HP Lovecraft

fitz0

Im interested in reading some of his work and was wondering where to start? What book would be a good introduction?

John

There are three omnibuses that cover pretty much all his short stories and are about a tenner a pop (probably less if you shop around). All three have classic stories in them so I can't really recommend one over the other but particular stories I love are:
Dreams in the Witch House
Pickman's Model
At the Mountains of Madness
The Dunwich Horror
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Color Out of Space

and I could keep going.

fitz0

Thanks I saw the omnibus on Amazon and Ill probably get it soon. Thanks for the advice.

LoLth

there's a very nice hardback in borders of the collected works of HP lovecraft. doesnt have all of his stories (certianly not everythign thats in the omnibus editions) but its a nice book all the same. atmospheric artwork and all.

fitz0

Where would I get this one? Im far too easily taken in by fancy artwork

beans

Damn, goosebumps thinking about him

Mixture of total fantasy set in far-off fantasy dream-lands (Polaris, The Doom That Came To Sarnath, The Cats of Ulthar), and a more earth-bound mythology based around New England (The Call of Cthulhu, The Rats in the Walls, The Colour out of Space).


I found the latter more horrifying, and IIRC it was Omnibus 3 that focussed on this type of stuff.

fitz0

So it doesn't really matter what book I start with? Theres no rough order or anything?

beans

I don't recall. The only thing I remember is that 1 contains longer tales, while 2 and 3 are shorter and snappier. You can't go wrong with any of them, but 2 and 3 might be better introductions.

John

fitz0 wrote: »

So it doesn't really matter what book I start with? Theres no rough order or anything?

A lot of the stories link up but there's no particular order that you should read them in. As you read them, you'll spot the connections (usually obvious). They don't ruin the plots of other tales so no need to worry.

LoLth

I got mine in borders in blanchardstown

as for order, there's not really an order but some things are explained in more detail when they are introduced and some characters are referenced in later stories.

list of works:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_H._P._Lovecraft

the omnibus editions , if read 1,2,3 have the best order for reading as does the hardback I mentioned.

for a preview (and if you can stand to read stuff online) you can find HP lovecraft stories on project gutenberg's Australian mirror:
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600031h.html?bcsi_scan_1A0342C9CD52A906=hVHlVR6cUMmTua0AC8tffxsAAACLU+0C&bcsi_scan_filename=0600031h.html

wasnt sure it was legal but seems that it is , dagonbytes.net has a complete hp lovecraft collection in eye blistering contrast and I'm not 100% that they havent changed the wording to make it "easier" to understand

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/

my preference would always be a book in hand with professional typesetting etc though.

fitz0

Thanks for all the advice Im going to get the omnibus editions.