Lovecraft - Where should I start

[McNutt]

I bought a collection of Lovecraft stories but don't know where to start. Should I jump into Call of the Cthulhu or is there a better place to begin?

[hepcat]

It's all goodness and dark from here on out. Honestly, you could just dive in and enjoy yourself. I believe the love of At the Mountains of Madness is pretty heavy in these parts, though. So if you're looking for a jump off suggestion, I would go with that.

[WarPig]

I'm a big fan of Beyond the Wall of Sleep as well. The dreamlands stories are kind of a departure from the insanity. Still, all good.

Tapatalk! How does it work??

[Arcanis]

Call is the only book I have of his and I don't feel like there are things I'm expected to know from the others. So it won't hurt to read it first, but I can't say that the others aren't better choices either.

[Isgrimnur]

I picked up a Kindle "Complete" works earlier that was arranged chronologically. Some of his early stuff is painful to read and indicative of a rookie writer.

[El Guapo]

I just read a couple stories from Lovecraft short stories book I got - At The Mountains of Madness, Call of Cthulu, and the Haunter of the Dark. I enjoyed The Haunter of the Dark the most, actually, though the other two explain more about the Lovecraft universe.

So I'd say grab what's available and dig in, though any of the above three stories I can recommend.

[silverjon]

I don't think there's a best story to start with, but the collections edited and annotated by S.T. Joshi are top-notch, so I hope that's what you've ended up with. I'd consider any other edition inferior at this point.

[ImLawBoy]

I picked up a Kindle "Complete" works earlier that was arranged chronologically. Some of his early stuff is painful to read and indicative of a rookie writer.

Honestly, a lot of his stuff is painful to read. He wrote some great tales and created a good mythology, but his prose often left a lot to be desired, IMO.

[Smoove_B]

While not a book, last year I did watch this film about Lovecraft and his life. I'd recommend it to anyone that has read his stories, particularly to see how he started out as an early writer.

[Arcanis]

For those who want to be maddened on the go.

[hepcat]

I picked up a Kindle "Complete" works earlier that was arranged chronologically. Some of his early stuff is painful to read and indicative of a rookie writer.

Honestly, a lot of his stuff is painful to read. He wrote some great tales and created a good mythology, but his prose often left a lot to be desired, IMO.

Compared to the writers of today, he was friggin' Christopher Marlowe.

He did mature as a writer and ended up forming a writer's group of penpals that included Robert Bloch, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard. I think the formality of his writing style (although the norm of that period) and the fact that they were actually written for the pulps of that time might turn some folks off. But the stories are still great, even if that isn't your cup of tea.

[Debris]

I would jump in and just start reading. A lot of his stories reference other stories/characters/mythoi, so the more you read, the more the nightmare world that he envisioned gets fleshed out.

[Isgrimnur]

Lovecraft does satire: Sweet Ermengarde.

[silverjon]

Lovecraft does satire: Sweet Ermengarde.

People tend to forget that he could be devastatingly funny. His correspondence is entertaining; it's no wonder other writers liked to exchange letters with him.

[Zarathud]

"At the Mountains of Madness" shows up briefly in "The Shadow Out of Time."

Parts of "The Thing on the Doorstep" will make more sense if you've first read "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".

Other than those, the stories work relatively well in any order.

Definitely read "Call of Cthulhu" but I would suggest getting a little taste of his other works first.

[Holman]

I think the best ones to read early are "the Call of Cthulhu," "The Shadow over Innsmouth," "The Dunwich Horror," "The Colour Out of Space," and "At the Mountains of Madness." These feel like core Lovecraft to me.

And I gotta agree, Lovecraft is a genius of horror, but his style can be dreadful. He really really wanted to be Poe, but he doesn't have the poetry.

[gameoverman]

Pickman's Model.

It's a short story, not a novella, so it's a quick read. It touches on his wider world while staying centered on the story at hand. It reads very modern, without some of the really strained language Lovecraft used so often. It has most of Lovecraft's hallmarks, including a revelation at the end.

[hitbyambulance]

i remember the creepiest were "Under the Pyramids", "The Colour Out of Space" and "The Temple". my favorite story was where this one guy had a vision of Cyclopean-non-Euclidean-geometry-land. if you're ever reading a story and you come to a point where you can easily guess the 'twist' ending (such as the abysmal "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family"), feel free to skip it and go to the next. trust me on this.

[hepcat]

Rod Serling was a bit of a fan. Check out the box sets of Night Gallery for some great (and not so great) dramatizations of Lovecraft's works. Pickman's Model and Cool Air were particularly well done.

[Doomboy]

Rod Serling was a bit of a fan. Check out the box sets of Night Gallery for some great (and not so great) dramatizations of Lovecraft's works. Pickman's Model and Cool Air were particularly well done.

I absolutely agree with that. They were quite creepy, and scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. Well, the Pickman's Model episode did. Cool Air is not such a scary story. But it is good.

[Jaymann]

I picked up a Kindle "Complete" works earlier that was arranged chronologically. Some of his early stuff is painful to read and indicative of a rookie writer.

I got the same thing for 99 cents. They are all so short it is not much of a time investment to read them all. A few got a bit tedious so I just skipped ahead to the punchline.

[Lagom Lite]

I believe "The Color out of Space" was one of the novels he himself considered the best. It is very good, and it stands out.

"The Shadow over Innsmouth" for all the references made by modern horror films... It's very iconic of his work.

I very much liked "Cool Air" because of it general icky-ness, and it also illustrates his borderline racism...

[Lagom Lite]

+1 for S.T. Joshi btw.

[silverjon]

Borderline racism?

The man was very obviously bigoted, but also a product of his time.

[Lagom Lite]

Borderline racism?

The man was very obviously bigoted, but also a product of his time.

Right. I'll fix it.

[McNutt]

Thanks for the help. I ended up reading Call of the Chthulu and was kind of ambivalent about it. I'll probably check out The Color Out of Space next, but I recently got sucked into Abercrombie's The Heroes, so I'll finish that one first.

[McNutt]

Ten years later and I finally got around to reading The Color Out of Space. Easy to read in one sitting. I really enjoyed this one. It was better than Call of the Chtulu.

Now I'm ready to dig in.

[hepcat]

Watch the Nick Cage film of the same name from a year or so ago. Not really an adaptation, but hella fun.

[Holman]

Ten years later and I finally got around to reading The Color Out of Space. Easy to read in one sitting. I really enjoyed this one. It was better than Call of the Chtulu.

Now I'm ready to dig in.

Fhtaghn!

If "The Call of C" turned you off, I recommend "The Shadow over Innsmouth" and "The Dunwich Horror." They both feel like adventure/detective stories and less like pseudo-psychological case studies.

After that, dive into "At the Mountains of Madness." It's clearly an inspiration for John Carpenter's The Thing.

[hepcat]

I’ve heard at least one other person say The Thing was influenced by At the Mountains of Madness, but I disagree with that. The Thing sticks pretty closely to the Campbell novella Who Goes There. The only similarity between that and At the Mountains of Madness is the Antarctic setting and a shapeless race…but even then, Shoggoths are gigantic creatures, and they couldn’t/didn’t mimic humans. Other than that, they are very different tales of terror. Mountains is cosmic horror on a grand scale, The Thing is a much more intimate horror story. The sense of paranoia and the claustrophobia that Carpenter created in The Thing are the real horrors.

Now, if you look at In the Mouth of Madness…yeah, definitely a Lovecraft inspired story.

[AWS260]

Not so much "Where should I start," more "where you might end up."

The New York Times on NecronomiCon

What was striking was how many of the participants have worked through the problem of Lovecraft himself to repurpose the basic tropes in his fiction. They are appropriating its overarching themes — the powerlessness of humanity against great, unknowable forces — and turning the weird into an instrument of self-exploration, liberation and creativity.

[RM2]

Another vote for the Color Out of space, really enjoyed it.