Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction, Volume 1 Paperback – October 31, 2014

This lengthy history of supernatural fiction is an incredible combination of good and bad. First, Joshi is the most opinionated critic I have ever read. Even when I tend to agree with him--such as about the worthiness of bestsellers--his incredible vitriol is just way over the top. Consider, "DuMaurier's work is not, on the whole, notably distinguished for its supernatural imaginativeness, and her general lack of skill in portrayal of character, for all her valiant attempts, renders her tales only slightly above the usual crop of bestselling writers; but now and again she is capable of vivid horrific effects, and her work is not to be entirely despised."This is kind, however, compared to his feelings about Dean Koonce: "...indeed, the only genuine virtue to Koontz's existence is to prove that an even worse writer than Stephen King can become popular."Ray Garton, who, at best, is excellent, receives this: "Garton has returned to vampires in a few of his dreary plethora of novels, but neither they nor any other of his works, short or long, are worth a moment's attention."I won't bother you with more. At least I can say this, Joshi's book is not written in academic gibberish. He states things very clearly, and thus, even when you disagree with him and are deciding he would not be a pleasant drinking companion, you may still learn something.He is also inconsistent, sometimes damning an author for not explaining something and other times praising an author for the same thing. And he can never stop talking about "the determinism paradox" which means that if you see something in the future, you can't change it, because then what you saw wasn't the future! Mr. Joshi has come up with altogether too many rules to define what qualifies as supernatural fiction, but whether a book qualifies or not, if he has taken the time to read it, he is going to tell you about it.So who does he like? Ramsay Campbell, mainly. Not something many horror readers would want to argue with. He also loves Thomas Tryon's "The Other" and "Harvest Home". Even though, as I recall, they were both bestsellers. And, of course, he adores H.P. Lovecraft, whom he has written several books about. To his credit, he also finds Lovecraft disciple August Derleth's work pretty worthless.I'm sure no editor asked Joshi to actually reconcile or justify any of the inconsistencies in this book. They probably figured it wasn't worth the trouble. Sometimes you just have to take things as they are.I bought this as a pretty cheap ebook after seeing author Stephen Gresham mention it on his blog as an interesting work, though not one he agreed with all the time. This was putting it mildly, as I have found out. If you're interested, I suggest you also pick up the cheap ebook version. 800 or so pages of this isn't something you would want taking up space around your house.

Really good so far. I'm halfway through the book. If you are interested in the genre but don't know where to start, perhaps you have read Poe or Lovecraft and want to delve deeper, this is the book for you. Many great books, stories, and authors that only scholars knows about are reviewed in this book. I am really enjoying the read, not only because of the author's style and impressive knowledge, but also because it feels like reading so many different books from so many different authors at once. The tone of the book is casual, conversational, like have a chat by the fireplace.

Well written and really interesting. I finally have something to break the ice in conversations, although it produces a few strange stares but that's completely fine I guess. Probably the best investment I've ever made.Just kidding, it's a great book though.

Joshi gives an integrative overview of the field of supernatural fiction. His analysis is invaluable, due in part to the fact that he has probably read nearly every book in the field.

Scholarly yet interesting read for those interested in this literary genre.

The first volume of "Unutterable Horror" left me with mixed emotions.For the first five chapters of the book, I had no problems and enjoyed the book enormously.Then a bunch of problems developed.Joshi seems to be a critic who has a picture of what supernatural fiction "should" be, and woe to any work that doesn't live up to that image. So he hammers works that are set in the past, or are too religious, or are mere ghost stories. (No sooner does the vampire story appear, for instance, than Joshi dismisses it as old-fashioned.)Then there are inconsistencies in his judgments. He claims "Dracula" is flawed because it never offers an explanation for why Count Dracula is a vampire, but then he dismisses the explanations in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" as flawed because aren't convincing. He divides American writers into East Coast and West Coast schools and then promptly exempts F. Marion Crawford and Robert W. Chambers from this scheme, even though they would clearly seem to fit the East Coast school, according to his guidelines.So parts of this book are annoying. BUT parts of it are very good, and it does a thorough job of mentioning the writers who left an important legacy in the field.

This was a tough read. It begins slow and drags along, getting slightly more interesting once we reach the "modetn" era of weird fiction with H.P. Lovecraft and the lapses briefly into tedium. As the history progresses into the 1950's and 1960's it peaks up. I was not in entire agreement with some of the author's assessment of such works as A Christmas Carol or Dracula. Some of his criticism seems to be academic nitpicking and demands explanations that most just dismiss as a literary conceit that the average reader will be unconcerned with, such as the lack of the origin of Dracula. The author is less than glowing in his view of Stephen King 's body of work as well as many contemporary authors of the genre. Here I agree that King's work suffers from too much flab and a good editor would serve him better. He is dismissive of Peter Straub and his best novel Ghost Story is ruined (I am in total agreement here) by a disappointing ending. As the decades roll along there are few authors of note to be discussed. Some authors seem out of place even to be mentioned such as Thomas Harris and his Lecter series. It was a struggle to get to the end but it was wholly wasteful a reading experience. He sure loved Lovecraft.

Great service, great product - thanks!

I am always interested in the history of the development of supernatural fiction and so when I saw this book available on Kindle I was quick to snap it up. Mr Joshi is an acknowledged expert in the subject and his books are always detailed, well-researched and erudite. However, while reading this volume I was conscious of a growing disappointment. Joshi's approach to his subject is reasoned and intelligent, but he is too much inclined to dismiss the work of some of the acknowledged giants of supernatural fiction as facile and lacking in aesthetic value. For example, much of the output of the Gothic movement of the nineteenth century is scorned as 'drivel', without reflecting that, at the time of its emergence such subject matter was still new and appealing. Apparently it is not enough for a story to be entertaining - a surprising viewpoint, given the nature of the genre; that such works might appeal to a larger readership is not taken into account. In fact, Joshi is equally dismissive of that readership. One author's body of work is described as appealing to 'the great unwashed' and 'brainless'. While it's true that the novels in question are unattractive and have not aged well, I found myself more in sympathy with their fans.I am also disappointed by the sloppy presentation of the book. Numerous typographical errors - too numerous to count - both in Joshi's writing and in the passages he quotes litter the text, interrupting the flow and jarring the reader (unwashed or not). I would expect a higher level of editorial attention in an academic work of this kind. This, coupled with Joshi's sometimes rather involved sentence structure, makes the book an uphill slog in places.I have read a few of Mr Joshi's earlier works and enjoyed them far more than this. The wealth of factual detail, and the research which no doubt underpins that detail, adds value to what is a strangely unsatisfying survey. By all means read the book - you will gain a deeper knowledge of the development of supernatural literature; but you will want to make up your own mind about its value.

Questo libro di S.T.Joshi è, come dice anche il titolo, la prima parte di un'opera in 2 volumi sulla narrativa cosiddetta "weird" e "supernatural" a partire dall'antichità (l'autore inizia ad analizzare il soggetto dal poema epico di Gilgamesh) fino alla fine del XIX secolo, con una panoramica sui vari autori (alcuni spesso solo citati) come H.G.Wells, Ambrose Bierce e altri. Devo dire che il tutto è molto interessante ma potrebbe risultare alquanto noioso per il lettore occasionale, prima di tutto perché credo sia utile possedere una sorta di "background" e conoscere già in parte almeno alcuni degli autori o perlomeno il genere, quindi non direi che questa possa essere un'introduzione per chi non ha mai letto nulla a proposito. Poi, anche per chi è più esperto, ci dev'essere un deciso interesse perché altrimenti una sequela ininterrotta di autori e storie così come le presenta Joshi (il cui stile di scrittura è comunque scorrevole) potrebbe risultare, ripeto, noioso e pesante. Per tutti gli altri, Joshi è un'autorità nel suo campo, quindi lo consiglio!