About H.P Lovecraft

[arcainia]

I'll probaby get laughed at for admitting this, but uh, I've never read any of H.P Lovecraft's books. I'm not sure if it's because we seem to have a limited amount of books imported into the country, or if it's just really hard to find worldwide, but I could never spot it in any bookstore I've been to so far. So, to know better of what to actually look for, I need some information. How many books has Lovecraft released?
Also I know that many other authors share his ideas. I'm mainly interested in anything Cthulhu related, so what kind of books would you people recommend? It doesn't necessarily have to be by Lovecraft, but the authors who mimic(?) his style best would be nice.

(and hopefully this topic would act as a break from all the drama that's been going on here lately. Sheesh)

 

[Cousin_IT]

o/ putting my hand up to say I too havent read any H.P Lovecraft, or many other books for that matter

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Most of the real details can be gleaned from here http://www.hplovecraft.com/

The Call Of Cthulu and The Mountains of Madness are probably his best known works, and I know they've been included in a lot of the "Classics" sections along with Jane Eyre etc.

His work is a little tough to get through, due to his weird word usage, but the sheer story behind it makes it a joy(if that's the right word) to read.

Be warned : He's not very nice, quite chauvenistic and racist at times; but that was more the times than the writer.

 

[Russ Pitts]

Most of Lovecraft's stories are in the public domain, so it's not actually all that hard to find them. But Project Gutenberg is a great place to start:

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600031h.html

 

[Alex_P]

Lovecraft's work is public domain.

Almost anything you'd want to read is here [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:H._P._Lovecraft].

Honestly, I think he's rather overrated anyway. He's got a few good stories but most of his stories are rather blandly structured and stuffed with words that sound like they mean something more interesting than what they actually mean.

-- Alex

 

[Valandar]

I'd also include "The Dunwich Horror" among his 'best known works', possibly ahead of "The Mountains of Madness". It was made into a movie or two, but, to date, NO Lovecraft-based movie has come even close to what he actually wrote, with the POSSIBLE exception of "The Reanimator"

 

[Rezfon]

If you live in the UK then check out borders. They have "The Call Of Cthulhu and other short stories" which has a very large selection inside.

 

[arcainia]

Most of your questions can be answered by google, you know.

And read Lovecraft, not "authors who mimic his style best".
You can start with his shorter stories, any set of them will do.

Yeah, but you see, I actually wanted other people's opinions, not a search engine.
Also why shouldn't I read books but other authors who used his ideas? I heard some of them were good.


As for everyone else, thank you for all the info. I'll look into it~
Are there any stories I should read in a certain order?

 

[Evil Genius for a Better Tomorrow]

I'll probaby get laughed at for admitting this, but uh, I've never read any of H.P Lovecraft's books.

That's nothing to be ashmaed of nor is it worthy of derision.

The fact that you have recognised that H.P Lovecraft is a great author who has inspired many other great authors and story tellers means that you are now more than likely to start to read his works.

My own personal favourite Lovecraft stories are The Dunwich Horror, The Shadow over Innsmouth, The Colour of Space and The Shadow out of Time.

Lovecraft was a flawed genius and his prose style is often not easy to get into but it's what his imagination created and the fact the he saw the universe as being a cold dark place populated by beings that are vast, timeless and uncaring about Humanity. It's these concepts that challenged many people who saw humanity as being special, the centre of the universe, "gods children" and thus when a polar opporsite view is presented [and quite probably the right view as well IMO] they were disturbed and frightened by the realisation that we are but insignificant bugs on the grand scale of things.

 

[Alex_P]

Let me put it that way: Old H.P. wasn't exactly Shakespeare. He had a few good ideas and it's cool to read his works, because he was the frst one to come up with some stuff that is now considered cliche. Reading someone who is copying him would be just like watching another B class horror movie.

The exceptions here are his friends and contemporaries, like Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. There was some cross-pollination there.

But, yeah, any other "Lovecraftian" fiction is basically just fanfic and pastiche.

-- Alex

 

[BaronAsh]

Hmm No ones mentioned "Herbert West: Reanimator". I personally think that to be his best work.

 

[RufusMcLaser]

I suggest starting out with his short stories. That's how I began, some time around age 14, when I found my mom's (!) copy of The Lurking Fear and Other Stories. There are dozens of Lovecraft collections out there now; you should pick one that includes one of his novellas, like "Call of Cthulhu," "At The Mountains of Madness," or "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward."
Even with his early stuff, before he really started to develop the Mythos (or Yog-Sothothery, as he called it) it's hard to go wrong with his stories.

Want to read some online? Check this out. [http://www.mythostomes.com/content/blogsection/7/70/]
There are those who have tried to carry on in his vein. I don't really care for most them, particularly Brian Lumley's approach.

 

[NovaStalker]

I mentioned Lovecraft in passing when talking to my mother and she said she's never even heard of him. I proceeded to be gob smacked when she texted my auntie who is something of a reader and SHE hadn't heard of him either.

I cried.

 

[arcainia]

I mentioned Lovecraft in passing when talking to my mother and she said she's never even heard of him. I proceeded to be gob smacked when she texted my auntie who is something of a reader and SHE hadn't heard of him either.

I cried.

Lol, well, I think his stories appeal to a more...limited audience. From what I've seen, my mom and grandma both read alot, but it seems they're only into suspense/slight drama novels (my grandma seems to really hate Sthephen King's works; Anyway....that's hardly a statistic. But maybe it's because that's what appeals to them, so they wouldn't have heard of him.

Honestly I first heard about Lovecraft when I was 14 from playing Eternal Darkness....so...yeah.

 

[Alex_P]

But... Cthulu...

Spoiler

"Oh noes! An elder being so powerful that nothing short of ramming a yacht into it will stop it!"

I guess it's still better than all the stories that go like this:

Spoiler

"Hey, look over there! Miscegenation!"

-- Alex

 

[Muphin_Mann]

Read:
Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Colour Out Of Space
Cool Air
Whisperer In Darkness

You might also want to get started on one of his poems. Here:

Spoiler

Through the ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber,
Past the wan-mooned abysses of night,
I have lived o'er my lives without number,
I have sounded all things with my sight;
And I struggle and shriek ere the daybreak, being driven to madness with fright.

I have whirled with the earth at the dawning,
When the sky was a vaporous flame;
I have seen the dark universe yawning
Where the black planets roll without aim,
Where they roll in their horror unheeded, without knowledge or lustre or name.

I had drifted o'er seas without ending,
Under sinister grey-clouded skies,
That the many-forked lightning is rending,
That resound with hysterical cries;
With the moans of invisible daemons, that out of the green waters rise.

I have plunged like a deer through the arches
Of the hoary primoridal grove,
Where the oaks feel the presence that marches,
And stalks on where no spirit dares rove,
And I flee from a thing that surrounds me, and leers through dead branches above.

I have stumbled by cave-ridden mountains
That rise barren and bleak from the plain,
I have drunk of the fog-foetid fountains
That ooze down to the marsh and the main;
And in hot cursed tarns I have seen things, I care not to gaze on again.

I have scanned the vast ivy-clad palace,
I have trod its untenanted hall,
Where the moon rising up from the valleys
Shows the tapestried things on the wall;
Strange figures discordantly woven, that I cannot endure to recall.

I have peered from the casements in wonder
At the mouldering meadows around,
At the many-roofed village laid under
The curse of a grave-girdled ground;
And from rows of white urn-carven marble, I listen intently for sound.

I have haunted the tombs of the ages,
I have flown on the pinions of fear,
Where the smoke-belching Erebus rages;
Where the jokulls loom snow-clad and drear:
And in realms where the sun of the desert consumes what it never can cheer.

I was old when the pharaohs first mounted
The jewel-decked throne by the Nile;
I was old in those epochs uncounted
When I, and I only, was vile;
And Man, yet untainted and happy, dwelt in bliss on the far Arctic isle.

Oh, great was the sin of my spirit,
And great is the reach of its doom;
Not the pity of Heaven can cheer it,
Nor can respite be found in the tomb:
Down the infinite aeons come beating the wings of unmerciful gloom.

Through the ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber,
Past the wan-mooned abysses of night,
I have lived o'er my lives without number,
I have sounded all things with my sight;
And I struggle and shriek ere the daybreak, being driven to madness with fright.

Keep in mind that his writing is old. You might find it very boring to read.

 

[alwaysrockon]

I'd also include "The Dunwich Horror" among his 'best known works', possibly ahead of "The Mountains of Madness". It was made into a movie or two, but, to date, NO Lovecraft-based movie has come even close to what he actually wrote, with the POSSIBLE exception of "The Reanimator"

aww hell yeah!. but back to reality serously no lovecraft movis are that great. His style is very hard to get into but most of his ideas are amazing. for instance read the re-animator, the strange old man, and the dunwich horror.(sorry about the spelling)