Classics and Contemporaries: Some Notes on Horror Fiction

by S.T. Joshi

S. T. Joshi has established himself as a leading critic and scholar of the weird tale. Having begun by studying the work of H. P. Lovecraft, Joshi has expanded his interests to include the entire range of horror fiction from such classics as Lord Dunsany and Algernon Blackwood to such contemporaries as Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, and Clive Barker. In this generous sampling of the reviews that Joshi has written in nearly thirty years as a critic, we find trenchant analyses of writers ranging from Arthur Machen, E. F. Benson, and Shirley Jackson to Peter Straub, Thomas Ligotti, Norman Partridge, and David J. Schow. Joshi also addresses such significant themes in horror fiction as the subgenre of dark suspense, the haunted house, Arkham House and its legacy, and the work of the small press. Of particular note is a lengthy section devoted to H. P. Lovecraft, including studies of an array of Cthulhu Mythos writings and detailed examinations of recent Lovecraft scholarship. Joshi's essays and reviews are enlivened with a pungent wit and literary flair that bring to mind the work of John Clute and Brian Aldiss. S. T. Joshi is the author of such works as The Weird Tale (1990), H. P. A Life (1996), and The Modern Weird Tale (2001). He has edited or coedited such important reference works as Supernatural Literature of the An Encyclopedia (2005) and Icons of Horror and the Supernatural (2006). His numerous publications have received the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Horror Writers Association Award, and the International Horror Guild Award.

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Sunand Tryambak Joshi is an Indian American literary scholar, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors. Besides what some critics consider to be the definitive biography of Lovecraft (H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, 1996), Joshi has written about Ambrose Bierce, H. L. Mencken, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James, and has edited collections of their works.

His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and the dominant worldviews of the authors in question; his The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority. A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others.

Joshi is the editor of the small-press literary journals Lovecraft Studies and Studies in Weird Fiction, published by Necronomicon Press. He is also the editor of Lovecraft Annual and co-editor of Dead Reckonings, both small-press journals published by Hippocampus Press.

In addition to literary criticism, Joshi has also edited books on atheism and social relations, including Documents of American Prejudice (1999), an annotated collection of American racist writings; In Her Place (2006), which collects written examples of prejudice against women; and Atheism: A Reader (2000), which collects atheistic writings by such people as Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by such writers as Isaac Asimov, John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Corliss Lamont, Arthur Schopenhauer and Edward Westermarck, was published in 2007.

Joshi is also the author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003), an anti-religious polemic against various writers including C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, William F. Buckley, Jr., William James, Stephen L. Carter, Annie Dillard, Reynolds Price, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Guenter Lewy, Neale Donald Walsch and Jerry Falwell, which is dedicated to theologian and fellow Lovecraft critic Robert M. Price.

In 2006 he published The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong, which criticised the political writings of such commentators as William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, David and Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, William Bennett, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving and William Kristol, arguing that, despite the efforts of right-wing polemicists, the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time.

Joshi, who lives with his wife in Moravia, New York, has stated on his website that his most noteworthy achievements thus far have been his biography of Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life and The Weird Tale.

Reviews

[Nicole Cushing · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first came across Joshi as a talking head on a Lovecraft documentary. I picked up this book at WFC, because I was looking for a good, inexpensive volume of Joshi's book reviews and more in-depth literary criticism across the spectrum of dark fiction.

I wasn't disappointed. Joshi's erudition is impressive. While his candor is refreshing (and I think the field needs quite a bit more of) sometimes the sarcasm in his essays seems excessive, and this can be off-putting.

Overall, though, Joshi comes across as someone who only judges so harshly because he cares about the literature so deeply. This is a strong collection of nonfiction, and a good introduction to Joshi's work. Please, please, please ignore the hideous cover art and buy this book. There's good stuff aplenty inside.

You won't agree with it all, but it will make you think.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

More good literary criticism from S.T. Joshi, your go-to guy for reviews/critiques/indepth analysis of all things Lovecraft, Dunsany, M.R. James, Blackwood, Bierce, etc. This tome also features plenty of decidedly biting words for those authors and fellow-critics of weird fiction whom Joshi deems hacks, no-talent cretinous bums, etc., etc. I don't know why, but this sort of thing has always been my idea of a good time and a good read and I lapped it all up like a kitten at a saucer of milk.

[Randy Money · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Joshi's reviews from the 1980s into the early 2000s, mainly dealing with Lovecraft related fiction and literary criticism. Joshi is a sharp, erudite and insightful critic, though he can be controversial because he has the tendency to make good/bad judgments on works that don't entertain him. Thus he's harsh on most Cthulhu Mythos works not written by HPL. Not that most of it is undeserving of that harshness, but it's really not hard to imagine that some readers crave variations on stories and are satisfied with that. His implicit -- and sometimes more than implicit -- condemnation of that readership is a bit overboard.

What's good about the reviews is that he eschews most of the critical vocabulary that can make some of his books a bit of a slog, while giving a representative idea of the basis for his commentary and criticism. This is a n intriguing, thought-provoking read, and probably a good introduction for anyone interested in following up on his scholarly and critical works.

[Philip Challinor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essays on aspects of weird fiction; mostly individual authors both old (Machen, Blackwood, Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson) and new (Campbell, Ligotti, Norman Partridge); also some more general overviews of matters such as weird poetry, the "Cthulhu Mythos", the "dark suspense" subgenre and the still largely deplorable state of genre criticism.