H.P. Lovecraft: The Fiction

A couple of days ago I made one of the best book purchases of my life. For about twelve dollars I bought all of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction bound into one hardback book. I bought mine at the local Barnes & Noble, but you can also order it online.

Each story has a few words of introduction by S.T. Joshi. So far just from those introductions I've learned things I didn't know and some of those things I suspected, like the fact that Polaris was inspired by a dream Lovecraft had. I also see that Joshi doesn't always come to the same conclusions and opinions I have (he thinks Polaris is about a man possessed by the spirit of an ancestor! How Bizarre!).

In the book's introduction we read:
"Their (Arkham House) edition of The Outsider and Others (1939) is a landmark, but in subsequent decades more capable hands have prepared texts that eliminated the typographical and textual errors of previous editions..."

I had read that all of the stories in this edition would be error-free, but I see that they are not. Just by flipping and skimming I see minor errors. In one place I see "and" instead of "an". On another page I see "by" when the word should obviously read "my". Not even the story introductions are typo-free. This is not said to deter anyone from buying the book (you should have clicked that link already!), I just thought it was worth mentioning after expecting perfection. Perfection is a myth.

After spending money on countless paperbacks over the years, I still didn't have all the works that appear in H.P. Lovecraft: The Fiction. I thank S.T. Joshi and Barnes & Noble for one of the best books on my bookshelf.