The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

I have always thought that a little bit of Lovecraft goes a long way. It turns out the opposite is true as well. The overload of Lovecraftiana Leslie S. Klinger serves up in this 850 page volume kept me engrossed for over a week. There are twenty-two stories, arranged chronologically from "Dagon" to "The Haunter in the Dark." Fans will inevitably quibble over the omissions, but Klinger provides both a good overview of the wo and a procession that suits his annotation process. The biographical introduction will get newcomers oriented to the life and provide a concise refresher course for seasoned readers. The oversized volume is nothing to curl up with, but the long columns of text bordered by generous margins for the annotations is easy to read so long as you can spread it open on a table and lean over it.

It's the annotations that kept me reading cover to cover rather than reading the two or three stories I planned to look at before calling it quits. Some annotations save you the trouble of checking the dictionary for Lovecrafts's lessons in archaic vocabulary. Others tie the stories together and link some details to Lovecraft's biography and the geography of Providence, Rhode Island. The most informative and entertaining offer street maps of Arkham and its environs, chart the possible course of the Miskatonic River, and separate details Lovecraft pulled out of his considerable knowledge of ancient history and mythology from those names, locales, and forbidden books either he or his fellow writers of weird tales made up.

I am not a true believer when it comes to Lovecraft, but I no longer waffle between amused admiration and the conviction that he is a bad writer who has made his way into the American canon. (If indeed he has. Despite the Library of America volume and flood of critical attention, it seems the jury is still out on that one.) The writing can be terrible, the strained effects risible, and of course none of this is going to be horrifying to an adult reader in the 21st century -- but it can be a good time. Klinger's volume, by presenting a chronology from the earliest "single effect" scare stories to the elaborate mythological phantasmagoria his reputation rests upon, lets the reader engage what becomes the fascinating, obsessive vision of this singular American fantasist.