Lovecraft, where to start?

[Negative Zero]

i know that what i'm about to say is sacrilegeto some, but ... i've never read any of the H P Lovecraft books. however, i do recognise my shortcomings (well, at least this one ) and am open to remedying the galling oversight. so with this in mind, my questions are:

1) which Lovecraft books are must read (and please don't just say all of them! ), and
2) what order should i read them in?

thanks,
~NegZ

 

[Desdichado]

Well, he didn't write books, he wrote mostly short stories, and at most novellas. I haven't read all of them, by any means, and many of them highlight some pretty serious failings as a writer.

That said, the first story I ever heard of, read and still my favorite by far, is "The DreamQuest of Unknown Kadath." After that, "Call of Cthulhu" is good for a general overview of the way the rest of the stories run. "The Dunwich Horror" isn't bad as well, as a similar kind of story. "Rats in the Walls" is another. "At the Mountains of Madness" is kinda the classic, longer, later Lovecraftian story.

 

[Khayman]

I've always been partial to Herbert West: Reanimator and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Both tales concern themselves with science gone mad, more or less.

Of the short stories, The Shadow over Innsmouth is a personal favourite. You'll never look at a fish market the same way again.

One great thing about reading Lovecraft is that I used it as a springboard to read Bierce, Chambers, Campbell and others that influenced/were influenced by Lovecraft. I'm currently losing d100 SAN collecting bits of fiction that contribute to the Hastur mythos (another of Lovecraft's powers-that-be story cycles, linked to ennui and madness).

 

[EricNoah]

I also enjoyed "At the Mountains of Madness." So find a collection with that one and "Call of Cthulhu" in it.

 

[David Howery]

to be honest, I never considered Lovecraft to be all that great.. he had a lot of good ideas, but too many of them were executed badly. Many of his short stories are simply bad.
However, if you are a DM, HPL is a great source of adventure ideas. I ran an adventure based heavily on At the Mountains of Madness (although I changed it from the polar regions to a desert). HPL's stories abound in lost cities and wierd monsters, so read them in this light, and you'll get a great source of inspiration for new adventures....

 

[Wombat]

If you are just starting, I suggest not going straight to the longer tales, such as At The Mountains of Madness or Call of Cthulhu. First up I'd go with the true short stories, rather than the novellas. Some great ones that way are Rats in the Wall and Pickman's Model.

And then there is my personal favourite, Colour Out of Space...

 

[GlassJaw]

to be honest, I never considered Lovecraft to be all that great.. he had a lot of good ideas, but too many of them were executed badly. Many of his short stories are simply bad.

I think it's just you.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I'd start with either of these:

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/002-4348101-6309663?v=glance&s=books

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...1/002-4348101-6309663?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance

Both are edited and have notes by S.T. Joshi, the most knowledgable Lovecraft scholar out there. His work on these editions is excellent, and the editions by Penguin have very nice selections of stories presented in the definitive corrected texts. The first contains some of his most classic short stories, while the second contains some great stories and At the Mountains of Madness, which many consider his best work.

Whatever you do, don't buy the editions that DelRey has out there, they cost the same but don't have the corrected texts and the annotations found in the Penguin editions. The most popular of these is The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre which is what most booksellers will point you towards, since almost all the big stores carry it. Skip it and have them order one of the Penguin editions if they don't have them in stock, it'll be well worth the extra couple days you have to wait for it.

 

[demiurge1138]

What's been corrected? I have read some of both the DelRey and the Penguin series, and didn't notice any major changes...

Demiurge out.

 

[nikolai]

What's been corrected? I have read some of both the DelRey and the Penguin series, and didn't notice any major changes...

I think it's just minor corrections to punctuation, which allows re-copyrighting. I can't imagine it's major changes.

I've a related question. Where do you finish with Lovecraft? What's the best way to get your hands on everything Lovecraft wrote? I keep on coming across different re-compilations, how do I get everything?

Khayman;

Don't stop there! Could you give a bit more detail (or links to more detail) on the best places to go after Lovecraft. Which authors which books. It's very easy to choose A-list authors to read, but I find picking authors who aren't quite as big name much harder.