.