The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

A great sampling of four of Lovecraft's stories. This volume contains heavily annotated versions of "The Rats in the Walls," "The Colour out of Space," "The Dunwich Horror" and "At the Mountains of Madness."

This is my second time reading this and this time I read it without referring to the annotations. You really have to decide how you want to read this book before going in. The annotations are excellent and incredibly informative, but sometimes it feels there's as much annotation as there is actual text to the stories! This sounds like a knock but the annotations are worth having, just know what you're getting into going in: do you want a scholarly read or do want to soak in the eldritch ooze that is Lovecraft?

The three short stories show more are excellent and "At the Mountains of Madness" is a good story but felt a little long with a lot of scientific mumbo-jumbo that could (and probably should) have been trimmed. It's essential Lovecraft, but it really highlights why his shorter stories work best.

Overall a well researched and intriguing read. Highly recommended if you have anything beyond a casual interest in Lovecraft. show less

WARNING - Footnotes are EVERYWHERE. They were seriously driving me nuts. There was a footnote for every person’s name and every place name and other random stuff too. Like we really need to know that this character’s name was possibly based off this old guy who Lovecraft may or may not have known of, but nothing can be proven about it. x_x Anyway, I read “The Rats in the Walls” and “The Dunwich Horror”. They were pretty good, kind of sci-fi/fantasy horror stuff, not too terribly scary, but not bad either. I didn’t read them while it was dark outside, so that might have helped. There’s lots of … undescribed horrors in these stories, which is a little disappointing, I could use a little bit more for my imagination to show more take over, but if you have a really good imagination, they may be more horrific to you. show less

Highly recommended for any fans of Lovecraft, even though there's a good chance that you may already have read (and own) the stories in the collection. The stories included are "The Rats in the Walls," "The Colour Out of Space," "The Dunwich Horror," and "At The Mountains of Madness." All four are footnoted, which provides some insight into Lovecraft's influence, his language, and the intertextuality of his stories. Also includes some excerpts from Lovecraft's letters regarding his theories on weird fiction, some quotes from authors influenced by Lovecraft, and a summary of Lovecraft and Lovecraftian movies circa mid-1990s.

I've had this book for a couple of years and I always go back to read a story I haven't gotten to yet. Some of my favorite Lovecraft tales are included -- The Rats In The Walls, The Dunwich Horror, and the Colour Out of Space.

A small collection containing a handful of Lovecraft's stories, heavily annotated. If you dislike Lovecraft, or if you find footnotes distracting, this will obviously not be the book for you. ;-) But those who enjoy Lovecraft or want to read a great deal about him and his works, or prefer annotated works in general, will probably like this book. It's an interesting and useful addition to the library of a Lovecraft fan.

Good.

The annotations made reading Lovecraft a bit easier.