Reddit Reddit reviews The Dreams in the Witch House: And Other Weird Stories (Penguin Classics)

We found 6 Reddit comments about The Dreams in the Witch House: And Other Weird Stories (Penguin Classics). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The Dreams in the Witch House: And Other Weird Stories (Penguin Classics)
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6 Reddit comments about The Dreams in the Witch House: And Other Weird Stories (Penguin Classics):

u/mumuwu · 8 pointsr/Lovecraft

The 3 Penguin classics are great because they've got annotations from S.T. Joshi and also have the corrected text by him. They're also cheap. Since they aren't huge volumes they are also easy to read and carry.

http://www.amazon.ca/Call-Cthulhu-Other-Weird-Stories/dp/0141182342/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1335790731&sr=8-7

http://www.amazon.ca/Penguin-Classics-Dreams-Witch-Stories/dp/0142437956/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335790731&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.ca/Thing-Doorstep-Other-Weird-Stories/dp/0142180033/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1335790731&sr=8-9

The Necronomicon (listed in the comments below) is nice as well, but it lacks footnotes and has errors. Also nice is the companion to this - Eldritch Tales which has some stuff the Necronomicon doesn't.

http://www.amazon.ca/Eldritch-Tales-H-P-Lovecraft/dp/0575099356/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335790861&sr=1-1


The Barnes and Noble edition seems like a good buy.

I recommend having a look at this page over at hplovecraft.com. It has a good overview of the various sources you can choose from.

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/sources/

The Arkham house editions seem like the definitive ones, however they are a bit harder to come by than some of the others.

u/Yeargdribble · 6 pointsr/atheism

I actually think The Call of Cthulhu is the worst introduction to his works. It's actually pretty boring and rambly without context.

I think The Shadow Over Innsmouth is probably the best place to start. It's easy to be interested in even if you're not already a Lovecraft fan. Shadow is what got my wife completely enthralled with Lovecraft but The Call of Cthulhu still bores her to tears as a narrative.

I think The Dunwich Horror is also pretty good, but it peaks early and goes downhill. This is one of the biggest showings of the Necronomicon in Lovecraft's works.

I think At the Moutains of Madness should be read later once you have a better grasp of the mythos. It's slow to pick up and is almost too broad to grasp without understanding HP Lovecraft's universe.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is pretty good as a stand alone, but it quite long and dry, but the build up leads to a pretty decent pay off.

I think The Colour Out of Space isn't a bad starting place either, though it's mostly separated from the general mythos, but still a very fun read.

The Statement of Randolph Carter is a great short piece dripping with atmosphere in the earlier Lovecraft style where he leaves almost too much to the imagination, but it really works with this story.

The Outsider is another great short with an introspective angle.

The Whisperer in the Darkness is another great option for interesting stuff within the main mythos.

If you want to read these online you can find virtually all of Lovecraft's works here as most of them of public domain.

If you want to read them in paperback I would suggest The Penguin Classic versions (2 3). They have light annotations by S. T. Joshi which are great for getting a better context, but not as overkill as some of the more extremely deep annotated versions.

u/nechoventsi · 4 pointsr/Lovecraft

"The Complete Fiction" has all the fiction Lovecraft wrote in his lifetime, minus the commissioned works and collaborations with other writers. Also, the texts are edited by S.T. Joshi, who's the foremost Lovecraft scholar. "The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft" has some analysis for some of his works, but I don't know about the editing of the text. I own this one, which I'm pretty sure has the same contents as the Knickerbocker Classics edition.

If you want annotations AND complete texts, Penguin Classics' three paperback collections are a good choice, because the texts are those edited by Joshi, plus they have a ton of annotations for basically every bit of extra info regarding the particular story, influential element, etc... Yes, they are softcover books, but the good side is they have annotations. Here they are:

  • The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
  • The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories
  • The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories

    "The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories" also has a special edition with Cthulhu with a monocle, mustache and tuxedo on the front cover.

    I share the opinion of /u/leafyhouse, who says "Buy The Complete Fiction" first. You can read all of his official stories in a chronological order and see how he grew up as a writer. Later you can check out Penguin Classics or The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft and sink deep in what influenced Lovecraft to write all this gorgeous work.

    EDIT: Forgot to put links to the Penguin Classics collections.

    EDIT número dos: In this other thread, /u/IndispensableNobody points out the differences between the Knickerbocker Classics "Complete Fiction" and the Barnes & Noble one. Check it out.
u/spikey666 · 1 pointr/scifi
u/FabulaNova · 1 pointr/Lovecraft

The best books in my opinion are the 3 Penguin Classics editions with his major works in their corrected state and explanatory notes by S.T. Joshi (the foremost scholar of Lovecraft).

Another option with corrected texts and all of his fiction (excluding revisions and collaborations) is the Barnes and Noble edition: The Complete Fiction (make sure it's the corrected 2nd edition which you can see by its purple ribbon marker and silver gilt on the edges) .

edit: There are also a lot of his stories that are in the Free Domain and you can read some of them here and this site has also a bibliography which you can consult when you ask yourself which edition(s) you should purchase.

u/mmmberry · 1 pointr/books

I took a horror fiction class back in the day (yay for random humanities electives!). We used these three books by Penguin (1 2 3 ). There's some awesome notes that help keep things straight (Joshi, the editor, is well known in lovecraftian circles). You'd probably want to get the third one I linked, as it has Call of Cthulhu).

Edit: You can also find some of his stuff online (free). I remember seeing one site I liked in particular. I'll try to find it for you, but no promises.

Edit 2: Couldn't find it, but did go to r/lovecraft and saw they had some things posted in their sidebar for newbies. Link to reading stories online. According to their sidebar (and I definitely agree), start with:

  • The Call of Cthulhu

  • At the Mountains of Madness

  • The Shadow Over Innsmouth

  • The Dunwich Horror

  • The Colour Out of Space

  • The Whisperer in Darkness