Which H.P. Lovecraft book should I read.

[Layzor]

Hello Escapists, I've recently finished my degree in English literature and for the first time in three years can read whatever the hell I want. I've been meaning to check out Lovecraft for quite some time and I was just wondering if anyone can recommend which of his books I should read first. One that serves best as an introduction to his works so that I can see whether I like it or not.

Cheers.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I'd suggest a collection of various short stories. This is a good start [http://www.amazon.com/H-P-Lovecraft-Library-America/dp/1931082723/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1307301398&sr=8-3].

 

[DeadlyYellow]

He wrote books? I thought they were mostly just short stories for magazines. The Shadow Over Innsmouth, A Color Out of Space, A Shadow Out of Time, take your pick. You can find most of his work online.

 

[camazotz]

"At the Mountains of Madness" includes his best novella but honestly all of Lovecraft's published works encompass about four collections and you will probably find it fairly easy to read all of them after recovering from your English Lit. experience. "The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath," "The Call of Cthulhu" and so forth are highlights but pretty much all of his work is perfect. If you're looking for an ebook collection this might work: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/HP-Lovecraft/H-P-Lovecraft/e/9781435122963?r=1&cm_mmc=Google%20Product%20Search-_-Q000000630-_-HP%20Lovecraft-_-9781435122963

 

[sheogoraththemad]

damn, I want to read some lovecraft too but they are very rare in my country and I think they didn't even translate it in my language (which shouldn't be big problem for me) if anyone has a good source on lovecraft stories on the internet please share it with me.

 

[Axolotl]

At the Mountains of Madness, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath.

Those three are not only some of his best but also give a good variety of the different styles he had.

 

[SquidVicious]

Most of his work is short stories with a few longer novellas. I'd recommend getting the Penguin Classics edition of "The Call of Cthulhu & Other Weird Stories". It's got most of his well known writings in it like "The Call of Cthulhu", "Shadow Over Innsmouth", "Herbert West - Reanimator", "The Colour Out of Space", and my favourite "The Rats in the Walls". It's also organized in a way that starts you off with his shorter stories to help ease you into his writing style, which helped immensely when I was 16 and not use to that caliber diction and syntax.

If you find yourself enjoying what you've got from this collection, I'd then recommend getting the Necronomicon, which is a collection of pretty much everything he wrote.

 

[similar.squirrel]

I found The Dunwich Horror, The Music of Erich Zann, At The Mountains of Madness, The Call of Cthulhu and Pickman's Model to be the best. Good luck finding them all in one anthology, though.

I'd avoid the Dream Cycle stories, by and large. The Randolph Carter series is also somewhat weak, along with The Deams in the Witch House. Basically, the more outré settings aren't great, and the prosaic, drawn-out stories with lineages and so forth also leave something to be desired.
Algernon Blackwood. You should read some of his stuff. Arthur Machen, also. Steer clear of Dunsany, Poe is okay, most Cthulhu Mythos writers suck.

/pedant

 

[Avatar Roku]

Most of his work is short stories with a few longer novellas. I'd recommend getting the Penguin Classics edition of "The Call of Cthulhu & Other Weird Stories". It's got most of his well known writings in it like "The Call of Cthulhu", "Shadow Over Innsmouth", "Herbert West - Reanimator", "The Colour Out of Space", and my favourite "The Rats in the Walls". It's also organized in a way that starts you off with his shorter stories to help ease you into his writing style, which helped immensely when I was 16 and not use to that caliber diction and syntax.

If you find yourself enjoying what you've got from this collection, I'd then recommend getting the Necronomicon, which is a collection of pretty much everything he wrote.

That was my first Lovecraft book as well, worked very well. Then I read the same publisher's collection with At the Mountains of Madness. Definitely read that. It includes IMO his best story, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, as well as all the stories before that which give it context. Honestly, that story becomes so much better when you see how much of his own previous work he was tying together. Pickman, the Cats of Ulthar, Iranon, Night Gaunts, Nyarlathotep, so much stuff. Then, a sort of Throw away line in At the Mountains of Madness becomes even better, since it seems to reference Kadath.

 

[Avatar Roku]

I found The Dunwich Horror, The Music of Erich Zann, At The Mountains of Madness, The Call of Cthulhu and Pickman's Model to be the best. Good luck finding them all in one anthology, though.

I'd avoid the Dream Cycle stories, by and large. The Randolph Carter series is also somewhat weak, along with The Deams in the Witch House. Basically, the more outré settings aren't great, and the prosaic, drawn-out stories with lineages and so forth also leave something to be desired.
Algernon Blackwood. You should read some of his stuff. Arthur Machen, also. Steer clear of Dunsany, Poe is okay, most Cthulhu Mythos writers suck.

/pedant

Well, obviously a matter of opinion, but I LOVED his dream cycle stuff, especially The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and Iranon. Lovecraft could really paint a picture, and as much as I love his later stuff, that particular aspect is sort of lacking from them.

Granted, I've only just discovered At the Mountains of Madness and other such works, whereas I read Dream Quest some time ago, but still.

 

[Skuffyshootster]

The Necronomicon [http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft-Commemorative/dp/0575081570/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1307302456&sr=8-2]

Pretty much all you need.

 

[mireko]

damn, I want to read some lovecraft too but they are very rare in my country and I think they didn't even translate it in my language (which shouldn't be big problem for me) if anyone has a good source on lovecraft stories on the internet please share it with me.

H.P. Lovecraft

Nearly all of his work should be public domain by now. As long as you don't mind reading on a computer, there it is.

OT: I'm especially fond of At the Mountains of Madness, The Music of Erich Zann, Nyarlathotep and The Shadow over Innsmouth.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

My favorite has always been "The Outsider."

 

[boradis]

None of them. I lost all respect for him and interest in his work when I learned the depths of his bigotry and racism.

And no, it wasn't the run-of-the-mill bigotry most people had in his era. His views were so bizarre and extreme that they made the regular intolerant types of the time go, "Whoa dude, dial it down a notch -- or ten."

Fear and hatred of other cultures, races, women and sex itself is in fact the subtext of much of his work. His contempt for all people who weren't men of English descent was basically all he wrote about.

Here are some cites if you don't believe me:

http://www.contrasoma.com/writing/lovecraft.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft#Race.2C_ethnicity.2C_and_class

He also wrote a short "humorous" poem which would make the point far more effectively than I could, but its title is offensive enough to get me permanently banned from here. And rightfully so.

Here are some quotes from his letters. Please be aware that his views are intensely hateful:

http://technoccult.net/archives/2009/04/02/unspeakable-horror-of-hp-lovecraft/

So yeah, I'd say just avoid him altogether. Or at the very least realize that in order to understand what he's really saying you need to replace every "foul, unspeakable horror" in his stories with "other ethnic groups or women."

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Hello Escapists, I've recently finished my degree in English literature and for the first time in three years can read whatever the hell I want. I've been meaning to check out Lovecraft for quite some time and I was just wondering if anyone can recommend which of his books I should read first. One that serves best as an introduction to his works so that I can see whether I like it or not.

Cheers.

Here is a link to literally everything the man ever wrote (that people are aware of) [http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/]. As for good places to start, assuming you want the fiction and not his poetry, I'd personally recommend The Colour Out of Space [http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cs.asp], which is sublimely creepy.

 

[Telumektar]

I have The Dunwich Horror, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and a couple of volumes containing some short stories (The call of Cthulhu, Dagon, The thing on de doorstep, etc). I recommend starting with some tales just to get used to his style, the Call od Cthulhu and Dagon being some of the best to generate a solid first impression of his works and the feel of cosmic horror. His novels are really good and their athmospheres are great, the structure he used for his short stories is really good too, generating a lot of tension, mantaining it thorugh some pages using a lot detail and generally landing a blow at the very end. Bam!

Only thing I don't like about his works is the blatant racism he shows, of course, it's understandable for a man of his time, having in mind his family's background, how he was raised and how twisted his vision of life was (despite apparently being really brilliant). Also, he wrote about a time before his own, so he may have seen that it was "ok" to introduce such foul concepts. Tough, as boradis said, he was clearly showing his view of things through the narrator's voice and his character's sayings.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

You can find everything he wrote online for free, I believe.

Call of Cthulhu is a good place to start. It's a pretty quick read.

 

[EHKOS]

I liked Cool Air and The Colour Out of Space.