The thing on the doorstep and other weird stories

Penguin twentieth-century classics

by H. P. Lovecraft

443 pages

English language

Published June 24, 2001 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-14-218003-7
OCLC Number:: 47225267

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(9 reviews)

A definitive edition of stories by the master of supernatural fiction

Howard Phillips Lovecraft's unique contribution to American literature was a melding of traditional supernaturalism (derived chiefly from Edgar Allan Poe) with the genre of science fiction that emerged in the early 1920s. This Penguin Classics edition brings together a dozen of the master's tales-from his early short stories "Under the Pyramids" (originally ghostwritten for Harry Houdini) and "The Music of Erich Zann" (which Lovecraft ranked second among his own favorites) through his more fully developed works, "The Dunwich Horror," The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and At the Mountains of Madness.

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Storiespresents the definitive corrected texts of these works, along with Lovecraft critic and biographer S. T. Joshi's illuminating introduction and notes to each story.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the …

A definitive edition of stories by the master of supernatural fiction

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

1 edition

TaxideaDaisy reviewed The thing on the doorstep and other weird stories by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin twentieth-century classics)

Review of 'The thing on the doorstep and other weird stories' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

By what benign grace I clawed my slow, grimacing way through seemingly endless wastes of adjectives and repetition I may never know -- possibly the protective spectre of my younger self, a blithely voracious reader apparently immune to such trappings of the patriarchy...

At any rate the title story, placed last, was pretty good, but the Gothic horror flavour of the rest was tainted with incessant racism and a singular lack of good female characters (a few evil and/or stupid ones exist). Skinny single white professional males abound, with little or no interest in romance, etc.

I recommend this volume nonetheless because of the notes and commentary.

HPL does not stand up well to rereading... Remember your youthful Cthulhu forays with fondness, but return at your peril.