This should perhaps be more aptly titled "The History of Supernatural Horror in Literature." Lovecraft does an excellent job of listing works that contain cosmically horrific elements and themes – and that's it. If you're looking for a Grand Unifying Theory of supernatural horror, this isn't the place to find it. It's more genre-definition-by-name-dropping than critical combination of theoretical ideas.

Nonetheless, it's an interesting and useful resource. I don't know that I'll ever read it all the way through again, but it will definitely be useful as a reference. ( )

S. T. Joshi's annotations helped immensely with my understanding of Lovecraft's essay, particularly with the Gothic period authors (e.g. M. G. Lewis, et al) since that is the era with which I'm least familiar. Lovecraft assumes his reader has a depth of familiarity with the works discussed equal to his own, which might not be true of modern readers (at least it isn't for me!)

It's a shame Lovecraft died at such an early age; I would've loved to see his essay expanded into literature of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. As it stands though, it is still an insightful work and well worth reading for the serious horror literature fan or scholar. ( )