The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories (Penguin Modern Classics) [Paperback]

This is a very fine number of Lovecraft's stories though in this collection his longer works predominate over the shorter stories.

Amongst others, this volume contains three of Lovecraft's most iconic stories, The Horror of Dunwich, The Thing in the Doorstep and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

At the Mountains of Madness is another long story that starts phantastically well, though it withers a bit towards the end.

The short stories are not Lovecraft's best, but The Music of Erich Zann and The Temple hold their own fairly well.

Most notably, the near complete absence of his oniric tales (I can't think of anybody who would rank those as their favourites) makes this volume his most palatable.

The comments and edition by S.T. Joshi is second to none and his notes at the back are a great help to contextualise both in time and within Lovecraft's opus each of the tales.

Just for The Horror of Dunwich, this collection is worth every penny. As a whole, it's brilliant.

Not only is Lovecraft the orignal master of the horror genre, to my mind he is among the greatest authors of all time. I can't explain quite how appealing his work is, but among other characteristics it is his style of thoroughness. He never leaves a loose end or an unexplained point. His is methodical and full. A writer really in touch with his imagination, his work comes across with the feel of an unlimited universe to which the reader is invited, if they dare. I go back to his stories over and over again.
Many critics talk of his early death and connect it with his imagination and an all too real link with the dark world about which he writes...maybe so, maybe not. But for sure his death was all too early because I believe his best was yet to come. You will not be dissapointed with this work whether or not you are a fan of horror or just a fan of good writing.

My dear Youngsters:--

Ah, I remember as if it were yesterday, that hot Octobyr of 1707 when my friends and I spent some four days in Providence. As chance wou'd have it, S. T. Joshi was in town, working on the Clark Ashton Smith poetry volumes that wou'd soon be publish'd by Hippocampus Press. I had taken my three beloved editions of ye Penguin Classics series of the tales of H. P. Lovecraft that Sunand had edited so brilliantly, and we met, a horde of Lovecraftians, in St. John's Burying Ground, where once Lovecraft and Barlow had sat upon tabletop tombs and written sonnets to Poe's memory. S. T. led us on a walking tour of Lovecraftian sites, and I carry'd with me all three of the Penguin editions plus my wee mass pb edition of FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH. As we stood in front of the mansion mentioned by Lovecraft in THE CASE OF CHARLES DOCTOR WARD as the childhood home of that title character, Jonathan Thomas asked S. T. about getting ahold of a reliable edition of the novel; & I handed S. T. my copy of THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP AND OTHER WEIRD STORIES. We then moved down the street to 10 Barnes Street, where Lovecraft lived when he wrote WARD and so many other classics, many of which are found in this edition.

As usual, S. T. supplies a very inform'd & fascinating Introduction, in which he relates the history of the writing of the stories in this volume. And what tales they are! It seems to me incredible that HPL wrote such a fine early story as "The Music of Erich Zann" before he had WEIRD TALES as a professional market for his fictive art. The story remain'd one of Lovecraft's personal favourites among his own work, and it is deliciously evocative to that kind of nameless horror that Lovecraft evoked so provocatively. It is Lovecraft at his best as a subtle artist of supernatural phantasy.

"Pickman's Model" is often dismiss'd as a "minor" tale in the Lovecraft oeuvre, and yet it has always been popular. Indeed, in his recent anthology of modern Lovecraftian tales, BLACK WINGS, S. T. Joshi has included THREE stories that are inspir'd by "Pickman's Model." The tale has been criticized for its "obvious" ending; & yet the ending is its least interesting feature. The queer character of Richard Upton Pickman is skillfully portray'd, retaining his mystique and sense of strangeness as he haunts his fabulous darkness. Some years ago I visited Boston and found my way to Copp's Hill Burying Ground -- and it is very odd, how Lovecraft's tale renders this quiet place with a haunted aura in reality through his fictive art.

THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD is one of two works by H. P. Lovecraft that I claim to be my favourite among his work. It astonishes me no end that Lovecraft never polish'd this short novel (HPL hated the typewriter and refus'd to type this work) even though publishers are said to have sometimes asked him if he had a novel that they cou'd consider for publication. It is an intriguing question concerning this novel--is it a work of SUPERNATRUAL horror? Is the necromancy practic'd by Joseph Curren a supernatural matter or a form of outre science? What is the nature of Yog-Sothoth as describ'd in this magnificent tale? Questions not easily answer'd. Happily, S. T. Joshi hath prepar'd a fully annotated edition of THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD that has nigh been published by Tampa University Press.

I first try'd to read AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS when I was a wee lass new to Lovecraft, & I found the novel far too difficult to engage my interest or understanding. Over the years I have return'd--again & again -- to this novel, in which Lovecraft fused horror with the then-new genre of science-fiction; & in so doing he created a work that has never been equaled in excellence. Now in my twilight years, I have matur'd enough to admire absolutely this great accomplishment, this novel.

"The Thing on the Doorstep" has some few flaws, but it is certainly one of the QUEEREST of all of Lovecraft's tales. It is a curious and perverse study of seductive and pernicious sorcery, of soul-abduction and defilement, It has unnerv'd me.

This is, again, my all-time favourite single edition of H. P. Lovecraft. The annotations at the back are thorough and of intense interest. My gawd, I must return to this book again, dip into it and feel that velvet kiss of nightmare on my soul.

Begging to remain,
Ever Thy hmbl Srvt,
W. H. Pugmire, Esq.