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Title: H. P. Lovecraft: Tales (Library of America)
ISBN: 1931082723
Author:
H. P. Lovecraft
Publicate Date: 2005-02-03
Publish: 2005-02-03
List Price: $35.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $20.39
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $20.29
Amazon Merchant Price: $23.10
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Lovecraft's Tales
The Library of America has produced a handsome and affordable edition of a selection of H.P. Lovecraft's Tales chosen, edited and with notes by author Peter Straub. The twenty-two selections are from the years 1919 to 1935 and encompass the best of Lovecraft's extensive writings. In addition there is a chronology of the significant incidents of his life. The notes by Straub are detailed and are very helpful in both setting the context of the stories and explaining the sometimes obscure references that the very intellectual Lovecraft incorporated into his writings. This is an excellent collection and the beautifully bound hardcover will last for many years.
Daniel Phelan, Kingston, Ontario Canada
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2: Memories and possibilities are ever more hideous than realities.
This collection of 22 of Lovecraft's most essential works is an must for anyone considering themselves a fan of science fiction, fantasy, horror, or just plain "weird tales". Beautifully bound and presented, this volume displays Lovecraft at his most imaginative and eloquent. Peter Straub has selected the most revered of Lovecraft's tales, and does as much justice as a one volume can do to so prolific an imagination. Truly, imagination lies at the very center of Lovecraft's best tales. A master at granting fleeting glimpses into the unknown and terrifying vistas of reality, Lovecraft has an uncanny ability to conjure terrifying alternate universes and realities, the full realizations of which are often enough to drive his protagonists to madness, or worse. Subject to some poorly conceived film adaptations over the years, Lovecraft's works continue to gain the attentions of Hollywood. The sheer imaginative power of Lovecraft, however, seemingly defies a visual representation capable of holding a candle to the images conjured by the imagination of his reader's minds. For a summary of the works of an essential American author, look no further than this volume.
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3: One of Mark E. Smith's favorites
H.P. Lovecraft is one of the favorite authors of The Fall's Mark E. Smith. He is also one of Smith's greatest lyrical influences. This is enough to recommend the book to me!Grotesque (After the Gramme)
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4: The Best of the Best of Lovecraft Collections
It's thrilling and important that the Library of America brought out an edition of Lovecraft's best in the first place.
But this is probably the finest (to say nothing of the most attractive and durable) collection of Lovecraft's best and most mature work that you can find.
Anyone who cares about supernatural fiction should have this volume in his or her library.
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5: A very impressive one volume collection
H.P. Lovecraft is one of the few authors to whom I return over and over again. Having read and re-read his stories over the past decade, they continue to terrify and have lost none of their original, haunting power. Deeply imaginative and profoundly pessimistic, Lovecraft's fictional world was stalked by zombies, monsters, evil cults, cannibals, grave robbers, lunatics, and countless other seen and unseen malevolent forces which confront humanity with it's own insignificance. Unlike many horror writers, Lovecraft challenges his readers to rethink their world and their existence. A world of warning though, Lovecraft is one of those authors that people either love or hate. His diction, nihilisitc world view, and habit of leaving much to the reader's imagination may frustrate modern audiences accustomed to the more in-your-face and morally-balanced sensibilities of today.
Some highlights featured in this new Library of America edition include "The Outsider", "The Lurking Fear", "Call of Cthulhu", "Herbert West Re-animator" (one of Lovecraft's least favorite stories, but also one of his goriest), "At the Mountains of Madness" (a longer tale in which much of Lovecraft's own mythology is explained), "The Thing on the Doorstep" (notable for containing one of Lovecrafts few female characters), and "Shadow over Innsmouth" (another longer tale involving a cursed town and it's 'not quite human' inhabitants). If you've never read Lovecraft, pick up this volume and introduce yourself to one of the greatest horror writers of all time.
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