The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories is Penguin Classics' second omnibus edition of works by 20th century American author H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

. 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

S. T. Joshi

Sunand Tryambak Joshi — known as S. T. Joshi — is an award-winning Indian American literary critic, novelist, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors of weird and fantastic fiction...

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

Arkham House

Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...

 hardcover editions, with the exception of At the Mountains of Madness

At the Mountains of Madness

At the Mountains of Madness is a novella by horror writer 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 originally serialized in the February, March and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories...

, which has recently been released in a definitive edition by the Modern Library

Modern Library

The Modern Library is a publishing company. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, it was purchased in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer...

, with an introduction by China Miéville

China Miéville

China Tom Miéville is an award-winning English fantasy fiction writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" , and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist Workers Party...

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

Weird fiction

Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction written in the late 19th and early 20th century. It can be said to encompass the ghost story and other tales of the macabre. Weird fiction is distinguished from horror and fantasy in that it predates the niche marketing of genre fiction...

, Supernatural Horror in Literature

Supernatural Horror in Literature

"Supernatural Horror in Literature" is a long essay by the celebrated horror writer H. P. Lovecraft surveying the field of horror fiction. It was written between November 1925 and May 1927 and revised in 1933-1934. It was first published in 1927 in the one-shot magazine The Recluse...

.

Its companion volumes from Penguin Classics are The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

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...

(2001), and The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories (2004).

Contents

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

1. The Tomb
2. Beyond the Wall of Sleep
3. The White Ship
4. The Temple
5. The Quest of Iranon
6. The Music of Erich Zann
7. Imprisoned with the Pharaohs aka Under the Pyramids
8. Pickman's Model
9. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
10. The Dunwich Horror
11. At the Mountains of Madness
12. The Thing on the Doorstep

External links

• Penguin Classics' page for the collection

All of the stories collected in this edition can also be found at Wikisource. Scholars should note that the texts transcribed on Wikisource may contain errors, or may represent "uncorrected" versions.