Lovecraft, where to start?

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Well, this isn't really an answer to that, but you (and ever Mythos fan) should get a copy of Encyclopedia Cthulhiana or, even better, Encyclopedia Cthulhiana: Expanded and Revised Second Edition, writte by Daniel Harms (who is really the most knowledgable Lovecraft - or rather, Mythos - scholar out there). While published by Chaosium, the Encyclopedia is by far the single best resource to break down the Mythos in it's entirety. Both versions are out of print now, but are still invaluable resources.

Yes, the Encyclopedia is a great book. But I take issue with your comment that Harms is the most knowledgeable Lovecraft scholar. Mythos, maybe, but definilty not Lovecraft. Lovecrafts writings and the greater mythos writings are really two seperate things. Lovecraft wrote his stories, and encouraged others to use and write about his creations. But he NEVER organized his writings into a "mythos". That was done by August Derleth after HPLs death, who tried to impose an order to what HPL wrote where there really was/is no order. HPL often mentioned that he reused names and ideas in different stories, but was using them for different reasons, never intending them to always be the same creature. His stories, taken by themselves, are not all set in the same "universe". The "mythos", while based on HPLs writings, is really based on Derleth's interpretation and expansion of those writings.

Now I'm not saying that the mythos writings are not fun. Some of them are, and some are very good stories. There is also some absolute dreck that has been published, and is well worth avoiding, too.

Harms also wrote Necronomicon Files: The Truth Behind Lovecraft's Legend, which is also a great book, especially if you are interested in the Necronomicon. Great game resource if you are looking to have big evil tomes of magic in your game as well.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/002-4348101-6309663?v=glance&s=books

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

So where do my old Ballantine copies fall?

Those are the same as the DelRey editions. DelRey is a division of Ballantine Books, which is part of Random House. Some printings of the books have Ballantine listed as the publisher, some as DelRey.

 

[Desdichado]

I think it's just you.

No, it's not. That's actually a particularly common complaint about much of Lovecraft's writing. Good ideas, very hit and miss execution.

 

[nakia]

My favorites are The Rats in the Walls and The Music of Eric Zahn. Other than that, listen to Cthulhu's Librarian. I mean, he is Cthulhu's Librarian, so he knows what he's talking about (and has lots lost of sanity in the process).

 

[Negative Zero]

damn, i look away for one day and we're already on page two!
no point in asking the experts if you're not gonna listen, is there?
thanks guys, i think i'll take CL's advice and pick up at least one of those books
(he is the Elder's Master of Books, afterall )

~NegZ<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_1972005", true); </SCRIPT>

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I also agree that you need to start with the short stories before moving on to the longer ones. I started with reading the short stories and that is what really creeped me out. You can?t just read a couple and expect to get the results. Each only covers a minute fraction of the Mythos and many don?t stand up well on their own. Where it starts to come together is after reading 20-30 short stories. You will really start to notice little things and themes that start to link the stories together, even if only indirectly. It is in this unity of everything where you begin to question the universe. It is not just one boogeyman you need to be afraid of, but the whole wider universe of thing you don?t know about and can?t comprehend. After reading the short stories you can then move on to the longer ones like At the Mountains of Madness and appreciate better the depth of understanding that Lovecraft is allowing in them. I personally don?t recommend much of the Dreamlands stories, at least at first, as they cover a different sort of mythology than the normal ones (There is some connection, but not a strong one).

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

It’s also worth noting that Lovecraft had friendships other writers, including:
• Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, among many other bloody works,
• Robert E Howard, writer and creator of the Conan series,
• August Derleth, an editor who spindled Lovecraft’s stories to have a Christian good versus evil slant).

These writers, among others, also contributed stories to world Lovecraft created, and this all was part of the process that created the Cthulu Mythos.

However, with a very few exceptions, Lovecraft’s original stories are the best – even if he has sentences that go on for 70 words at a time and seems bent on exhaustively using the British spelling of every single word in the Thesaurus. The kind of giddy despair they show is as hard to resist as a bag of junk food.

Personally, at the top of this list are
• Rats in the Walls
• Call of Cthulu
• Pickman’s Model
• Shadow out of Time
• The Witch House
• Shadow over Innsmouth
• The Dunwich Horror

Now I must be off, for odd angles beyond the boundaries of comprehension of the sane and decent minds of man are beckoning and maddening piping of flutes at the terrible nuclear heart of malevolent chaos are calling to me…

 

[Desdichado]

I still stand by my recommendation of "The DreamQuest of Unknown Kadath" as the best Lovecraft ever wrote. For those who think I'm merely a lone voice crying out of the wilderness, here's at least one guy who agreed with me. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/main/classicsdreamquest

 

[Wombat]

I, too, love the Kadath tales, Joshua; I just don't believe they are the best place to start reading.

They have a very different feel to them as well, closer to Lord Dunsany rather than to Machen. Still, I have a deep love of them

 

[Desdichado]

It worked for me when I was a teenager.

But if you want another recommendation, the same collection wherein I read "The DreamQuest" also had "At the Mountains of Madness" and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" as well as various other shorter stories, which I've mostly forgotten now. Those three were the first I read, and I think they're amongst the strongest he's written. "The Shadow over Innsmouth," "The Dunwich Horror," and "Call of Cthulhu" are, on the other hand, probably the most "classic" of his stories, and the most iconic of his work in general, and are therefore good places to start. After that, just pick up whatever else you've got included in the collections you've picked up.

You can probably find most of his stuff in your local library, too. For that matter, from time to time, I've found complete collections of Lovecraft stuff online, although technically I think it hasn't come into the public domain quite yet, and Arkham House seems to take a dim view of these online versions of the stories. But there's still a place or two out there that have them.