Saturday, April 03, 2010

Harper's Half-Hour Series

Lovecraft paraphrased the Harper-Half Hour series of the Adventures of Ulysses in 1897 in poetic format.

Mr. Joshi wote back in 1996 or so in HPL: A Life ..."I have not been able to ascertain what the book in Harper's Half Hour Series is...".

Here, at long last and thanks to "Da Google", is an advertisement for that very series. Charles Lamb apparently wrote several of the classical series for Harper's. The ad dates from 1878.

There is also another little book from an 1880 advertisement and review, see below. And a Lamb review from Publisher's Weekly clearly stating that Lamb's book was prose.







Tale from the Odyssey is the title of a modest little book that we heartily coiumend to parents for the graceful simplicity of its versions of a number of Homers most captivating stories and for the interest in classical fable that it will excite in the minds of the young No fairy book could be more delightful Indeed the stories which it tells of the Homeric Games of Ulysses and Polyphemus of vEolue and the Shades of Scylla aud Charybdis of Circe the Sirens aud the Men Eaters appeal to the imagination of childhood and to the child's sense of wonder as perfectly as any fairy tale at the same time that they will effect a lodgment in its mind of a round of classical literature that has become a living part of the thought of all civilized people (written by Masterfamilias)

from Harper's new monthly magazine, Volume 60‎ - Page 795
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And from Publisher's Weekly Vol 15:



Lamb's well known paraphrase of the Odyssey story i prose for young readers treating of the conduct and sufferings of Ulysses presenting the picture of a brave man struggling with adversity.
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Chrispy will continue to watch for a COPY of Lamb's book, but suffice it to say, HPL took the prose narrative and condensed the 159 pages to 88 lines. Not bad !!

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