Annotated H. P. Lovecraft

Rating:
Summary: WARNING-Read these tales elsewhere first!
Review: Joshi's annotations ruined "At the Mountains of Madness" for me. He tells certain things regarding the direction of the story blatently. I assume H.P.L. would rather the reader deduce these things in subtler, more timely fashion. Isn't that the way it was written? Joshi is also just plain wrong once or twice. Maybe I just don't like annotated books.

Rating:
Summary: A Forgotten Genius
Review: Lovecraft may have died penniless, but this is not reflected in his work, which at it's best is creative genius. The useful notes included in this edition, will greatly assist the new reader in understanding ideas, themes, and background to many of his tales. Put simply, this is one of the most intriguing and insightful books that delves into the psyche of the author, and will have you investigating the boundaries of the imagination. Excellent!

Rating:
Summary: Worth it for every Lovecraft fan
Review: Most reviewers have focused (understandably) on the annotations. However, this book is worth the price for the biographical introduction alone. I've been reading and rereading Lovecraft for probably 20 years, but those few pages gave me some important new insights into Lovecraft's perspective that made me anxious to read them again in a new light. The annotations, review of movies, and other supplements to the stories are gravy.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to Lovecraft's work
Review: Never having read Lovecraft before, I found this to be an excellent introduction. This book helps you over two essential hurdles when confronting Lovecraft: his sometimes arcane language and his ideas of bizarre literature. The notes and introductory text get you past each of these and into the heart of the stories, as well as linking these stories to events and places in Lovecraft's life and within his (and other's) fiction. I feel I can now get much more enjoyment from any of Lovecraft's stories than I could if I came to them cold. I get the feeling that the stories presented here are not the cream of the crop, but I think Joshi was trying to present a strong and varied selection of Lovecraft's work in order to whet people's appetites. He certainly succeeded with me. I'm deducting one star because of some minor quibbles, mainly that I wish there had been more and more relevant photographs (namely of some of the places the notes described which Lovecraft used as a basis for the settings in his stories) and that the photos had been captioned (you have to look at the list in the front of the book to find out what you are looking at). This book has made a Lovecraft fan out of me.

Rating:
Summary: Clear, useful scholarship, plus plenty of Lovecraft to read!
Review: Now, here's a book a number of you could obsess on. The book is THE ANNOTATED H. P. LOVECRAFT, by S. T. Joshi. Somehow, I missed out on the Lovecraft experience while growing up. Loved Poe, couldn't stand King, didnÍt bother reading horror for twenty years. Then Mark McLaughlin, editor of the nationally respected (and davenport based) URBANITE magazine turned me on to the master. And I was hooked. Herbert Phillips Lovecraft lived a mostly sedentary life in Providence Rhode isl

Rating:
Summary: A very finely edited edition, but overstuffed.
Review: S.T. Joshi, the foremost expert in the field of Lovecraft and his works, has done a masterful job of editing this oddly put together edition. Certain notations seem useless to anyone but a novice Lovecraftian, and get in the way of the Text. In comparison Del Rey's "Bloodcurdling Tales" is somewhat superior for its cordial introduction by Robert Bloch but suffers because of its tiny typeset fonts. The original "Weird Tales" covers are interesting but do not seem to have featured Lovecraft on the cover? I like this book alot but it is overstuffed with non-essential information unnecessary for the reader to truly appreciate the text as in Del Rey's more cordial editions.

Rating:
Summary: May I have more, please....?
Review: S.T. Joshi, who has made a lifetime out of bringing H.P. Lovecraft out of the shadow of August Derleth, his "reputed" savior, has scored with another good effort. Joshi knows his stuff, as was shown in his (I think 19) other editings and his biography of the writer published last year. This book would get a five from me with ease if only there had been more than four stories. Although the four selected were certainly representative, and three of them (all save "Dunwich Horror") certainly three of ole H.P.'s best, but for the price, more stories should have been included. Then again, maybe I'm just a glutton. I would like to see this same treatment for the entire Lovecraft canon, but if wishes were horses...

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting
Review: The stories in this volume are among Lovecraft's best and/or most substantial. This could serve as a good introduction, though I would recommend reading some of his stories without footnotes first, as they might tend to distract. As with any fiction with numerous footnotes, you wish for more in some places, whereas others seem unnecessary. (Does someone not know the definition of "cul de sac"?). I will also say that I was particularly fond of the annotations to "At the Mountains of Madness," and plan to reaad some of the referenced materials on early Antarctic exploration. But first, of course, I'm off to read "More Annotated HPL," review forthcoming...

Rating:
Summary: A Must Have for Lovecraft Fans!
Review: The term "must have" is often overused, but here it can be honestly applied. Remember in At the Mountains of Madness where the narrator repeatedly refers to the frozen landscapes looking like some obscure painter's works? Here you can finally find out who that painter was, and see some of his works! For that alone this book is great, but the rest of the annotations are excellent. Luckily, there is a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Great, but with a couple of glaring flaws
Review: This and its companion book, /More Annotated HP Lovecraft/, are excellent editions for readers who are deeply interested in the writer and his times, and where he got his ideas from. Joshi's annotations are often very helpful in understanding the stories better.

However, I was bemused to find that, not only is there no index in either book--something that really would have been a big help to researchers--but there is no table of contents! In fact, it is impossible to know exactly which stories are in each book without flipping through the pages. This is simply an inexcusable oversight, and reflects very poorly on the publisher. (I am sure that Mr. Joshi, who is a meticulous researcher, had nothing to do with these flaws.)