Diving Into Lovecraft: Where should I start?
Sunday, June 24th, 2007 - 10:23am
After tearing through the first three Dune books (and vowing not to continue lest I be disappointed), my fiction reading went on an unwelcome hiatus due to time constraints.
I've got some extra time on my hands now, and I've decided to get into this whole "Lovecraft" fad that's got all you kids atwitter these days.
Seriously, though, the guy has a list of works the size of Rhode Island. Where should I start? I'm pretty much interested in sticking with the Cthulhu mythos for the time being, and I do prefer to go through books chronologically. (In the setting, not the time of writing).
Anyways, make some suggestions, and I'll get cracking.
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http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/
call of cthulu
azathoth
the dunwich horror
the rats in the walls
cool air
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I'll add these favorites and iconic stories:
At the Mountains of Madness
Dagon
The Shadow Out of Time
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Statement of Randolph Carter
The Whisperer in Darkness
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Maybe you should start by watching the movie!
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There is a 3 volume set of his major works available in paperback, which is relatively cheap and well worth getting.
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The only chief novella missing is "The Colour Out of Space"
If you like "high fantasy"- Lord Dunsany's works, for example- then you really should read Lovecraft's fantasy stuff (which preceded the Cthuhu Mythos cycle; "The Doom That Came to Sarnath", "Beyond the Wall of Sleep",
"Eat Keel, Hellbug!"
I highly recommend The Shadow Out of Time; that story blew my mind.
I also recommend you continue on with all of Frank Herbert's Dune books. God Emperor of Dune is thought-provoking, and Heretics of Dune features one of the most bad-ass characters in the series in Miles Teg. Finally, Chapterhouse: Dune brings everything up to a nice clean ending/cliffhanger.
Just avoid the Brian Herbert/Kevin J. Anderson books like the plague.
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Keep in mind that Lovecraft is a bit like Poe... a bit overwrought and not really as scary as they used to be.
Still, I REALLY enjoyed SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH when I first read it... it's got a pretty creepy "x-filesey" vibe to it. Good sense of dread.
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The tabletop game writer Ken Hite has been doing critical reviews of all of Lovecraft's stories on his livejournal recently (http://princeofcairo.livejournal.com/, which might also be of interest.
In particular, he just posted his own recommendations on which is the best of Lovecraft's work (that seem pretty about right to me):
I'm not sure about Colour Out of Space being right at the top there, is my only reservation.
Well, for an anthology, "Bloodcurdling tales of the horror and the macarbe" (Horrible title. I thought the cover art was a nice fit though.) Is a great place to start. It's got The call of cthulhu, the dunwich horror, the color out of space, and the shadow over innsmouth, the shadow out of time, and pickman's model (As well as a few others. But I haven't read this anthology in awhile, so memory escapes me as far as how good they are though.) $13.95 at Barns & Noble. Not too bad, and easy to find.
Ulairi wrote:
Ah Dune. The original works by Frank Herbert were great. The post-mortem novels by his son, not so great.
All a twitter these days? Lovecraft is like an unholy snowball, gaining momentum and mass as it rolls down the mountain of madness over the course of decades (going on a century since he died in the 1930s). The titles already mentioned in the thread are excellent places to start. HPL is definitely kickin it old school. It's practically rated-G by today's standards. Not big on gore and such. But his prose and imagination are captivating. A testament to his work that it still holds such sway in the 21st century.
Now if we could just get a decent Cthullu-inspired game or movie ....
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I think Ward and Innsmouth are the best ways to get your feet wet.
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I have a BA in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin, and teach high school English... and I honestly can't make heads nor tails of what the hell this guy is talking about
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When I read the thread title I did a doubletake.
I read it as "Diving into Lovesauce" the first time.
I'm not sure which potential meaning is more disturbing.
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Hooray! I feel better now.
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Tanglebones wrote:
If you do want to start with a movie, the only ones worth watching are Re-Animator (kinda silly and dated, but still great), Dagon (debatable) and Call of Cthulu (short, B&W, silent, fantastic).
Damn right. This is why I decided NOT to pursue a MA degree in English Lit. Too many people talking out of their anal-openings
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I can't stress enough how great the Call of Cthulhu b&w movie turned out, made by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society. The story itself is convoluted and strangely paced, but they pulled it together cohesively. Read the story, then please buy the movie.
If you really want to start at the most basic level, check out Tales of the Plush Cthulhu.
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The even LITTLER fremen!
Wow... this looks pretty intriguing.
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Once you've delved into "Shadow Over Innsmouth" and "At the Mountains of Madness", You can't go wrong with "Shadow out of Time" which does a pretty good job of explaining the history of the Lovecraft "mythos" and universe. "Call of Cthulhu" is an excellent short story, but the first three, along with "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" remain in my top 10 stories of all time. I am a Lovecraft whore, however. Once you are familiar with HPL and his mythos, check out Clark Ashton Smith's foray into the same subject matter (a good friend of HPL and immortalized in one of his stories as "Klarkash-Ton"), along with Robert E. Howard's similar jaunt into mythos writing. (Yeah, the guy who created Conan). While none quite reach the same level as Lovecraft, there are some "ripping good yarns" in there. Try to read the "The Lurker on the Threshold" ("co-written" by August Derleth and see if you can't figure out which story it was originally all copied from.
THEN, if you want even more, check out Michel Houellebecq's part biography of HPL: "Against the World, Against Life" and you will come to understand how one man could create such an alien, xenophobic body of work.
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Shalalm Baskur
Here's a link to a site explaining Lovecraft's connection to the fabled Necronomicon. Probably alot of b.s. but still interesting.
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Wow, an outpour of recommendations. Thanks a bunch guys. I guess there is no real consensus "first" book, is there? Is there any chronological sequence to the series at all? It's nice to have an (extensive) list, but I guess I was really looking for a list of 3 that I can just go to the bookstore and pick up. I might go for Rabbit's recommendations, and start with Innsmouth since it's a title that's come up a few times.
Fed: I stopped after three because I hated the second book and loved the third, and I wanted to end on a good note. I knew that if I read the last 3 I would get sucked into reading EVERYTHING. I also tore through the first three very quickly, and while the world and story is great, it's also kind of depressing and heavy, and I needed a break. I'll likely go back at some point when my spice addiction kicks in.
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you could always go for the "Library of America" collected edition:
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1931082723/103-8656615-1608623?Subscription...
http://loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=223
here's the list of included stories:
# The Statement of Randolph Carter
# The Outsider
# The Music of Erich Zann
# Herbert West--Reanimator
# The Lurking Fear
# The Rats in the Walls
# The Shunned House
# The Horror at Red Hook
# He
# Cool Air
# The Call of Cthulhu
# Pickman's Model
# The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
# The Colour Out of Space
# The Dunwich Horror
# The Whisperer in Darkness
# At the Mountains of Madness
# The Shadow Over Innsmouth
# The Dreams in the Witch House
# The Thing on the Doorstep
# The Shadow Out of Time
# The Haunter of the Dark
I know these are a bit pricey, but I love this series...
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I think someone needs to make a SAN check.
Dysplastic, if you don't know a really good Call of Cthulhu RPG GM, I'll second the recommendation for Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre. There have got to be tons of used copies out there.
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garion333 wrote:
Don't feel bad if you get the abridged versions. Unabridged Lovecraft is actually... pretty damn bad. The guy drops named and goes on tangents all over the goddamn place and it takes five pages for him to actually start telling a story.
NOTE: Not a doodle bug.
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Part of Lovecraft's "Charm" is his writing style. I would argue that without that, the stories would lack the psychological punch that the characters encounter. If you can't make it past his writing style (admittedly an acquired taste in some instances) then you are not going to enjoy his work.
The "Dream Cycle" stories are quite interesting as well. I really enjoyed "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" and its related stories as a pleasant diversion from the more mainline-horror stuff. For the trainspotters, there are numerous references to the Cthulhu mythos throughout the Silver Key and related stories. Who thought they'd be seeing Pickman again? And in such a (I hesitate to say) "Good" role.
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Shalalm Baskur
Seph, you forgot to tinyurl it.
I agree, the writing style is definitely not something to emulate, but it does capture the overwrought Victorian diarist pretty well. Or at least convincingly.
My favorite is probably "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward."
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