The Horror in the Museum: Collected Short Stories Volume Two

by H.P. Lovecraft

Book Overview

"H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."--Stephen King Some tales in this collection were inspired by H. P. Lovecraft,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1840226420
• ISBN13: 9781840226423
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.9" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Book, and Lovecraft DID Write it

The Del Rey trade paperback edition, with its wonderful introduction by Stephen Jones, reprints the Corrected Text edition published in hardcover by Arkham House. The other paperback editions probably reprint the corrupted text of the original hardcover, which was edited and in some cases distorted by August Derleth (he altered the ending of "Medusa's Coil" to conceal Lovecraft's original racist last line of the tale). Here is S. T. Joshi's "A Note on the Texts," first published in his Corrected Text edition for Arkham House and included in the superb Del Rey trade pd edition: In this corrected edition of H. P. Lovecraft's revisions and collaborations, we have attempted not merely to restore the texts but to arrange the tales in accordance with the presumed degree of Lovecraft's involvement with them. What we have called "primary" revisions are those that were wholly or almost wholly written by Lovecraft (although a plot-germ or occasionally an actual draft was supplied by the revision client); the "secondary" revisions are those in which Lovecraft merely touched up--albiet sometimes extensively--a preexisting draft. The two collaborations with Winifred Virginia Jackson, "The Green Meadow" and "The Crawling Chaos," are interesting in that they are among the few works (the others are "Poetry and the Gods," "Through the Gates of the Silver Key," and "In the Walls of Eryx") where Lovecraft affixed his name along with that of his collaborator, even though here both were pseudonyms. Nevertheless, there is little evidence to suggest that Jackson contributed any prose to either tale. For the two tales revised for Adolphe de Castro, "The Last Test" and "The Electric Executioner," we have de Castro's original versions: they were published in his collection IN THE CONFESSIONAL (1893), under the titles "A Sacrifice to Science" and "The Automatic Executioner." Lovecraft has rewritten both stories completely, preserving only the skeleton of each work. It should be noted that in Lovecraft's only reference to the first tale he calls it "Clarendon's Last Test"; it is not certain whether he or someone else made the change. Lovecraft also speaks in letters of a third story revised for Castro, but this has evidently been lost. All three stories revised for Zelia Bishop--"The Curse of Yig," "The Mound," and "Medusa's Coil"--were, as Lovecraft notes, based on the scantiest of plot-germs and are accordingly close to original works by Lovecraft. The persistent rumor that Frank Belknap Long assisted in the writing of "The Mound" is false; Long, as Zelia Bishop's agent, merely abridged the story in a vain attempt to place it with a pulp magazine; after these efforts failed, the original version of the story as written by Lovecraft was restored, remaining in manuscript until Lovecraft's death. August Derleth then radically revised and abridged both "The Mound" and "Medusa's Coil" and marketed them to WEIRD TALES. This edition represents the first unadulterat

great

The book was in excellent condition. This was very important to me, I hate books that falling apart, or look as if they have been dragged through the mud. The book was nice and clean, and I was very happy to have it.

A Must for Fans

Having read and enjoyed most of Lovecraft's other works, I picked up this book for a diversion - curious to see how the collaborations worked out. I was unprepared for the fantastic quality of some of the stories, which in my opinion rank with his best work. My two personal favorites include "The Last Test" and "The Mound." Those two stories are worth the price alone. Not all of the stories, of course, are equally successful, and Lovecraft's level of involvement varied. One thing that remained clear, however, was that Lovecraft was ahead of his time, and no modern horror/weird fantasy writer has yet to catch up.

It's all Lovecraft, but not that great.

Oke, this book gets five stars for collectors. If you are into Lovecraft, by it. That's why I give it 5. But for the overall quality of the stories is average. I believe this is because Lovecraft wrote them for hardneeded money. Revisions in this case mean: an idea by writer, Lovecraft doing the whole work. He said himself in a letter, that he would not like his name associated with this stuff. Still, stories like The Mound and The Museum are still good. The rest is oke, but not 'Lovecraftian'.

An exellent book.

When i bought the book, it cost me a lot,but it's worth it. It's so good that if you read it on the night you will not sleep or you will dream about it.