Originally Posted by
St. Troy
I'm also wondering if anyone has Leslie Klinger's two "annotated" HPL volumes...
I don't have the "Variorum" books to hand- they're buried in a box while I reconfigure my "bookcase problems" (which we all have, I'm sure), but- I don't believe they have a whole lot of editorial content, other than some notes about the variants, which, honestly- just don't interest me that much. I remember asking Joshi at the time they came out if they were to have his copious annotations from the 3 Penguin Classics volumes, and he responded in the negative, that he found them unnecessary and would be too excessive to the Variorum editions. I was disappointed because I thought that- FINALLY- we would have the Ultimate Lovecraft editions in the Variorums, but, alas- one still needs multiple editions to get everything.
I absolutely love annotations, and Joshi's are brilliant and informative, but it's a crime that they are only in those flimsy, micro-print Penguin editions (and the two earlier PB volumes done with he and Peter Cannon- "Annotated", and "More Annotated", respectively). I do refer to them often when re-reading Lovecraft, but they are no joy at all in form. I've been dying for an authoritative, annotated, illustrated, multi-volume, beautifully- designed Lovecraft set, and cannot believe that we don't have one by now. I even asked Marcelo Anciano- the best book designer in the trade as far as I'm concerned- about doing for Lovecraft what he did so triumphantly for Robert E. Howard with his Wandering Star volumes, and while he agreed with me that it was puzzling that nobody has done that for Lovecraft yet, he probably wouldn't be doing it either as his plate if so full with Arete and Lyras Books now.
Having said all that- those two Les Klinger Annotated volumes are well worth
anyone's time (even if they, too, are incomplete) with lots for you to "sink your teeth" into. Highly recommended.
We did get that wonderfully done "best of" volume from Folio a few years ago, but, yeah- The Ultimate Lovecraft still lies dreaming in R'lyeh.