Lovecraft knows how to write a story that chills you and gives excellent atmosphere in most of his works. He could use help in having more memorable characters, but you can't have everything. It's clear how much how he's inspired by Poe and how much of an influence that he has in literature, comics, and games today. This book has the stories in chronological order, so you can see the progression of him as a writer take form.

Now let's talk about an uncomfortable subject: Racism in Good Writers.
It's no secret that Lovecraft was a collosal racist, in fact most people were in that time. However, while I'm greatly opposed to those viewpoints, I do acknowledge that he's great at writing fiction. There are many famous people living and dead that had wonderful creative talent that we're entertained by. That's all well and good, but always try to separate the work from the person. I know that's not everyone's opinion, but that's why there are so many kinds of books out there. In the end it all boils down to taste. I only bring this up, because at least two people I know here were bullied because they like Lovecraft. If you don't like something, just be respectful to the other person and move on. But you don't have to take my word for it.

Like a lot of "complete" collections, like the Complete Emily Dickinson, it's a testament that not everything a master writes is gold. You probably already know the "good" Lovecraft: "Call of Cthulhu," "At the Mountains of Madness," "Rats in the Walls," "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "The Curious Case of Dexter Ward," "The Whisperer in the Darkness," "The Shadow Out Of Time," "Pickman's Model," and a few others.

But this collection is filled with a lot of junk I think Lovecraft would not be keen on people reading. Unfinished works, experiments, and prototypes of stories he'd do much better later. It's a maddening slog through messy drab (like the baffling "The Transition of Juan Romero") to get to Lovecraft at his best.

----
The HP Lovecrraft Society's audiobook version is serviceable and well-read (and about the most practical way to muscle through)...but there is an annoying habit in the longer stories where it plays the "bum buuumm" sound effect at the end of chapters...even if the chapters ended pretty ho-hum.

I started reading this book my freshman year of college and it took me until today to finally get through it. That’s for a couple of reasons. A) It’s really long and I felt like reading someone else at different points and B) a lot of it is really tedious and/or repetitive. Lovecraft’s influence on the horror genre cannot be overstated. His highs are incredible—Call of Cthulhu, Color Out of Space, the Outsider, Cats of Ulthar, and the Case of Charles Dexter Ward all come to mind—but his lows are pages of overly worded descriptions of caverns and beings so unfathomable they cannot be described (yet are described endlessly). The other undeniable aspect of Lovecraft is his overt racism, xenophobia, and overall bigotry. Stories like Rats in the Walls and the Shadow Over Innsmouth (among others) are marred by his own personal beliefs on those different from himself, and his fear and hatred of other races becomes clear in many of his narratives. There’s not a whole lot to say on Lovecraft that hasn’t already been said. There’s definitely some stuff worth reading, some stuff that can be skipped, but all should be read with an awareness of his role in the history of horror and his own personal beliefs when writing each story.

Las ediciones góticas de Valdemar nunca defraudan, son preciosas (+1 estrella). Pero el contenido, esta vez... Me ha decepcionado.

En muchos casos Lovecraft falla al transmitir los momentos de intensidad, terror o desenlace. Se confunden los pasajes de lore, necesarios para conocer que hay detrás de la historia que estamos leyendo, con los momentos importantes que definen el relato.
Básicamente, no me ha parecido que Lovecraft sea un buen narrador.

Las descripciones, tanto físicas como emocionales, son de lo mas flojo que he visto en literatura de terror. Abusa mucho de los términos como insondable, innombrable, inenarrable, indescriptible, incalificable, inconcebible, indecible. Al final el lector tiene que tener más imaginación que el autor si quiere formarse una idea mental de lo que está leyendo.

En cuanto al imaginario que construye Lovecraft en sus historias, más allá de que sea repetitivo, no me ha defraudado pero no le da la suficiente profundidad o detalle. Intenta que todo se adapte a un formato de relato corto, pero hay historias que hubieran necesitado una extensión mayor para aprovechar el potencial de una trama que, al final, solo deja entrever la superficie.

Y en cuanto a lo onírico... No creo que sea para mí. Al menos el estilo onírico de Lovecraft. No le cojo el ritmo, me aburre, en ocasiones no lo entiendo.

Resumiendo: no creo que me lea el segundo volumen.

Definitivamente Lovecraft no ha sido para mi, he sufrido muchísimo para terminar los dos volúmenes.
Le reconozco el mérito de imaginar lo que nadie había imaginado antes, pero es repetitivo hasta el infinito y más allá. Sus narraciones no me atrapan y sus personajes parecen todos iguales.

After reading everything Lovecraft ever wrote, I can say I prefer Lovecraftian fiction more than fiction written by Lovecraft. His word choices can be repetitive, and which is easier to deal with than the overt racism/racial panic the runs through a lot of the work.

A few of these stories are excellent and cement Lovecraft’s standing as the grandfather of horror. A lot of them are unremarkable and repetitive. And more than a few have dated atrociously and are obviously and problematically racist, sexist, and ableist. It didn’t make for pleasant reading, even acknowledging it’s a product of its time (etc etc). That’s enough Lovecraft for me, for a lifetime.

.

It's not 'complete', but an excellent selection with a short introduction to each chapter by the inimitable S. T. Joshi, Lovecraft authority.