Leatherbound Lovecraft
If you happen to be an ardent fan of the weird fiction Howard Philips Lovecraft wrote for the pulp magazines during the 1920's and 1930's, it will probably not matter that the stories contained in this latest volume carry nothing new in terms of anything not published before. I am referring to the commemorative hardback edition of this new anthology (Gollancz, 2008), a handsome 880 page volume, leather bound, with gold inlaid Cthulhu emblazoned on the cover. Simply put, even if already own numerous anthologies of Lovecraft's work, you will want to own this one simply because of how it looks and feels in your hands. It is a bibliophile's dream, and a nice nod to the fictional texts Lovecraft himself created within his mad and insane universe.
Author and Poet
Literary camps have been divided about what genre exactly Lovecraft's work fall into—horror or science fiction. What is without doubt is that Lovecraft was the master of the weird tale, and his stories about cosmic terror reaching out from beyond (and within) the realm of human understanding still send shivers down the spine today as they undoubtedly did when originally published. Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft incorporate the complete Cthulhu Mythos cycle, with stories such as The Shadow Over Innsmouth, At The Mountains of Madness, The Call of Cthulhu and Dagon included. Though Lovecraft may have been a lesser known poet as opposed to short story and novelette author, the collection includes a few choice selections of these, too. As a bonus, there as a hefty afterword by horror editor Stephen Jones on Lovecraft, his life and work. The anthology is illustrated by noted genre illustrator Les Edwards.
Old And New Fans
The stories collected here follow in chronological order, making it easy for those not familiar with Lovecraft's fictional universe to follow the nefarious developments of his tales, while for fans, it illuminates the development of the author's distinctive technique of crafting the eerie collection of stories he would posthumously become famous for. Lovecraft's prose and use of language may be hard for some to follow at times, but whether the author intended his baroque use of words to attribute to the overall feel of his work or not, it does just that. The stories maintain a sense of gravitas, underpinning the sense of antiquity Lovecraft no doubt intended for his work about the Great Old Ones.
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft is not only another new beautiful addition to the bookshelves of Lovecraft fans and a perfect gift to those unfamiliar but eager to explore the strange and wonderfully weird imaginings of this literary cult figure.
More reviews by Lynne Jamneck here
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