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.
