Lovecraft: where to start?

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Lovecraft: where to start?

#1 Salt-Man Z

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Posted 14 July 2008 - 06:25 PM

I'll be finishing Bonehunters tonight and I'm still on the waiting list for Reaper's Gale at the library. So in the meantime, I need something to get me through a few weeks of reading. I've been thinking of trying Lovecraft; I know very little about his work, but the little I do know has me intrigued. Does anyone have any recommendations on where to start?

I'm looking at a couple of short story collections, both currently available at my library:

The Dunwich Horror and Others
At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels

Can anyone recommend one over the other? Are there certain stories I should make sure to read? Thanks for any suggestions.

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#2 Illuyankas

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Posted 14 July 2008 - 06:35 PM

The complete works of HP. Lovecraft, free and legal for you to read. Useful even if only to tell you which ones you've missed.

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#3 Skywalker

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Posted 14 July 2008 - 06:45 PM

Excellent link Illy...

I've been meaning to read me some lovecraft for quite some time myself.

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#4 Aptorian

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Posted 14 July 2008 - 07:37 PM

I can certainly tell you there are some to avoid. Some of them are so hard to read or so boring that you'll catch yourself falling asleep as your nose hits the coffeetabel with a sickening crunch.

#5 stone monkey

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Posted 15 July 2008 - 03:51 PM

As a youngster Lovecraft's style used to irritate me no end, as he's wordy to an almost Dickensian degree. I've just started reading him again, after a gap of 20 years or so, and it amazes me how much my opinion of him has changed. He still waxes a bit prolix for my taste and his expressed attitudes to all sorts of things (race, gender etc.) are astonishingly unpleasant, even for a man of 1920s America, but the ideas really do shine through.

And the number of writers who owe him a debt is staggering; for instance if you've not read Lovecraft but have read China Mieville go back and read him again after reading Old HP, you'll definitely see something. If you want to get the whole Cosmic Horror thing then he's absolutely the guy to read.

Key texts are:
The Call of Cthulhu
At the Mountains of Madness
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Colour Out Of Space - which is my personal favourite
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Dunwich Horror
The Shadow Out of Time

There's also the group of writers he corresponded with, some of whom wrote stories in the same vein (or even in the same universe). People like Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E Howard, Frank Belknap Long, August Darleth and Robert Bloch etc. And there are modern writers like Ramsey Campbell and Stephen King who are professed admirers of his work The Mist for example is very Lovecraftian.

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#6 Morgoth

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Posted 15 July 2008 - 05:04 PM

I would also think the two stories about that man who travels through the dream world merits a place among the most important ones.. Can't for the life of me remember what it's called

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#7 Raymond Luxury Yacht

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Posted 16 July 2008 - 02:20 AM

Illuyankas;351218 said:

The complete works of HP. Lovecraft, free and legal for you to read. Useful even if only to tell you which ones you've missed.

Nice work Illy!

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#8 Biggles

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Posted 16 July 2008 - 02:24 AM

You can't go wrong with the Cthulhu Mythos. But like Apt said, some of his work is unbearable.

http://en.wikipedia..../Cthulhu_Mythos

#9 biblioholic

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Posted 16 July 2008 - 03:46 AM

Morgoth;351808 said:

I would also think the two stories about that man who travels through the dream world merits a place among the most important ones.. Can't for the life of me remember what it's called

Do you mean The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath?

#10 Raymond Luxury Yacht

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Posted 16 July 2008 - 04:04 AM

I haven't read much Lovecraft. With the free link, I may have to rectify that. Are we sure it's legal?

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#11 Zanth13

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Posted 16 July 2008 - 04:21 AM

Raymond Luxury Yacht;352164 said:

I haven't read much Lovecraft. With the free link, I may have to rectify that. Are we sure it's legal?

I believe so,

He is dead, and has been dead for a while, similar to why many of the old books can be got for free as E-Books...

the copy right ran out or something similar

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#12 Aptorian

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Posted 16 July 2008 - 06:23 AM

I believe the authors rights last for about 70ish years. I believe he's been dead for about that amount of time...

I'm sure he'll be back when the Old Ones rise.

#13 Raymond Luxury Yacht

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Posted 16 July 2008 - 06:41 AM

Well let's get to robbing from the dead. Bring it on.

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#14 Wordmerchant

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Posted 16 July 2008 - 02:10 PM

Morgoth;351808 said:

I would also think the two stories about that man who travels through the dream world merits a place among the most important ones.. Can't for the life of me remember what it's called

"The Silver Key" and "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", both stories featuring Randolph Carter, one of HPL's few recurring characters; also to be found in "The Statement of Randolph Carter".

@Salt-Man Z - At the Mountains of Madness contains most of the "classic" HPL stories, so if you choose to do the library thing, I would suggest that one first, follow with Dunwich Horror, then find a copy (most likely online) of Herbert West, Reanimator. This should cover the HPL essentials, the rest of his work only matters to those of us who require the feeding of our completeness obsession.

#15 Salt-Man Z

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Posted 16 July 2008 - 05:17 PM

I was sick yesterday, so I didn't make it to the library. Instead, I grabbed Card's Magic Street, which should take me only a couple of days. I'll be dropping Bonehunters off at the library on the way home, so I'll pick up the two collections I mentioned -- consensus seems to be that most of the "classic" stories are contained therein.

Danke, all.

#16 Mezla PigDog

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Posted 17 July 2008 - 09:29 PM

Sorry to derail the thread, but this is making me chuckle so I must share! I first saw this thread title when looking for hot topics using the "Who's online" function. Not knowing that Lovecraft is a person or author, I thought SMZ was asking for bedroom advice