Where to start with Lovecraft?

[Mercule]

Similar to Elric, the Lovecraft/Cthulhu stories have been on my list of "should read" for years, but I don't know where to start. I've even been told that there is no real starting point for Lovecraft. Is this true? Are there certain "must read" books in the set?

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

They're right, there really is no point at which you should start. Good starting points depends on what you want to read. Dreams of Terror & Death if you want to start out on his more Dunsanian and surreal Dreamlands stories (though I can't quite figure out why "Charles Dexter Ward" and "Dreams in the Witch-House" are in here), or Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror & the Macabre if you want to start off with what are generally accepted as his best stories, including most of the Cthulhu Mythos stories. I recommend the latter.

As a whole, Lovecraft is very uneven as a writer. His good stories are very, very good indeed, but at the same time, his not-so-good stories suck royally. So stick with the second book, and you'll be in luck (although the first does contain some good stuff, too), but like with Robert E. Howard, try to filter out any ideas of racial acceptance and think like a racist 20s and 30s guy for a bit.

 

[Cannibal_Kender]

A couple of the best are The Colour out of Space, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

 

[Dark Jezter]

You should start with the story where the main character goes insane at the end.

 

[Swoop109]

You should start with the story where the main character goes insane at the end.

That really helps to narrow down the choices.

 

[Swoop109]

A good place to start with reading Lovecraft is a 2 volume set entitled; The Annotated Lovecraft, and, More Annotated Lovecraft.
Collected and reserached by St. Joshi, these two books cover a range of Lovecraft's work and help to show his progression as a writer and the different forms of horror he incorporated into his work.

 

[demiurge1138]

ST Joshi also wrote the footnotes to The Call of Cthulhu and The Thing on the Doorstep, two very nice collections. Neither of them has The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (my personal favorite), but they've got a good mix of Dunsanian stories and more standard Mythos works. And the footnotes are quite extensive, but there are more stories than in the Annotated Lovecraft books.

If you can find a copy, there's a Book Club exclusive collection entitled Black Seas of Infinity, which I recommend because it includes some of Lovecraft's "revisions", stories he helped other people write.

Demiurge out.

 

[Dirigible]

I'd say start with Call of Cthulhu... well, actually, I'd say start with The Rats In The Walls. Absolutly my favourite Lovecraft story, though one of his less Mythosy (though it still features madness and gibbering horror eldritch gibbous etc).

The Thing on the Doorstep

When Milk Goes Bad!

 

[Klaus]

Search for books that have these stories:
The Call of Cthulhu
The Shadow over Innsmouth
The Dunwich Horror
Dagon
The Cats of Ulthar (a very short, 4 page story)
Pickman's Model
In the Mountains of Madness
Dreams of the Witch House
The Lurking Fear

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

A good place to start with reading Lovecraft is a 2 volume set entitled; The Annotated Lovecraft, and, More Annotated Lovecraft.
Collected and reserached by St. Joshi, these two books cover a range of Lovecraft's work and help to show his progression as a writer and the different forms of horror he incorporated into his work.

Both of these are great collections, but they have lots of detailed annotations which could distract you from the stories if you are a first time reader. I'd recommend the following two books, also edited by Joshi:

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories

These books are also annotated, but the notes are collected in the back of the book instead of being at the bottom of each page.

For individual stories, some of my favorites are The Rats in the Walls, At the Mountains of Madness, The Colour out of Space, and The Music of Erich Zann.