For more than two decades, Robert H. Waugh has been one of the most penetrating scholars of the work and thought of H. P. Lovecraft. His earlier volume, The Monster in the Mirror (2006), contained a treasury of essays that displayed Waugh's exhaustive knowledge of Lovecraft's work and his skill in placing Lovecraft in a broader literary context. This new collection of essays cements Waugh's reputation as a pioneering Lovecraft scholar.

Among the contributions are studies of the influence of World War I on "The Rats in the Walls"; Lovecraft's relationship to his two late colleagues, Robert Bloch and Fritz Leiber, as well as to such other writers as D. H. Lawrence, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Eugene O'Neill; the influence of Roman literature and history on Lovecraft; and the sublimated eroticism of "The Thing on the Doorstep" and "Medusa's Coil." All in all, this volume, containing several previously unpublished essays, displays the inexhaustible depths of Lovecraft's writing and Robert H. Waugh's deftness in probing its intricacies.