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Penguin are very good at celebrating their anniversaries. Previously we’ve had the Penguin Sixties and then the Penguin Classics 60s back in the mid 1990s for the company’s sixtieth birthday – each series featuring sixty little pocket-sized books which were 60p each, and an eclectic mix they were too. I remember visiting loads of different bookshops to try and collect the lot – of course they brought out a boxed set slightly later, but I think I managed to get all of the orange spined 60s, and nearly all of the black classics.
Now the Penguin Modern Classics series is fifty years old, and Penguin have produced a variation on their previous celebratory sets. They’ve produced a set of fifty small volumes by fifty authors, each featuring a selection of short fiction. For more detail and the full list, see the Penguin web site here. But don’t they look nice? Keeping the style of the latest incarnation of the series with white spines, silver covers with the distinctive font, and black and white author photos on the back. Nice box – want one! (Homer drool).
I was delighted to receive two of them to review. Having perused the list I picked H P Lovecraft then asked for a random pick…
I am trying these days to read more of the authors that have influenced so many others and Lovecraft is one of them. The high priest of ‘weird’, his short stories are dark Gothic fantasies, horror with some fairy tale elements or science fiction thrown in. These are the first I’ve read, and if the three in this little volume are anything to go by, I’ll enjoy reading more and think I’ll need to acquire the anthologies listed below!
The Colour Out of Space written in 1927 – is a classic Sci-Fi horror tale of a meteorite that falls in a farming valley and gradually poisons everything around it. The dread engendered by this tale’s narrator is palpable and terrible – pure evil poisoning and sucking the life out of all living things within its grasp.
The Outsider is more of a fantasy, and strangely brought to mind a miniature of Mark Z Danielewski’s magnificent modern horror novel House of Leaves, in which a door in a house is found with a never-ending world going down, down, down. In this short story a twisted creature discovers a door leading up from his dark subterranean castle.
Lastly, in The Hound, a grave-robber takes one amulet too many and is driven mad by a curse. Less ‘weird’ than the preceding two tales, but still highly atmospheric and charged with dark energy.
I loved the ‘weirdness’ of these tales – that word is perfect for them. They were fantastical, bleakly pessimistic, dark in tone as well as lacking sunshine, and rich in descriptive language. Lovecraft is a hit (8.5/10)
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Now for Robert Coover – an author of whom I knew absolutely nothing at all. Turns out he’s an American professor at Browns, now in his 70s, and Wikipedia told me he’s considered a fabulist and an author of metafiction. New takes on fairy tales I adore, and I’m very fond of Paul Auster’s metafiction – so I was looking forward to the three short stories here too (all taken from his 1969 collection Pricksongs and Descants) .
The title story tells a tale of what happens in a circus freak show when the Thin Man wants to put on a little muscle to impress the Fat Lady who is going on a diet for him. A rather sad fairy tale.
The last tale in this trio, A Pedestrian Accident, is narrated by a man who has been run over by a lorry. He lies dying while weird people argue around him – or maybe in his pain he’s hallucinating. Nasty actually, and contains several moments of pure comedy which will make you wish you hadn’t laughed!
It is the second story in this set which is a masterpiece though – The Babysitter. A teenager arrives to babysit for Dolly and Harry Tucker who are going out to a party, leaving her to get two tricky youngsters bathed and off to bed and deal with a hungry, pooey baby. The Dad fancies the girl. She’s wondering whether to invite her boyfriend Jack over once the kids have gone to bed, what to watch on the telly and whether to have a bath too or not. Her boyfriend’s mate Mark is trying to persuade Jack to let him soften her up for him, they should both go over to the Tuckers’ house. This story is all about sex – more particularly thinking about it. They all fantasize about the girl, and as they all work themselves up, their fantasies all become more and more outrageous, paralleled by the girl imagining increasingly outlandish stories about the children until you’re not quite sure what is real and what isn’t. Proper metafiction – absolutely brilliant!
Having now investigated Coover a little, I’m dying to read his novel Gerald’s Party (1986). Where a drunken party carries on around the corpse of a dead actress – Cocktails, sex, and violence. Sounds slightly like a louder American version of Mike Leigh’s wonderful Abigail’s Party, which Channel 4′s reviewer said: “Abigail’s Party still ranks as the most painful hundred minutes in British comedy-drama.” ’Little top-up anyone?’
So Robert Coover – Another new author and another hit for me (8.5/10)
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All this means of course, that I just must have the full set of Penguin Mini Modern Classics!
To order from Amazon.co.uk
Mini Modern Classics Box Set
The Colour Out of Space (Penguin Mini Modern Classics)
Romance of the Thin Man and the Fat Lady (Penguin Mini Modern Classics)
Most of Lovecraft’s stories are conveniently anthologised in this trio of Penguin Modern Classics:
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories 
House Of Leaves
Pricksongs & Descants (Penguin Modern Classics)
Gerald’s Party (Penguin Modern Classics)
The collector in my really wants these too! They are a great idea, if you manage to see the Truman Capote one then do pick that up because I reas Children on their birthdays a few weeks ago and thats really good.
Robert Coover is a new name to me as well, but those stories sound like just my kind of thing. Another name to add to the list…
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I don’t think I’ve read anything by Lovecraft, although I know China Mieville is a big fan! That and Coover’s book both seem suitably weird. And I hope you do get your mitts on the whole set:)
I’d always meant to try Lovecraft – this sample definitely makes me want to read more. Must elevate Mieville up the pile too.
Don’t these look great. I will certainly be looking out for them. Some great titles too.
I won this set of books yesterday, which thankfully means I don’t need to try and pick just two or three to read – they all sound fabulous! Great reviews – I’ve never read Coover or Lovecraft so looking forward to reading them!
Lucky you! Wow! They’re giving a set away on the Penguin website too … I entered but doubt very much I shall win.
… you never know
I’ve read a few Lovecraft stories in different anthologies but I hadn’t heard of Robert Coover until you mentioned him.
One question though – what is metafiction?
And while I am in questioning mode – what is steampunk?
The latter phrase keeps cropping up but I haven’t the vaguest idea what either of them mean – clearly there are huge gaps in my knowledge of matters literary!
Steampunk is great Liz – it’s novels usually set in an alternate Victorian/Edwardian era with technology thrown in, and often fantasy/dystopian elements – so Jules Verne/HG Wells with knobs on!
Metafiction channels itself – so for instance Paul Auster often crops up as a character in his own novels, and the line between fiction and reality is blurred. Books within books that don’t let you forget you’re reading a book. Difficult to pull off I think!!!
I hadn’t heard of Coover either, but the Babysitter was brilliant!
Thanks for the info – there must be serious holes in my literary knowledge!
Both of these volumes sound wonderful! I actually have a collection of Lovecraft stories somewhere around the apartment, so I might just have to dig them out! (And I probably will actually have to dig, because last I recall, they were at the very bottom of a very tall, teetering stack!)
I’ve been rather intrigued by this box set ever since it was first mentioned online. Penguin seems to be going for a very classy look and boy does it work well. The titles seem well-picked and diverse as well… I’ll definitely be perusing the lists to find a few good reads.
Oh, YOU’RE the reason I didn’t get the Lovecraft!
This series is all so interesting – now want to read these too… although it was mostly the tidbit about The House of Leaves which really intrigued me…
I really like the size of these books – just right for the train and a bag for the evening (rather than the daytime kitchen-sink-holder). I took one containing three short stories by F Scott Fitzgerald up the London the other night. Lovely!
Both of these sound utterly fantastic and I think that Penguin have done a brilliant job with this set of shorts as everyone I know who has read a few of them seriously wants the box set! I love the sound of both of these, I knew nothing of either author and want to read them both. Great post Annabel.
I am glad we took part in this event with Youth J. Conrad and La Grosse Fifi by Jean Rhys reviews. It was a nice idea. I also posted the list of all reviews here: Penguin Mini Moderns
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Just discovered your blog. Brilliant stuff.
Also, I’ve just finished ‘Colour out of Space’ it, too, being my first experience of H.P.L. I read it because, apparently, he’s a big influence on China Mieville (a fav writier of mine) and, I have to say, I was very impressed. Maybe there’s a latent snob inside me, but I wasn’t expecting a horror story to be so beautifully written.
Tomcat.
Hi Tomcat – welcome. Re HPL – fab wasn’t it. China Mieville is in my TBR pile – the more I hear about The city and the city the more I think I must read it sooner rather than later. Will be visiting your blog soon too. Cheers.
Many thanks – but save yourself the time, my blog’s not as good as yours!
‘The City and the City’ is brilliant. I’ve been umming and aahing about how to review it for a while. It’s got a lot of post-structuralist influences, and writing about semiotics is…well, let’s say it’s not my strong point. You should def read it though.
His new book ‘embassytown’ is currently winging its way to my house as we speak. Very excited…
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