The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies (Penguin Classics)

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the Kindle version of this book so I have no idea what these dunces below are talking about their iPhone probably doesn’t work and they shouldn’t blame it on Amazon or Clark Ashton Smith. I assure you there is nothing wrong with the eBook, having read the entire thing on my Kindle. User error, perhaps? This is a fabulous collection of fabulous tales, and collects stories from the Zothique, Hyperborea, and Averiogne cycles, as well as some other stories to provide a wide scope and breadth of the authors work, which of course also includes selections of his prose poems and poetry, making it a truly unique and expansive collection of Smith’s thought and writing. S.T. Joshi’s introduction is superb and discusses the chrysalis of Smith from auto-didact, to poet, to Weird Tales author, and is itself a great contribution to supernatural literature. The collection is paced very well and I would recommend reading from start to finish to appreciate the arc in the selection, with the mystifying title story as the climax, and albeit, one of the most stirring and deeply confounding and transcendent story I have read. Clark Ashton Smith’s evocative prose leaps off the page and takes you to worlds that are beyond imaginig. Some of his stories are horrific, some are weirdly beautiful, and all of them will transport you in some way from the mundane to the fantastical. Smith is a wizard in the way he can suspend disbelief and ensnare even the most skeptical reader in his realms of fantasy, as his words are like potions.

Where to begin? Well, since this is intended as introductory volume of Clark Ashton Smith's literary work, perhaps a few brief remarks about Smith himself are in order. Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961) was a poet, short story writer, sculptor, and painter. He is primarily remembered today as a friend and colleague of H.P. Lovecraft (of Cthulhu Mythos fame) and Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan), but, although his writing resembles that of both men, he was most assuredly his own man, both as a writer and an individual. Primarily a poet, Smith took to writing fiction, in part to earn income to support his ailing parents. Writing mostly in a genre that would now probably be described as dark fantasy fiction, his work was perhaps more aptly referred to by the great speculative fiction writer Fritz Leiber as simply sui generis. On to the book itself. This volume is divided into five sections: a mid-length (15-20 page) introduction by editor S.T. Joshi, a lengthy section (about 250 pages, comprising the majority of the book) of short stories, a brief section (about 20 pages) of prose poetry, a longer section (about 60 pages) of non-prose poetry, and about 30 pages of explanatory notes. The short story selection is excellent, and probably does as good of a job is as possible in a relatively constrained space to demonstrate to the Smith neophyte the range of the author's fiction. The prose poetry is, for lack of a better word, delightful; Joshi has referred to Smith as the finest prose poet in the English language, and, after reading the selections included here, I think the reader will find it very hard to argue the point. I found the non-prose poems to be slightly more problematic, as Smith's (in)famous fondness for recondite words is more readily on display here than elsewhere; nevertheless, there is much to admire here, and a work like his long poem "The Hashish-Eater" probably surpasses anything I have ever read in terms of sheer phantasmagoric imagination. Finally, the footnotes, as they always are in Joshi-edited works, are excellent. Should you purchase this? If you are a fan of writers like Dunsany, Lovecraft, Howard, and Tolkien, the answer is a resounding "yes". Smith is most certainly not to all tastes, but if you enjoy his work, you will almost certainly be an admirer of his for life.

... give it a shot. Smith was a colleague of Lovecraft's, and many of these short stories echo the moods of Lovecraft's "cosmic horror" genre. I don't say you'll ever tire of reading HPL, but this might add variety to your reading along those lines. I found the short stories quite enjoyable, and occasional footnotes often added background or interest to the texts they annotate. The appeared in appendices, though, not on the pages they describe, and had no page references in the back of the book - it became tedious to figure out where to find a footnote that struck my interest. And, as much as I liked the short stories, the 'prose poems' and poetry did little for me. The former seemed more like notebook extracts, sketches of ideas for future development, and not full concepts developed to fruition. The latter, Smith's poetry, did nothing for me. I can't criticize Smith for that, since early public-school misery damaged my enjoyment of poetry beyond recovery. That's a "me" issue, not Smith's. Still, for me, those pages might as well have been blank. I'll look for more of Smith's work, but I admit I won't go too far out of my way for it. -- wiredweird

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This guy is one of the founders of fantasy and weird tales. When you read these stories you can feel as if you are a part of it, no matter how strange and bizarre it is. He really is that good a writer and it's a pity that he's not that well known today.

Leu Lovecraft? Gostou? Tem interesse pelo gênero? Clark Ashton Smith é o próximo autor pra você. Embora no Brasil existam poucas edições que tragam a obra desse autor traduzida, vale a pena conferir seu trabalho, organizado com maestria nesse compilado de contos e poemas. A escrita dá um pouco de trabalho em alguns momentos mas garanto que até mesmo os americanos têm dificuldade com alguns dos substantivos que o autor usa (bastante parecido com Lovecraft nesse aspecto, diga-se de passagem).

Clark Ashton Smith perhaps first a Poet and only afterward a Writer, which you realize immediately. His stories are capricious, beautifully written, eloquent and extremely imaginative, I have to admit I had to open the encyclopedia more often to look up some words. I recommend it!

Item was as expected and arrived quickly and in good condition. Great read, thanks!