Description
With the much-anticipated follow-up to his “Olympian landmark of modern gothic literature” (Harlan Ellison), Leslie Klinger completes his tour-de-force annotation of H.P. Lovecraft’s canon of weird fiction.
In 2014, The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft was published and devoured by the Lovecraft community and general readers alike. The landmark volume included twenty-two stories but there are many others worthy of attention, including Lovecraft’s favourites.
In this follow-up, twenty-five more Lovecraft stories are re-presented as well as a number of never-before-seen revisions and collaborations with other authors. Included are “Rats in the Wall”, a post–First World War story about the terrors of the past and the newly contextualised “The Horror at Red Hook”, which has been adapted recently by Victor LaValle. The stories magnify the creative ideas and writing processes of the literary genius. Best-selling author and editor Klinger reanimates Lovecraft with clarity and historical insight, offering a revelatory volume in which the author’s story-writing method is uncovered, his vivid dreams are recorded and first drafts of stories are seen in immaturity. In addition to his ground-breaking writing, we glimpse a personal side of Lovecraft: his favourite stories are highlighted and his vulnerability as a young writer is obvious.
With hundreds of annotations and dozens of rare images, Beyond Arkham provides the complete picture of Lovecraft’s achievements in fiction. No lover of Gothic literature will want to be without this literary keepsake.
Reviews
"Invaluable for long-term fans and newcomers alike, Beyond Arkham takes us on 25 incredible journeys from one of literature's most unhinged minds, the likes of which we'll quite possibly never see again." — Starburst
"If I’d had Leslie S. Klinger as my guide, I would have been better equipped to navigate the peculiarities of the Lovecraftian universe. Klinger’s depth of knowledge about the world Lovecraft inhabited, and his ability to tease out shades of Lovecraft’s personal experiences in the stories, make this volume the most exciting and definitive collection of Lovecraft’s work out there." — Danielle Trussoni, The New York Times Book Review