880 pages, Gollancz, ISBN-13: 978-0575081574
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales is a great place to start if you're
new to Lovecraft. It's a hefty book, and the leather binding has so far held up
to my bedside abuse. I was seduced by the promise of illustrations, but they
seem to be merely a set of proprietary clip-art stamped onto stories with
marginal regard to relevance. A few editorial/typographical misses, while the quality
paper and typesetting make for easy reading. I've enjoyed the included essay on
Lovecraft as it's an enjoyable refresher for HPL fans and an interesting primer
for newcomers. The pages it consumes, however, still don’t offer much expanded
coverage of HPL's oeuvre.
In
my opinion, most (if not all) of his best tales are included, which is why I
don't regret the purchase. I do, though, regret the general lack of a deluxe
edition of Lovecraft's work more suited to the title of this omnibus, e.g. a
thick faux-flesh binding like The Evil
Dead commemorative DVD set. Gimmicky, yeah, but what a conversation piece!
The
market is ripe for a lovingly crafted edition with relevant placement of the
best of Lovecraft artists, annotations, and definitely a pronunciation and
glossary appendix! My vocabulary has expanded since I first read HPL as a
teenager, but I'm still tripping on some of his archaisms.
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