Cthulhu for Christmas

[JasonSpaceman]

Hi forum!

I have a question: I've been thinking of getting into Lovecraft and would like to get a book for xmas but which should I buy and why? These are the ones I'm looking at:

1. The b&n hardback "H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction"

2. "The Crawling Chaos and Others: The Annotated Revisions" from miskatonic books

3. The Penguin trilogy ("The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories"; "The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories" & "The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories")

Which one is the best to get? Any annotations/notes?

 

[j d worthington]

Best value: the B&N Complete Fiction (but look for the most recent, 2011, printing... there is an acknowledgment to Martin Andersson on the copyright page)

Annotated: the Penguin set

The revisions/collaborations volume (or volumes; the second is due out early next year) is a bit pricey, though very nice... and also has annotations. But it is a set of stories which were not (or not always) strictly original with HPL, nor are any of these among his more famous works.

 

[Ningauble]

What j.d. said. Even though some of the revisions are really good, they're not a good place to start, and anyway the set won't collect (for copyright reasons) all of the revisions.

The corrected B&N printing can be further identified by its silvered page edges and purple bookmark ribbon (if you see a copy with gilt page edges and a yellow ribbon, burn it).

The Penguins, while not being complete, offer a very nice selection of most of the best stories, with useful and interesting notes, and since they are paperbacks they are easier to handle than the B&N volume.

 

[j d worthington]

if you see a copy with gilt page edges and a yellow ribbon, burn it[....]

LOL. Um, unfortunately, he's right. To slightly misquote Monty Python: "I've never seen so many bleedin' typos...."

But the most recent printing took care of that, and is a lovely thing to behold....