Collected Fiction Volume 4 (Revisions and Collaborations): A Variorum Edition

by H.P. Lovecraft, S.T. Joshi (Editor)

Following S. T. Joshi's acclaimed three-volume variorum edition of Lovecraft's fiction, this final collection includes all known revisions and collaborations undertaken by Lovecraft on behalf of his friends and clients. As with previous volumes in this series, the texts preserved herein scrupulously follow archival manuscripts, typescripts, or original publications, and constitute the definitive edition of these stories.

Since Lovecraft's customary procedure as a revisionist was to discard his client's draft and entirely rewrite the story in his own words, much of the fiction in this collection represents original work by Lovecraft, including such notable contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos as "The Electric Executioner," "Out of the Aeons," and "The Diary of Alonzo Typer." Supreme among the revisions in this volume is the brilliant novella "The Mound," which embodies Lovecraft's satirical commentary on the Machine Age "decadence" of his era.

For the first time, students and scholars of Lovecraft can see at a glance all the textual variants in all relevant appearances of a story-manuscript, first publication in magazines, and first book publications. The result is an illuminating record of the textual history of the tales, in an edition that supersedes all those that preceded it.

S. T. Joshi is a leading Lovecraft scholar and author of H. P. The Decline of the West (1990), I Am The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft (2010), Lovecraft and a World in Transition (2014), and other critical and biographical works. He has also done significant research on such writers as Lord Dunsany, Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Machen, and Ramsey Campbell.

718 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2017

About the author

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.

Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

— Wikipedia

Reviews

[Dylan Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final volume of S.T Joshi immense collection of H.P Lovecraft complete fiction. While the stories contained in this volume are not as necessary to understand Lovecraft's mythos they do give extra depth. If fact two of my favourite lesser talked about stories The Mound and Out of the Aeons I had no idea they were written in collaboration with the other writers. That knowledge only and the restored text I feel warrant it's ownership alone.

[Lawrence Salani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. S.T.Joshi has certainly put a lot of work in compiling this edition. Recommend this, and all the other variorum editions, to any Lovecraft reader.