”The reader would do well to remember that it is Lovecraft‘s shadow which overlies almost all of the important horror fiction.”—Stephen King
Written by arguably the most important horror writer of the twentieth century, H. P. Lovecraft’s 1927 essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature” traces the evolution of the genre from the early Gothic novels to the work of contemporary American and British authors. Throughout, Lovecraft acknowledges those authors and stories that he feels are the very finest the horror field has to offer: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, Ambrose Bierce, and Arthur Conan Doyle, each prefaced by Lovecraft's own opinions and insights in their work. This chilling collection also contains Henry James’ wonderfully atmospheric short novel The Turn of the Screw.
For every fan of modern horror, here is an opportunity to rediscover the origins of the genre with some of most terrifying stories ever imagined.
Review
“For anyone interested even faintly in good horror writing, what we have here is pure gold: Lovecraft's own selection of the best the genre has to offer, along with his comments on the individual stories. Talk about the horse’s mouth! This book is long overdue.” (Peter Straub )
About the Author
Stephen Jones is the winner of three World Fantasy Awards, three Bram Stoker Awards, and three International Horror Guild Awards, and is a sixteen-time recipient of the British Fantasy Award. He lives in London.