- The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft (Volume 2) (Chartwell Classics, 2)

It's taken me nearly a year to get through this, so I definitely have some thoughts on Lovecraft's work. I think that the primary draw of Lovecraft--at least, what drew me to his stories--are his interesting ideas and his unique view of the world. I found Lovecraft's actual writing style to be somewhat lifeless. Though he had a vast vocabulary, Lovecraft's stories lack emotion, meaning that it is difficult to read through many of them at once, which is why it took me so long to get through this. Lovecraft is excellent at creating an foreboding atmosphere and For the first half of his writings, he often claims that creatures are too scary to describe, which is really kind of lame; however, once he actually starts describing monsters, the descriptions of things from other dimensions are great. His Cthulhu mythology is super interesting, as are the works that make up his Dream Cycle. Towards the beginning of his career, Lovecraft pretty much imitated Poe, but at some point, Lovecraft begins writing truly unique works. Really, I wouldn't recommend that people should read ALL of Lovecraft's work because it all starts blending together at soon enough. A collection of his short stories would probably be better, but I'm glad I have this because there are some stories I really enjoyed that most would not. Lovecraft isn't always good, but when he's good, he is absolutely brilliant. The good found in this book far outweighs the bad. Here's a list of my favorite stories. The Tomb Dagon Beyond the Wall of Sleep The White Ship The Doom That Came to Sarnath Celephais The Picture in the House From Beyond The Quest of Iranon The Music of Erich Zann Ex Oblivione Sweet Ermengarde (this is actually a comedy that feels wildly out of place) The Nameless City The Outsider Azathoth Hypnos The Hound The Festival In the Vault The Call of Cthulhu Pickman's Model The Silver Key The Case of Charles Dexter Ward The Colour Out of Space The Descendant The Dunwich Horror The Whisperer in Darkness The Dreams in the Witch House The Thing on the Door Step

What's more to say than that this book is, indeed, one of the more comprehensive compilations of Lovecraft's work. As far as I'm concerned, the massive amount of stories held in it's thousand something pages means that it's about as complete as I need it including such notable stories such as In The Mountains of Madness. Seeing it at first, one would be inclined to believe some of the stories are abridged. Trust me on this, when I say that they're probably not. It turns out that a lot of Lovecrafts stories like Reanimator or The Moon Bog are genuinely just around ten pages long, even unabridged. So not only is it the complete works of Lovecraft, but it's also in a superbly compact format. As for the content of Lovecraft's work, I can not recommend it enough. This is a guy that can make a simple premise like ooooh spooky swamp and turn it into a seven page masterpiece filled with an expert use of the English language that holds up to this day. His multitude of stories also hold to a great deal of variety, but often tend towards concepts of the unknown shown to a narrator who is, most often, accompanied by another more enigmatic or interesting figure.

I understand that the works of Lovecraft all fall under public domain and so electronic versions can easily be had for no fee (though be warned that the Kindle version of this book differs slightly from the print - not in its content but in its organisation), but I've always found myself somewhat unable to read ebooks, as I'm prone to distraction and and prefer the tactile sensations a print volume affords. I must then say that for the price of $12, even in account of the lack of royalties going to the author or his estate owing to its public licensure, for a hardcover collection of such length (nearly 1100 pages) seems almost too good to be true. I've seen a review lambasting the quality of its construction, but have personally yet to encounter any such issues. To speak, then, of the content, I found it superb. Lovecraft was a terrifically detailed author, and while some of his stories seem rote or predictable, they are all presented in such lavish and indulgent prose as to remain nonetheless persistently engaging. Of course this applies to his more predictable works, but some contained within this volume, many of his older works that may not evoke the same qualities as his later ones that have become synonymous with his name, are downright inspired. While some are of a horror more supernatural than his later works, and some scarcely horror at all, such as tales like "Celephaïs" and "Memory", they manage a fascination in the reader paralleled by few. That his works are within the public domain, and that many of them are short stories of only a few thousand or even hundreds of words, means that if you are unsure of whether you will enjoy the content of this book, you may freely read any selection of his work before deciding to purchase such a collection of it, and if you do find yourself interested in a print collection, this volume, especially at its more than modest price, is certainly a worthwhile item.

This is a very nicely done collection. It is well bound and well put together which is a large part of making a good buy. I remember reading some selected collections in an easy to carry paperback whilst sitting on a bench in a sort of park area; the bench was cut into the rock along a walkway, and the atmospheric Lovecraft definitely worked well in an isolated place. The full collection here ( as far as I know) would be a difficulty for some to get to an isolated reading place perhaps ( at a 1,000 pages or so) but where-ever you can read it, this collection is a superb item. The key part in the index is that so many films take titles from Lovecraft's writings, even if they don't take the whole of the story idea. The elemental forces that Lovecraft plays with are great reads, especially since they have been so influential in other stories and in film and audio. The best part of the reading process is , I think, reading the story a film is supposed to be based on and seeing how much is actually translated into film. Quite often the films take the book further, sometimes the original story gets lost in translation; either way its a great read.

Amazing book, I love reading hp Lovecraft stories, and this book has all of them for a great price

This is a great, high-quality book, it has a good font size, nice pages, etc. I like Lovecraft's work, and there's so many options for buying it that I'm not going to talk about the stories here, I'm going to talk about this physical book. The one downside is that it's heavy, it's almost 4 pounds. That's not a big deal, until you try to continuously hold a 4 pound thing up by your face for an hour. Wow do my arms get tired, my shoulders and neck ache. And that's with switching arms, using both arms, gripping it different ways, etc. I can only hold it a few minutes in one posture before I start to strain muscles in my hands/fingers/arms. Even when my arms are propped on armrests, or if the book is partly suspended by pillows on my chest or lap, it's still a chore to hold it up. If you can still lay on your side and read, then this won't be a big deal, but I have too much shoulder and neck pain to do that. And I don't want to lay it on a desk or on my lap, then bend my neck down reading it, I did that way too much in my college years, it majorly messes up your neck. It's a great book of great works, but it taught me to not buy big, heavy, 1,100+ paged hardcover novels, as it is a huge workout to try to read it! It makes me wish they broke it up into 2 volumes or something. It really does hamper my enjoyment reading this work.

I can't say for certain if this is actually "complete," but it has everything I was interested in reading. After reading through a few stories, I can say that this edition seems to be free of the typos that many others (even Penguin) seem to have. The binding is decent as well. For around 10 dollars, this is an impressive volume.

Es exactamente lo que se espera del libro.

Um livro bem diferente do costumeiro, são diversas histórias, em um único livro. O inglês é antigo, não é uma reedição do livro. Alguns termos são curioso, pois tinham significados diferentes á época onde foram escritos. Me surpreendi muito com o livro, melhor que a encomenda. Os contos são extremamente cativantes, percebe a cada parte lida uma evolução em direção para o perturbador/ocultismo/terror. Um dos melhores livros que já li. Ah um detalhe, a capa demonstrada na foto é somente um papel envoltório, o livro em si é vermelho, lembrando muito um livro antigo, uma surpresa bem vinda.

Excellent value If you like HP Lovecraft (or Metallica?) or if you are just curious about his work (which was my case). I won’t review Lovecraft’s work/writing here, but the book (object) itself is worth 4 stars: it gives you access to all his work in one place (the good and the less good!), it’s a big volume but not too heavy, printing is no-nonsense but neat and legible, paper quality is average. I’ll clearly look to buy more in this type of edition for the value for money.

Superb collection and I guess it is the complete fiction of HP Lovecraft. Would love to see a similar collection of his essays and letters (but they are available in paperback etc in a separate series). The stories are superb, though perhaps not to everyone's taste. Most are from the Weird Tales magazine though many were printed in other horror mags as well as a few in SF mags) from the 20s and 30s. Great product at a great price. Of course, there are always the original WT mags to check out and they are often found on the web / Public domain sites but it is really wonderful (like the Shakespeare folio) to have them all in one place and easy to pick from the shelf to read at any time. Totally recommended

L’edizione da me acquistata “"The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft” è quella in lingua inglese pubblicata da Chartwell Books in prima edizione nel settembre 2016, ISBN: 9780785834205. Il volume è ad opera di Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Le dimensioni del volume sono di 23,6 cm in altezza e 17,2 cm in larghezza, ed è composto da 1101 pagine. Il volume è rilegato in cartonato. La qualità della carta è di media qualità. È in lingua inglese. È presente una sovraccoperta. Il volume contiene le opere di H. P. Lovecraft scritte tra il 1917 e il 1935. È perfetto per chi voglia immergersi nella sua produzione letteraria e conoscere appieno i suoi incubi e il suo collegamento con i simboli dell'inconscio. La spedizione non è stata il massimo purtroppo, in quanto il volume era dentro una scatola di cartone senza un rivestimento interno. Si è purtroppo danneggiato, con spaccature negli angoli delle copertine. Oggetti di questa tipologia necessitano di migliori imballi, con maggiore protezione. Consigliato, saluti.

Four novellas and fifty-three short stories from a great but very odd man. All of them in the horror mood. Clearly either we love or we utterly dislike his way of depicting supernatural, poetic and horrible monsters. The book is thick (1100 pages) and heavy, however it is decently printed. ----- Quatre nouvelles et cinquante-trois nouvelles d’un grand auteur de science-fiction et d'horreur. Clairement on aime ou on déteste sa façon de représenter des entités surnaturelles, poétiques et horribles. Le livre est épais (1100 pages) et lourd, toutefois l'impression est bonne et les caractères bien lisibles. Souhaitons qu'il tienne le temps.