I wanna get into lovecraft

[Frontenac]

I've read a lot of Lovecraft's work, but I actually think some of his best stuff are his non Cthulhu-mythos related short stories, like:

-The haunter of the Dark
-The rats in the walls
-The picture in the house
-The lurking fear
-The case of Charles Dexter Ward

If you do want the Cthulhu stuff, I'd recommend:
-The call of cthulhu
-The dreams in the witch house
-the shadow over innsmouth
-At the mountains of madness


His dream cycle stuff gets way too weird way too fast, and not in a good way. I couldn't get into any of it.


As a note, though, after reading a bunch of Lovecraft's stuff, you start to see the common writing practices that run in each story... most notably, how he gives away the twist with some offhand comment by the narrator early on in the story: "Well it certainly couldn't be that all these weird occurences are caused by some giant ancient space horror as described by the necronomicon, right?" ...And then that's exactly what ends up happening.

That's why I really liked stories like At the mountains of madness, The Rats in the Walls, and The Lurking Fear... They have twists that Lovecraft doesn't immediately blown his wad on out the gate.

That's true. I like Lovecraft as a world builder and how he sets out the mood, but, to be frank, I don't like his style very much. It's heavy, and he seems to be allergic to dialogues. It's often very formulaïc. I swear, in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, if I had to drink a shot of whisky each time I read "Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos", I would have ended drunk and unable to finish the tale... And yes, Randolph Carter stuff is indeed weird.

[Deleted]

Is there a particular order? Different series?

If you buy 'The Necronomicon' it has most of his stories in there. A few are missing but none of the major ones I don't think.

[GennGreymane]

If you buy 'The Necronomicon' it has most of his stories in there. A few are missing but none of the major ones I don't think.

Now is it annotated or the full stories.

[Rhaide]

Not that kinda love craft you pervs. (its a joke mods)

Where do I begin with this authors work? What books are involved?

Was going to make a joke about the goldshire inn... but well. You beat me to it.

There's not really an optimal order, but I think The Dunwich Horror, the Shadow over Innsmouth, and Dagon are all pretty good places to start. Some of his stories are pretty slow and serve to build the world more than to entertain, so diving into those 3 first are a fun way to start as they are all entertaining and world building.

[kaid]

Not that kinda love craft you pervs. (its a joke mods)

Where do I begin with this authors work? What books are involved?

If you have a barns and noble near you they sell a couple lovecraft compilation hard covers that contain most of his well known work and they are pretty in expensive.

[Deleted]

Now is it annotated or the full stories.

No it's not annotated why would you want that? As I said it has most of his stories. He is mostly a short story writer so bits and pieces of his stuff are published everywhere, if you collect everything he has been published in you will find you have loads of repeated content. The Necronomicon does have an introduction though with some info about him iirc it's about 30 pages long, it describes his life and stuff.

[rayvio]

most of Lovecraft's stories are isolated but share some common elements (although whether or not there is a real continuity between them is widely debated) but there are a few that are tied together
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, if I remember right, follows on from Pickman's Model and Randolph Carter
one of the minor characters in Charles Dexter Ward is (again, if memory serves) implied to be the antagonist of another story but I forget which

[GennGreymane]

No it's not annotated why would you want that? As I said it has most of his stories. He is mostly a short story writer so bits and pieces of his stuff are published everywhere, if you collect everything he has been published in you will find you have loads of repeated content. The Necronomicon does have an introduction though with some info about him iirc it's about 30 pages long, it describes his life and stuff.

Now the way it looks is that there are diff series as per @Rhaide. The necronomicon has them all?

[draynay]

Just start reading, there isn't really a right or wrong way to do it. Easiest is to get one of the collections and dig in.

[Deleted]

Now the way it looks is that there are diff series as per @Rhaide. The necronomicon has them all?

Not all. He is a short story writer (he did some comics or something I think). Yes there are different series but none of them are linked that closely, the only strongly linked one is the Randolph Carter series but they are all in the Necronomicon. Also if you buy every series you will find you are reading the same stories over and over. If you buy N you will get 90% of his stuff.

[GennGreymane]

Not all. He is a short story writer (he did some comics or something I think). Yes there are different series but none of them are linked that closely, the only strongly linked one is the Randolph Carter series but they are all in the Necronomicon. Also if you buy every series you will find you are reading the same stories over and over. If you buy N you will get 90% of his stuff.

Alright thats what I needed to hear. TY

[Kaleredar]

That's true. I like Lovecraft as a world builder and how he sets out the mood, but, to be frank, I don't like his style very much. It's heavy, and he seems to be allergic to dialogues.

Well it can be a case of both... Usually he's very dialogue adverse and says that the characters say something (i.e, "he told me like he felt like he was being hunted," instead of actually writing dialogue to that effect) but other times he uses giant, one-way chunks of dialogue to just exposit everywhere... Like when the narrator talks to the drunk in Shadow over Innsmouth. In fact, the only reason Lovecraft is able to pull of the final twist in that story is that he buries its establishment in a mountain of exposition that he bludgeons you with so that at the end you go "Oh... yeah! I remember that!" ...Which is a way of doing it, I guess.

It's often very formulaïc. I swear, in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, if I had to drink a shot of whisky each time I read "Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos", I would have ended drunk and unable to finish the tale... And yes, Randolph Carter stuff is indeed weird.

I couldn't get into the dream cycle stuff because he just starts flinging made up place names and other stuff at you without giving you anywhere to ground yourself or establishing what, if anything, has much of consequence. "So I went past the so-and-so river through the such-and-such town which was south of the whoseamawhatsit mountain range that ran perpendicular to the city of something where the great whatsits lived in their cyclopean towers of somesuch and rang bells to the glory of whodathunkit to honor the coming of the great pillar of yaddayadda." And then it's just page after page after page of that.

[Independent voter]

Lovecraft was a racist among other things, not that it was uncommon back in the day.

I think you'll find his stories dated. Back in the 1930s there wasn't a lot of horror around and what there was of it was pretty... schlocky. Lovecraft came along and was one of the first modern horror writers if not the first but the horror genre has really evolved since the 1930s.

What I'm trying to say is Lovecraft's stuff is good but it shows its age and it's not as good as modern horror.

[Osmeric]

Lovecraft was a racist among other things, not that it was uncommon back in the day.

I think you'll find his stories dated. Back in the 1930s there wasn't a lot of horror around and what there was of it was pretty... schlocky. Lovecraft came along and was one of the first modern horror writers if not the first but the horror genre has really evolved since the 1930s.

What I'm trying to say is Lovecraft's stuff is good but it shows its age and it's not as good as modern horror.

I've heard Lovecraft's work being described not as horror fiction, but rather disgust fiction.

[Kaleredar]

Lovecraft was a racist among other things, not that it was uncommon back in the day.

I think you'll find his stories dated. Back in the 1930s there wasn't a lot of horror around and what there was of it was pretty... schlocky. Lovecraft came along and was one of the first modern horror writers if not the first but the horror genre has really evolved since the 1930s.

What I'm trying to say is Lovecraft's stuff is good but it shows its age and it's not as good as modern horror.

What lovecraft's stuff is good at isn't "scaring" you per say, it's about visual imagery, creativity, and really weird shit going on.

"He was half lying on a high, fantastically balustraded terrace above a boundless jungle of outlandish, incredible peaks, balanced planes, domes, minarets, horizontal discs poised on pinnacles, and numberless forms of still greater wildness—some of stone and some of metal—which glittered gorgeously in the mixed, almost blistering glare from a polychromatic sky. Looking upward he saw three stupendous discs of flame, each of a different hue, and at a different height above an infinitely distant curving horizon of low mountains. Behind him tiers of higher terraces towered aloft as far as he could see. The city below stretched away to the limits of vision, and he hoped that no sound would well up from it."

[Deleted]

Hard cover. Leather bound. 'tis the only way.

Looks awesome but I'm much happier reading on phone/tablet without having to bring a book everywhere I go

[Stormcall]

Not all. He is a short story writer (he did some comics or something I think).

He did not do comics. Comics didn't even really take off until 1938(when Superman debuted), Lovecraft died in 1937. You're probably confusing pulp magazines(which were short stories typically) with comics.

To the OP, At the Mountains of Madness, Shadow Out of Time, Call of Cthulhu, and Shadow Over Innsmouth would be good starting points.

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I've read a lot of Lovecraft's work, but I actually think some of his best stuff are his non Cthulhu-mythos related short stories, like:

-The haunter of the Dark
-The rats in the walls
-The picture in the house
-The lurking fear
-The case of Charles Dexter Ward

The Haunter of the Dark is both definitely a part of the Cthulhu Mythos and also a sequel story to a story by another author(Robert Bloch's Shambler From the Stars)

[Vocah]

Maybe you can read some stuff on this site?

[Acidbaron]

There's also an app called H.P love craft that has all his works or almost all for free.

That is if you can stand reading on tablet or phone

[Enkrypt]

You'll find there are many compilations for Lovecraft's works. My local bookstore carries a dozen or so, I'd say.

If you want a short read to get a feel for his style, I remember reading Dagon for the first time. It's short and immensely creepy. I was hooked from that point onward. I highly recommend it for one's first foray into his world.