reference

I agree with the other reviewer of this book, that it is definitely only for the hardcore Lovecraft-fan! But if you, like me, have read and reread the masters tales, then this bibliography of his bookcollection makes for fascinating reading!It gives us a hint on where Lovecraft got his inspiration, but also a better look at who this man was! Theres an old saying that goes like "show me your bookcollection, and I will tell you who you are!". This is definetely true for this book!

It must be said that this is basically an annotated list of titles - a bibliography. It will fascinate anyone already familiar with Lovecraft's fictional corpus (hey! that latter is an appropriate word for his output) and his life, so often referred to as 'scarce in incident but rich in detail'. Joshi's annotations are always worthwhile, and this book will cast more light on Lovecraft's literary influences. Novices would not find it good value however - for them it would be best to pick up one of the many introductory volumes of Lovecraft's tales - those edited by ST Joshi for Penguin Classics (The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales, and The Thing on the Doorstep & Other Weird Stories) also have extensive annotations by Joshi which place the stories in cultural context and illuminate HPL's incomparable weird narratives. Hippocampus Press are to be commended for bringing this out; if you know and love Cthulhu, this will be a necessary purchase; otherwise it can safely be relegated to 'buy later'.