Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft

Obviously Lovecraft is a master storyteller and anyone who enjoys horror should read his work. The book contains many of his best stories and there is another edition containing the rest of the collection.
My main gripe with the book is its overall 'sturdyness'- its a thicker book than I was expecting, and the binding and covers seem a little too loose to hold all the pages correctly. I bought the hardcover version but the covers are fairly thin making the book too flexible overall. It is a nice collection, but because Lovecraft's literature is in the public domain, it wouldn't be hard to find a better quality binding.

I first saw this edition about four years ago and was disappointed upon picking it up to find that it was paperback, I glumly set it down and promised that I would wait for a hardcover, if it ever came to pass. Then no too long ago I found here on Amazon that it had (maybe there was one from the beginning and I had ill luck, who knows) I bought it without a second thought and am glad I did. First the price was actually cheaper than the paperback I found in stores, and second, I didn't immediately notice, but Necronomicon is the twin of Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre (both by Orion Publishing) which I already owned. Just their presence on my bookshelf is great.

The book itself is all black with stamped gold gilt letters and cover drawing (a Cthulhu rendering by Les Edwards), and inside are certainly the best tales of Lovecraft. I have not read very far at this time but have yet to encounter any glaring errors, I have faith though as the only mistakes I found in Eldtritch Tales were so minute I cannot even recall them in detail.

On the illustrations provided by Edwards I find nothing disagreeable, the full page drawings are not many but each one fantastically blends in mood and translation the story it correlates to. If you already own or have perused through Eldtritch Tales then you will recognize them immediately as they are of the same crop. With my copy however the ink had yet to fully dry and with many of the illustrations there is a faint ghost on the opposite page, it honestly does not detract much as only the larger pieces have a noticeable mirror smudge, and those are really seen when the book is angled and held under certain light.

This book looks great, feels great, and fits wonderfully on the book shelf right next to its sibling, Eldritch Tales, which as I did not buy off Amazon and cannot really leave a review I would in short still recommend that you at least look into picking up that volume as well.

So yes, I am a happy customer, Lovecraftian followers, buy this book and I'm sure you'll be just as happy if not more.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

This is the first book I have purchased by H.P. Lovecraft. I am quite excited to read it! The book was in perfect condition, no flaws that I can see so far. The hard cover has a nice leather texture and flipping through the pages I can see a lot of awesome illustrations. Very happy with my purchase! P.S. this book is dummy thicc

This is a review, by and large, of the hardcover edition of this collection, not necessarily the content itself. You can find reviews of Lovecraft anywhere, and you probably know by now whether you love him or hate him.

This specific edition has been hyped as a luxury tome of Lovecraft's work -- another reviewer even likened it to a "bibliophile's dream" -- so maybe my hopes were too high. Because when this book arrived, my first impressions were that of disappointment, and they haven't changed since.

(UPDATE: my annoyance with this book was so persistent that I deliberately left it behind in a hotel room. Hauling this housebrick back on the plane just wasn't worth the effort, plus it seemed like a nice complement to the Gideon bible.)

The description clearly says that it's leather-bound (not even "bonded leather" but leather), which it's clearly not. The cover is a cheap vinyl leatherette, like the same stuff they make sunglass cases out of in Malaysia, or that contact paper you find adhered to your grandparents' kitchen shelves. While being a hardcover book, the pages are glue-bound. Even the cover of my version, the "N" from "Necronomicon" is printed in the crease, which just looks tacky, and suggests a lack of quality control.

Cheap cheap cheap. Really, this thing just reeks of a cheeseball gimmick, the Lovecraft equivalent of a fake Rolex. It claims to be high-class with a straight face, but then you get hoodwinked with this stinker. Hey thanks, Gollancz.

I would love to own a quality leather-bound volume of Lovecraft's best work (please, Easton Press, heed my call), and I was hoping this would at least approximate such a beast. Alas, it's not even close.

As a collection goes, however, it's not a bad assortment of stories, and the typography looks nice. The illustrations are also good, for the most part. I will echo the complaint that sometimes they don't do anything to enhance the story, and sometimes they're out of context, and sometimes the repeated iconography can be distracting.

Note, when the description says, "just the way they were originally published", that means the stories have been edited from the original Lovecraft-written text for their initial publication. These are not the versions laboriously compiled by Joshi from the original manuscripts, which you can find in other editions. Personally, I'm not that particular about this, but I know that others are, so be warned.

I'm tempted to rate this book less than three stars, because I'm so annoyed by the misleading description, but in terms of the content, it's not a bad value for the money. Before you shell out the cash, however, I recommend that you look at the Library of America collection of H.P Lovecraft (if you are looking for a single volume of his greatist hits), or especially the four signature Arkham House collections. Arkham House was born to publish Lovecraft and they take it very seriously. These are the best versions available, if you don't mind having the best examples of his work spread across four separate volumes.

'Necronomicon: the complete Weird Tales' of H.P Lovecraft in its hardcover edition is a beautiful book - a bibliophiles dream. Suitably tome-like, all it really needed was a tassel to complete the look. The typeset and illustrations are really appropriate and unlike some I appreciated the biography on H.P Lovercraft contained in the rear of the book. Reviewers have also noted that 'Necronomicon: the complete Weird Tales' is not a complete collection of Lovecraft's work - but it never claimed to be, instead it collects those works written for legendary pulp magazine 'Weird Tales.' At 878 pages there's plenty of material for readers to sink their teeth into, and all the classics, such as 'The Dunwich Horror,' 'The Shadow Out of Time,' and 'Call of Cthulhu' are included.

Buy this book and saraband yourself across aeons of time into the curious, antique world of H.P Lovecraft. Park yourself under a gibbous moon and read these eldritch tales of cyclopean architecture and primordial terrors. You will traverse dimensions of time and space and have an indescribably sinister experience of unspeakable horror.

I think I had the wrong idea about what I was going to be getting. This listing just had pictures of the front and back covers, while my Google search of this book had pictures of the inside pages that were beautifully printed and artfully decorated with Chthullu, symbols, maps, and the like. This book was just printed pages. This was not a problem with the selling company or the publisher of the book, but rather me not researching the item I wanted fully enough. As for the collection of stories: Wow! Lovecraft was definitely a pioneer of the fantasy-horror genre! I love it!

True, you're likely to get a more "complete" anthology by purchasing the Library of America collection of HP Lovecraft's work.

But if you're new to Lovecraft, this is a great place to start.

I bought the hardcover edition of this book basically on the phrase "bibiliophile's dream" utilized in one review. Now that I have it, I have to say that's not that far from the truth. It's a really great buy for the price and the gold inlay Cthulhu on the cover is a selling point all it's own. In another review, someone made note of the binding. I'm inclined to agree, it's not spectacular binding - particularly for a book this size (900 pages!). That said, I don't feel like I'm going to break it when I hold it. It's weak and not impressive but I think it'll hold.

Images and heavy, bold text (such as on the inner title page) have all imprinted themselves on the immediate pages surrounding them. In my copy, there's no bleeding or anything like that but it's definitely distracting.

Take it into consideration and decide just what it is you're looking for. HP Veterans might not be too impressed but it's a fine buy and I'm very happy with it.

If you do buy the book, I hope it finds you in good spirits. Then corrupts them. All the best.

This book Is great, It's an anthology full of Lovecraft's short stories. The hardcover version of this book looks great, It feels sturdy and sleek. I bought this because my brother had bought my dad a similar book and I really enjoyed what I read.

A few I really enjoyed were: "The Reanimator", "The music of Eric Zahn", and "The Tomb". Since It's a collection of short stories, It's very easy to pickup at anytime and just choose what you want to read. However It Is worth noting Lovecraft writes with elevated diction, so you may find yourself learning obscure or archaic words rarely used in modern writing.

One of my complaints about this version of the book Is It does not include Lovecraft's poetry. The version my dad has is ostensibly the same, both are named the Necronomicon and use the same covers. So unfortunately, this Is not the complete works of Lovecraft. Even so It's still a great book and definitely worth picking up If you're interested in unique horror/mystery stories and the world that they occupy.

This the a great and affordable way to start an H.P. Lovecraft collection. It is not a full collection, but very close. You will need to see the companion book "Eldritch Tales" which concludes his works. These are unedited, so for the purist who wants the way there were and not edited by people further down the line, this is it. Worth the price and looks great as well.

I was expecting it to come with something covering it, but it's perfect. I always wanted to read literature from the Master Lovecraft, and this book has definitely reached my expectations. It counts with a lot of tales, singularly short but pleasant to read. And I was expecting it to have more illustrations, but the few that it has are perfect. It has a considerable size, which makes it difficult to transport, but it's perfect to read at home. I HIGHLY encourage everyone to read this book if you like Cosmical Horror. My favorite for now is "The Statement of Randolph Carter."