I bought a copy of volume 1 & thoroughly enjoyed it, then a digital version of Volume 2. Seeing the physical object almost makes me regret that decision! The Clark Ashton Smith artwork and numerous visual reference points were my favourite things about these editions. Content-wise Joshi's editions are more authoritative and stick to the point, but Klinger gathers a wider net of HPL scholars for a kind of greatest hits of the field.
I would have liked more mention in the essays or intros, of Lovecraft's popularity outside of the US and the UK, in some form, for as we know, the unlikely ascent of Howard's work in countries as diverse as Germany, Japan, Russia, France, South American nations like Brazil, or our own respective Italy & Ireland warrants some critical investigation.
Absolutely! I'm not quite sure what studies out there tackle these perspectives, but his popularity in France, in particular, warrants at least one book-length treatment - considering he was "discovered" there, and revered as high literature, at a time when he was still niche at best in the US. Thanks for the comments my friend :D
Excellent review! I have the first volume and was wondering whether to get the second. Well problem solved because I need this CAS illustrations! I think Klinger also did an edition of Dracula where he annotated as if the story had really happened and I really enjoyed that as well. Again thank you so much for your review.
Do you think a new reader like me should get these? I want to understand the stories more while reading them for the first time. do the notes help for understanding the stories in general?
@The_Bookchemist Congrats on making it through I Am Providence. Have you read any of the collections of letters? I'm almost through with the ones to Robert E. Howard and plan to tackle those to Clark Ashton Smith next. I think HPL's poem "To An Infant" is one of the most interesting examples of Lovecraft offering a view of how to live one's life as if it mattered or that something precious was at stake. In his letters to Howard he even talks about "quasi-absolute" values, basically valuing what he saw as the things that most differentiate humans from protoplasm: aesthetics, treasured associations, the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity, and so on. I seem to be more of a fan of HPL's "Dunsanian Period" than you, but I appreciate your occasional revisiting of his stuff.
@@TheBookchemist Joshi has a low opinion of HPL's poetry, and I tend to agree somewhat, but there are a few worth looking at in The Ancient Track. As with many other things he's fascinatingly contradictory. He's utterly hidebound to fairly simple poetic structures of end rhyme, yet very disciplined and knowledgeable about metre. His eulogies (for Theodore Roosevelt, for example) and patriotic/political poems really make him seem more grounded in the world than most peoples' stereotype of Lovecraft tends to allow. "Old Christmas" is an interesting long poem of his, where he celebrates rustic pagan Yuletide over newfangled Christmas. Anyway, enjoy the poetry if you ever get around to it!
Here's "To An Infant". Joshi talks about the context of its writing in I Am Providence; it's worth looking up for a laugh if you have it on Kindle. -- They have captured and chained you, my brother, from Aidenne beyond the blue The Fates and the vast All-Mother, to laugh at an hour or two. They have envied your wings dilated, beating heedless of age or clime, So they snared you and cast you weighted into dungeons of space and time. And now as you newly languish in the quivering bonds called flesh Unknowing as yet the anguish and gall of the long-felt mesh They smile as they find you comely, and gloat on their ancient power To twist you and drive you dumbly for the sport of a listless hour They have given you joy but to take it, and youth but to snatch it away They have made you a will but to break it, and hope but to lead you astray; They have bound you to objects inutile, and senses that shut out the light, That themselves, who are bitter and futile, may laugh as you grope in their sight. But you, if you will, can cheat them, and join in their mocking mirth, For you have that to defeat them which could not be chained at birth: Though your heart they have trussed and tethered, and your soul they have stricken drear, Yet a spark from your dreams has weathered all the whirlwinds that swept you here. It has slipt by the onyx portal that holds you to earthly things, From the crystalline gulfs immortal, that sounded once to your wings. It will flame through the mists of morning and lighten the hours of your youth, Till the blaze of its bright adorning will banish the clouds of truth. But foster it well, young dreamer, lest the covetous Great Ones call On Time, the malign Arch-Schemer, to gather it into his thrall; For dreams, as they are most precious, are most fragile of all we prize, And the power of earth that enmesh us would sear them out of our eyes; Would marshal the years to slay them, and summon the flesh to teach Our hardening brains to betray them, and drive them beyond our reach. They are all that we have to save us from the sport of the Ruthless Ones, These dreams that the cosmos gave us in the void past the farthest suns, They are freedom and light surviving as a flicker in cells of ill, As against the Dark Gods' contriving we must harbour and guard them still. So may you, in whose eyes serenely so much of the old lore shines, Grow valiant, and battle keenly the envious Gods' designs; Dissolve when they seek to bind you; fling worlds at their clanking chain; That never their noose may find you, and never their whim restrain. Weave magic against their weaving, dream out of their sly duress, Till the prisons of their deceiving shall crumble to nothingness. Mock back when they storm your reason, and hold you from all you crave, For your body alone they seize on -- no dream can be made a slave. Deride all their empty offers, and sneer at their specious lure, Enriching your fancy's coffers with gold that is always pure. Your dreams are yourself, so tend them as all that preserves you free; With all of your strength defend them, nor grant to the years a fee; Let never a daemon buy them with pleasures that flash and fade. Nor sophistry's tongue defy them, nor dogma diffuse its shade. For these are your own, my brother, and hold in their boundless sweep The wings that the Gods would smother, and the key to your native deep!
Love your videos, but ever since you arranged your books by colour I've had to listen without watching. There are some things which are just too distracting.
I bought a copy of volume 1 & thoroughly enjoyed it, then a digital version of Volume 2. Seeing the physical object almost makes me regret that decision! The Clark Ashton Smith artwork and numerous visual reference points were my favourite things about these editions. Content-wise Joshi's editions are more authoritative and stick to the point, but Klinger gathers a wider net of HPL scholars for a kind of greatest hits of the field.
I would have liked more mention in the essays or intros, of Lovecraft's popularity outside of the US and the UK, in some form, for as we know, the unlikely ascent of Howard's work in countries as diverse as Germany, Japan, Russia, France, South American nations like Brazil, or our own respective Italy & Ireland warrants some critical investigation.
Damn fine review of the books btw
Absolutely! I'm not quite sure what studies out there tackle these perspectives, but his popularity in France, in particular, warrants at least one book-length treatment - considering he was "discovered" there, and revered as high literature, at a time when he was still niche at best in the US. Thanks for the comments my friend :D
Sometimes I feel like reading a yellow book, other times a red one.
What a great review. You deliver quality in just about every video!
What is your opinion on CCRU and Fanged Noumena?
Excellent review! I have the first volume and was wondering whether to get the second. Well problem solved because I need this CAS illustrations! I think Klinger also did an edition of Dracula where he annotated as if the story had really happened and I really enjoyed that as well. Again thank you so much for your review.
Thanks for the recommendation and the fantastic review.
Do you think a new reader like me should get these? I want to understand the stories more while reading them for the first time.
do the notes help for understanding the stories in general?
I recently completed a Lovecraftian novella called Haunted Hybrid...but am struggling for Professional readers to consider publication. Any advise...?
Do you have an opinion about Peter Levenda in the context of H.P. Lovecraft?
Great video 💪, I think I'll buy both.
Cosa ne pensi delle edizioni Oscar Draghi?
Non l'ho ancora visto dal vivo - appena passo da una libreria italiana ci do un'occhiata ;)
@The_Bookchemist Congrats on making it through I Am Providence. Have you read any of the collections of letters? I'm almost through with the ones to Robert E. Howard and plan to tackle those to Clark Ashton Smith next. I think HPL's poem "To An Infant" is one of the most interesting examples of Lovecraft offering a view of how to live one's life as if it mattered or that something precious was at stake. In his letters to Howard he even talks about "quasi-absolute" values, basically valuing what he saw as the things that most differentiate humans from protoplasm: aesthetics, treasured associations, the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity, and so on.
I seem to be more of a fan of HPL's "Dunsanian Period" than you, but I appreciate your occasional revisiting of his stuff.
I haven't read any collection of letters, but will have to eventually! What I'd like to read next is a complete collection of his poetry.
@@TheBookchemist Joshi has a low opinion of HPL's poetry, and I tend to agree somewhat, but there are a few worth looking at in The Ancient Track. As with many other things he's fascinatingly contradictory. He's utterly hidebound to fairly simple poetic structures of end rhyme, yet very disciplined and knowledgeable about metre.
His eulogies (for Theodore Roosevelt, for example) and patriotic/political poems really make him seem more grounded in the world than most peoples' stereotype of Lovecraft tends to allow.
"Old Christmas" is an interesting long poem of his, where he celebrates rustic pagan Yuletide over newfangled Christmas.
Anyway, enjoy the poetry if you ever get around to it!
Here's "To An Infant". Joshi talks about the context of its writing in I Am Providence; it's worth looking up for a laugh if you have it on Kindle.
--
They have captured and chained you, my brother, from Aidenne beyond the blue
The Fates and the vast All-Mother, to laugh at an hour or two.
They have envied your wings dilated, beating heedless of age or clime,
So they snared you and cast you weighted into dungeons of space and time.
And now as you newly languish in the quivering bonds called flesh
Unknowing as yet the anguish and gall of the long-felt mesh
They smile as they find you comely, and gloat on their ancient power
To twist you and drive you dumbly for the sport of a listless hour
They have given you joy but to take it, and youth but to snatch it away
They have made you a will but to break it, and hope but to lead you astray;
They have bound you to objects inutile, and senses that shut out the light,
That themselves, who are bitter and futile, may laugh as you grope in their sight.
But you, if you will, can cheat them, and join in their mocking mirth,
For you have that to defeat them which could not be chained at birth:
Though your heart they have trussed and tethered, and your soul they have stricken drear,
Yet a spark from your dreams has weathered all the whirlwinds that swept you here.
It has slipt by the onyx portal that holds you to earthly things,
From the crystalline gulfs immortal, that sounded once to your wings.
It will flame through the mists of morning and lighten the hours of your youth,
Till the blaze of its bright adorning will banish the clouds of truth.
But foster it well, young dreamer, lest the covetous Great Ones call
On Time, the malign Arch-Schemer, to gather it into his thrall;
For dreams, as they are most precious, are most fragile of all we prize,
And the power of earth that enmesh us would sear them out of our eyes;
Would marshal the years to slay them, and summon the flesh to teach
Our hardening brains to betray them, and drive them beyond our reach.
They are all that we have to save us from the sport of the Ruthless Ones,
These dreams that the cosmos gave us in the void past the farthest suns,
They are freedom and light surviving as a flicker in cells of ill,
As against the Dark Gods' contriving we must harbour and guard them still.
So may you, in whose eyes serenely so much of the old lore shines,
Grow valiant, and battle keenly the envious Gods' designs;
Dissolve when they seek to bind you; fling worlds at their clanking chain;
That never their noose may find you, and never their whim restrain.
Weave magic against their weaving, dream out of their sly duress,
Till the prisons of their deceiving shall crumble to nothingness.
Mock back when they storm your reason, and hold you from all you crave,
For your body alone they seize on -- no dream can be made a slave.
Deride all their empty offers, and sneer at their specious lure,
Enriching your fancy's coffers with gold that is always pure.
Your dreams are yourself, so tend them as all that preserves you free;
With all of your strength defend them, nor grant to the years a fee;
Let never a daemon buy them with pleasures that flash and fade.
Nor sophistry's tongue defy them, nor dogma diffuse its shade.
For these are your own, my brother, and hold in their boundless sweep
The wings that the Gods would smother, and the key to your native deep!
Im reading that right now!
First volume is over $100 on Amazon. No thank you.
Watch out for that Social Bounty Money Making App. It is evidently a scam that can hurt your channel.
Love your videos, but ever since you arranged your books by colour I've had to listen without watching. There are some things which are just too distracting.