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The Evolution of the Weird Tale by S. T. Joshi
S. T. Joshi is one of the premier critics of supernatural fiction. His pioneering research on H. P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, Ambrose Bierce, and other writers has set a standard of scholarship that few have equaled. In The Evolution of the Weird Tale--an informal follow-up to his earlier studies, "The Weird Tale" (1990) and "The Modern Weird Tale" (2001)--Joshi assesses a wide array of American and British supernatural writers of the past century or more, meticulously scrutinizing their weird work and gauging their place in the canon of horror fiction. Such American writers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries as W. C. Morrow, F. Marion Crawford, Robert W. Chambers, and Edward Lucas White come under scrutiny, as well as their British counterparts E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, and L. P. Hartley. Joshi includes substantial essays on Lovecraft and his disciples Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, and Frank Belknap Long. In a provocative section on contemporary writers, Joshi dissects the vampire novels of Les Daniels, the short stories of "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling, David J. Schow and the school of splatterpunk, and the novels and tales of Poppy Z. Brite. All in all, Joshi has provided some of the most in-depth analyses of both classic and modern weird writers ever written.
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First published September 1, 2004
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About the author
S.T. Joshi
735Ìýbooks448ÌýfollowersSunand Tryambak Joshi is an Indian American literary scholar, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors. Besides what some critics consider to be the definitive biography of Lovecraft (H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, 1996), Joshi has written about Ambrose Bierce, H. L. Mencken, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James, and has edited collections of their works.
His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and the dominant worldviews of the authors in question; his The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority. A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others.
Joshi is the editor of the small-press literary journals Lovecraft Studies and Studies in Weird Fiction, published by Necronomicon Press. He is also the editor of Lovecraft Annual and co-editor of Dead Reckonings, both small-press journals published by Hippocampus Press.
In addition to literary criticism, Joshi has also edited books on atheism and social relations, including Documents of American Prejudice (1999), an annotated collection of American racist writings; In Her Place (2006), which collects written examples of prejudice against women; and Atheism: A Reader (2000), which collects atheistic writings by such people as Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by such writers as Isaac Asimov, John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Corliss Lamont, Arthur Schopenhauer and Edward Westermarck, was published in 2007.
Joshi is also the author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003), an anti-religious polemic against various writers including C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, William F. Buckley, Jr., William James, Stephen L. Carter, Annie Dillard, Reynolds Price, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Guenter Lewy, Neale Donald Walsch and Jerry Falwell, which is dedicated to theologian and fellow Lovecraft critic Robert M. Price.
In 2006 he published The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong, which criticised the political writings of such commentators as William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, David and Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, William Bennett, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving and William Kristol, arguing that, despite the efforts of right-wing polemicists, the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time.
Joshi, who lives with his wife in Moravia, New York, has stated on his website that his most noteworthy achievements thus far have been his biography of Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life and The Weird Tale.
His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and the dominant worldviews of the authors in question; his The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority. A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others.
Joshi is the editor of the small-press literary journals Lovecraft Studies and Studies in Weird Fiction, published by Necronomicon Press. He is also the editor of Lovecraft Annual and co-editor of Dead Reckonings, both small-press journals published by Hippocampus Press.
In addition to literary criticism, Joshi has also edited books on atheism and social relations, including Documents of American Prejudice (1999), an annotated collection of American racist writings; In Her Place (2006), which collects written examples of prejudice against women; and Atheism: A Reader (2000), which collects atheistic writings by such people as Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by such writers as Isaac Asimov, John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Corliss Lamont, Arthur Schopenhauer and Edward Westermarck, was published in 2007.
Joshi is also the author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003), an anti-religious polemic against various writers including C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, William F. Buckley, Jr., William James, Stephen L. Carter, Annie Dillard, Reynolds Price, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Guenter Lewy, Neale Donald Walsch and Jerry Falwell, which is dedicated to theologian and fellow Lovecraft critic Robert M. Price.
In 2006 he published The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong, which criticised the political writings of such commentators as William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, David and Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, William Bennett, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving and William Kristol, arguing that, despite the efforts of right-wing polemicists, the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time.
Joshi, who lives with his wife in Moravia, New York, has stated on his website that his most noteworthy achievements thus far have been his biography of Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life and The Weird Tale.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 18, 2014
Despite the fairly terrifying exterior, Joshi's The Evolution of the Weird Tale is an exceedingly approachable, enjoyable book. It collects a dozen essays that he's written on various "weird tale" authors - from big names like Lovecraft, Kipling and Leiber to near-forgotten talents like Chambers (my favorite) and Benson. As well as providing a strong definitional introduction to the genre, this book serves as an invaluable survey of its origins and evolutions, all the way through to the present day.
Critically, Joshi probably deserves a bit of flak for being too approachable. He writes in a conversant, human vernacular and very clearly loves his subject matter. There's an occasional tendency to gloss over some of the dodgy aspects (race & gender politics) of his subjects, but most readers will undoubtedly have reconciled themselves to those issues on that coming in to the book already.
Literary criticism, even of something as entertaining as the weird tale, can tend towards the dry. By making his work approachable (without sacrificing the scholarly rigor), Joshi not only provides the reader with a good book, but also aids in the enjoyment of all the books he references as well. If anything, I should resent him for giving me such a lengthy reading list...
Critically, Joshi probably deserves a bit of flak for being too approachable. He writes in a conversant, human vernacular and very clearly loves his subject matter. There's an occasional tendency to gloss over some of the dodgy aspects (race & gender politics) of his subjects, but most readers will undoubtedly have reconciled themselves to those issues on that coming in to the book already.
Literary criticism, even of something as entertaining as the weird tale, can tend towards the dry. By making his work approachable (without sacrificing the scholarly rigor), Joshi not only provides the reader with a good book, but also aids in the enjoyment of all the books he references as well. If anything, I should resent him for giving me such a lengthy reading list...
September 3, 2024
A series of essays on the history of the weird tale, from the predecessors o HP Lovecraft to modern times.
July 18, 2017
Survival of the Weirdest
In The Evolution of the Weird Tale, S.T. Joshi provides a nice overview of this genre and an appraisal of the tales of some of its practitioners from the late 19th century up to modern times.
I particularly enjoyed the first three of the four parts of this book, which deal with the earlier British and American writers of weird fiction, up to H.P. Lovecraft and his acolytes. The section on Rod Serling’s stories is also quite absorbing.
While I would have appreciated a more firm definition of the weird fiction genre and its parameters in the introduction to lay the groundwork for the essays that follow, the biographical sketches of the various authors and Joshi’s reviews of their weird tales are well done and a pleasure to read—and we of course glean the nature of the weird tale throughout the course of the book.
From some obscure authors that many readers may never have heard of to more familiar names, Joshi covers a lot of ground and does a good job directing us to the best weird tales that these writers have to offer. For anyone interested in this genre and its evolution through time, I would definitely recommend this book.
In The Evolution of the Weird Tale, S.T. Joshi provides a nice overview of this genre and an appraisal of the tales of some of its practitioners from the late 19th century up to modern times.
I particularly enjoyed the first three of the four parts of this book, which deal with the earlier British and American writers of weird fiction, up to H.P. Lovecraft and his acolytes. The section on Rod Serling’s stories is also quite absorbing.
While I would have appreciated a more firm definition of the weird fiction genre and its parameters in the introduction to lay the groundwork for the essays that follow, the biographical sketches of the various authors and Joshi’s reviews of their weird tales are well done and a pleasure to read—and we of course glean the nature of the weird tale throughout the course of the book.
From some obscure authors that many readers may never have heard of to more familiar names, Joshi covers a lot of ground and does a good job directing us to the best weird tales that these writers have to offer. For anyone interested in this genre and its evolution through time, I would definitely recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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