''The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories'' is

Penguin Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the Western ...

' second omnibus edition of works by 20th-century American author H. P. Lovecraft. It was released in October 2001 and is still in print. This edition is the second in Penguin Classics' series of paperback collections. Again, it collects a number of Lovecraft's most popular stories in their latest "definitive" editions as edited by

S. T. Joshi Sunand Tryambak Joshi (born June 22, 1958) is an American literary critic whose work has largely focused on weird and fantastic fiction, especially the life and work of H. P. Lovecraft and associated writers. Career His literary criticis ...

. Many of the texts are the same as those from the earlier

Arkham House Arkham House is an American publishing house specializing in weird fiction. It was founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to publish hardcover collections of H. P. Lovecraft's best works, which had pr ...

hardcover editions, with the exception of ''

At the Mountains of Madness ''At the Mountains of Madness'' is a science fiction-horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931 and rejected that year by ''Weird Tales'' editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length. It was ori ...

'', which has recently been released in
definitive edition
by the

Modern Library The Modern Library is an American book publishing imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Modern Library became an ...

, with an introduction by

China Miéville China Tom Miéville ( ; born 6 September 1972) is a British speculative fiction writer and literary critic. He often describes his work as ''weird fiction'' and is allied to the loosely associated movement of writers called '' New Weird''. Mi ...

and also including Lovecraft's essay on the history and evolution of

weird fiction Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction originating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Weird fiction either eschews or radically reinterprets ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and other traditional antagonists of supernatural horr ...

, ''

Supernatural Horror in Literature "Supernatural Horror in Literature" is a 28,000 word essay by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, surveying the development and achievements of horror fiction as the field stood in the 1920s and 30s. The essay was researched and written between Nove ...

''. Its companion volumes from Penguin Classics are ''

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories ''The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories'' is Penguin Classics' first omnibus edition of works by seminal 20th-century American author H. P. Lovecraft. It was released in October 1999 and is still in print. The volume is named for the Lovec ...

'' (2001), and ''

The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories ''The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories'' is Penguin Classics' third omnibus edition of works by 20th-century American author H. P. Lovecraft. It was released in September 2004 and is still in print. This edition is the third in ...

'' (2004).

''The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories'' contains the following tales: # The Tomb #

Beyond the Wall of Sleep "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" is a science fiction short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in 1919 and first published in the amateur publication ''Pine Cones'' in October 1919. Plot A former intern and a worker of a mental hos ...

# The White Ship # The Temple #

The Quest of Iranon "The Quest of Iranon" is a fantasy short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was written on February 28, 1921, and was first published in the July/August 1935 issue of the magazine ''Galleon''. It was later reprinted in ''Weird Tales'' ...

The Music of Erich Zann "The Music of Erich Zann" is a horror short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in December 1921, it was first published in ''National Amateur'', March 1922. The story is an account of the enigmatic Erich Zann, an elderly musician ...

# Imprisoned with the Pharaohs aka Under the Pyramids #

Pickman's Model "Pickman's Model" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in September 1926 and first published in the October 1927 issue of ''Weird Tales''. It has been adapted for television anthology series twice: in a 1971 episode of ''Night Gallery' ...

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward ''The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'' is a short horror novel (51,500 words) by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in early 1927, but not published during the author's lifetime. Set in Lovecraft's hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, it w ...

The Dunwich Horror "The Dunwich Horror" is a horror novella by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in 1928, it was first published in the April 1929 issue of '' Weird Tales'' (pp. 481–508). It takes place in Dunwich, a fictional town in Massachusett ...

The Thing on the Doorstep "The Thing on the Doorstep" is a horror short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Cthulhu Mythos universe. It was written in August 1933, and first published in the January 1937 issue of ''Weird Tales''. Inspiration The ide ...

External links

Penguin Random House's page for the collection
All of the stories collected in this edition can also be found at

Wikisource Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually rep ...

. Scholars should note that the texts transcribed on Wikisource ''may'' contain errors, or may represent "uncorrected" versions. Short story collections by H. P. Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos anthologies 2001 short story collections {{2000s-sf-story-collection-stub

Contents

External links