BrienneofQarth Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 I have recently become aware (after having found myself at a rather bizarre 'Cthulhu mythos' themed games night....) of HP Lovecraft's work and I want to learn more? Can anyone recommend a good place to start in his writing, or if it's worth the investment? So far all I know is 'tentacles', 'dimensions' Much thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt b Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 Almost any "best of...." collection should do the trick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrienneofQarth Posted August 8, 2014 Author Share Posted August 8, 2014 Almost any "best of...." collection should do the trick. Thanks, ^_^ I'm wondering are there any particularly good stories where I could start? (sorry, I should have been more specific..) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt b Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 Thanks, ^_^ I'm wondering are there any particularly good stories where I could start? (sorry, I should have been more specific..) That's why I suggested a "Best of...", they almost all have more or less the same stories (At the Mountains of Madness, the Call of Cthulhu, the Dunwich Horror, etc, etc) and anything in one of those collections is usually worth reading. Just get your hands on one and start at the beginning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrienneofQarth Posted August 8, 2014 Author Share Posted August 8, 2014 That's why I suggested a "Best of...", they almost all have more or less the same stories (At the Mountains of Madness, the Call of Cthulhu, the Dunwich Horror, etc, etc) and anything in one of those collections is usually worth reading. Just get your hands on one and start at the beginning. Thanks. Will do, :) Just wanted to know if there was more of a knack to it (started off reading the Conan books with a randomly authored later volume, not a good experience...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByTor Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 Huge Lovecraft fan here. This is the best collection I've come across. http://www.amazon.com/H-P-Lovecraft-Library-America/dp/1931082723 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 (Preamble: there is endless debate about the public domain nature of Lovecraft's works. But as he died in 1937, it is generally accepted that they are). Various Lovecraftian stories can be found online here: http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html They vary markedly in date, quality, and the embarrassing racism quotient. Ones I would recommend: - At the Mountains of Madness. This one is a good deal longer than the rest, so possibly try some others first, then come back to it.- The Call of Cthulhu. Not so much scary as iconic. And it actually includes the protagonist visiting my home city, which gives me a weird parochial pride.- The Colour Out of Space.- The Dunwich Horror.- The Outsider.- Pickman's Model.- The Rats in the Walls.- The Shadow Out Of Time.- The Shadow Over Innsmouth.- The Whisperer In Darkness. Easily the scariest story he ever wrote. That gives you a decent overview of what is considered his most important stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_am_no_one Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 I enjoyed The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward. But I haven't read enough of HPL's works to know how it compares to the other stories listed here. It may pale in comparison, but I liked it well enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanna Stark Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 The Rats in the Walls is freaky as well. I dunno, I found The Music of Eric Zahn to really frighten me. I don't know what it was with it that made it freak me out (in a good way, but still!). Lovecraft really does that creeping, nameless horror really well. When it works, it really freaks you out. If you just want to familiarise yourself with the Cthuluh mythos then stick to the stories dealing with that perhaps? Not all of Lovecrat's stories are Cthuluh mythos stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 You can get the complete works of Lovecraft for free online in one big collection (here), so I wouldn't pay for any 'Best Of' collection, even if they do pick out the best ones...At the Mountains of Madness, The Call of Cthulhu, and A Shadow over Innsmouth are, I think, the most iconic and give you a fairly quick insight into what makes the Cthulhu mythos so popular, so they'd be good places to start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolverine Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 The Rats in the Walls is freaky as well. I dunno, I found The Music of Eric Zahn to really frighten me. I don't know what it was with it that made it freak me out (in a good way, but still!). Lovecraft really does that creeping, nameless horror really well. When it works, it really freaks you out. If you just want to familiarise yourself with the Cthuluh mythos then stick to the stories dealing with that perhaps? Not all of Lovecrat's stories are Cthuluh mythos stories. That was one that stood out to me as well. I have never been much of a short story reader, but I really enjoyed the Lovecraft collection I read. This is the one that I read. I know I prefer to have a book in my hands but online could certainly feed your hunger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kojiro Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Hm... looks like all of the good advice was already given. But yeah, there's a lot of "Best of..." collections, most of them with significant overlap. Any single one will do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eponine Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 You can get the complete works of Lovecraft for free online in one big collection (here), so I wouldn't pay for any 'Best Of' collection, even if they do pick out the best ones...At the Mountains of Madness, The Call of Cthulhu, and A Shadow over Innsmouth are, I think, the most iconic and give you a fairly quick insight into what makes the Cthulhu mythos so popular, so they'd be good places to start. I suggest not reading the complete works straight through, beginning to end. They get awfully repetitive. Until you've read enough to know if you're a huge fan, pick out the stories from a "best of" list or from the recommendations here. There are about 20 stories that are basically:Narrator is a local professional who gets involved with observing a degraded, inbred New England family who are distantly related to a more respectable old family. A monstrously born (usually through some dark rituals) child of the family becomes an adult obsessed with the dark arts. The narrator discovers that the half-eldritch creature has been researching the Necronomicon at the nearby Miskatonic University library. He shuts himself up in the old family mansion performing unspeakable horrors behind locked doors, until the day comes when he summons a lesser evil deity, takes on his hidden indescribable form, and is dragged into another dimension. Incandescence. Decadent. Stygian. The end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kojiro Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 You forgot Cyclopean and non-Euclidean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo498 Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 And frequent italics are also essential: The horror... unspeakable abomination of the deep.... no.... no... no Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Well, yes. Lovecraft specialises in writing paragraphs where his narrator explains that he can't describe something. And that's even before you get into his pathological fear of black people, Jews, and fish. He was a very strange guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo498 Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 I think the advice of Eponine is spot on, if a little exaggerated. I have no way read all of HPL, but in one anthology with 15-20 stories the familiar and similar themes are already returning frequently. Sure, it is quite well done and creepy and iconic, but it can get tiresome after a while. And as I wrote elswhere he actually spoils some of the stories, when he departs from the general method of only hinting at the unspeakable abominable horror. Hitting Cthulhu with a steamboat felt definitely anticlimactic, but there are others like "the color from outer space" that are really well done. As at least some of them are also available free at the Gutenberg sites or similar ones, I recommend to check out some Algernon Blackwood as well. "The Willows" is really one of the most subtle horror stories I have read. In others Blackwood is closer to traditional ghost stories than Lovecraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Bearing in mind that he didn't just write Cthulhu Mythos stories, even if those are the ones that generally get remembered. There's also classic Gothic Horror and his Dreamland stories (really Dunsany homages) too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrienneofQarth Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 This is great. Thanks for all the advice, all. :cheers: I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigei Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Start with The Shadow Over Innsmouth. My fave. Deeply creepy and the ending, wow. :bowdown: To the posters: Thanks for the links. I didn't know that the stories are all public domain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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