Books of HP Lovecraft

[stephengrant]

Any fans? Was a big reader many years back; it's hard going, but in true Tolkein style the quality and depth of the world he paints far outweighs the clumsiness of the writing.

Recommend 'At the Mountains of Madness' as a starting point if you want a flavour to the range of his writing, or 'The case of Charles Dexter Ward' if you want a fast-track to his better work (IMHO).

[Obskua]

Definitely a fan - bought my first HPL on honeymoon (!) in 1973, and carried on from there. Highly recommended for a true atmospheric horror feel, without the gratuitous 'slasher' approach of some modern writers - and absolutely no sex ! (Not that I am against this, you understand, but I feel it breaks the mood of so much horror and sci-fi when the 'love interest' is introduced).

[Kats]

Yes, yes, another fan here.

In fact, I've just bought two of the Penguin Classics editions of his collected stories. (The third one was out of print - will have to go elsewhere)

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is fantastic. At The Mountains of Madness I found intriguing and occasionally frustrating.

What's sparked off my renewed interest was seeing a special edition (Voyager Classics I think) titled 'At the Mountains of Madness, and other stories' or something like that, and getting slowly sucked into his very odd world.

One word of advice, I wouldn't recommend 'The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath' to anyone. I almost shouted at the pages whilst reading it. Not good when you're on the bus. :o

[widdershins]

I love a lot of Lovecraft's work. My favourite was Dreams in the Witch House with the witch's familiar Brown Jenkin, who I think is one of the scariest characters ever.
I got into him when I was 17/18. I have the white volumes circa late 80s, called Omnibus 1,2 and 3. The Mountains of Madness volume did have some of his more peculiar and inscrutable stuff, such as the already mentioned Dream Quest of Unknown Kaddath.
It's worth reading August Derleth if you like Lovcraft - he finished off a lot of stories for him. I have a rare book at home which was jointly written called The Lurker at the Threshold - it's a full length story. I love picking up old rare Lovecraft volumes. I picked one up the other week called Dagon and other tales, published in the 60s I think.

I started a thread about Algernon Blackwood - if you like Lovecraft you'll like him.

[Czar Silver]

I'm a big fan of Lovecraft. I embraced his books when I finally got the courage to read horror novels as a teenager. He is an acquired taste, but the slow burning nature and the fact that the horrors are beyond human understanding makes them a refreshing change from serial killers and their ilk.

I have to say I love the Music of Erich Zann and Herbert West: Reanimator. I think I am going to have dig my books out an reread some of his other tales now. Although the last time I did that I was home alone and scared myself witless.

[megustaleer]

I thought I posted on this thread, but it must be a casualty of The Crash.

I started reading The Call Of Cthulhu sometime last year, but gave up under halfway through. I found the stories tedious, and not at all scary...just silly. I like my horror to be credible.
I had intended to read as far as the title story, but just couldn't bore myself any longer, It has gone back on the TBR pile for the next time I have one of those 'end-of-the-month' gaps when the next bookgroup book is due, and I don't have time for a full-length novel.

[Freydis]

Not a big horror fan - most modern stuff is way too graphic for my taste - but I do enjoy Lovecraft, once I got past his racist tone in places (product of his time more than anything). It's what he leaves unsaid, what he only hints is lurking just round the corner, that grabs the reader. Caveat: do not read him on a windy February night with branches tapping at the window! I did struggle with At the Mountains of Madness a bit, but plan to do a reread one of these days.

He has a big following among US sci-fi/fantasy geeks. Some of us even have Cthulhu bumper stickers...

[Hazel]

I did struggle with At the Mountains of Madness a bit, but plan to do a reread one of these days.

I tried to read this years ago and I just couldn't get into it at all. Even seeing Lovecraft's name brings back those days. He seems to have inspired so many horror/sci-fi writers though - a writers' writer possibly?

[Freydis]

Fair enough - a surfeit of Lovecraft tales can easily devolve into silliness, especially when you're hearing about the blind idiot god for the nth time. But if you're in a certain mood a couple of stories can be quite entertaining!

His allusions to the mad Arab and the Necronomicon remind me of the pronouncements in my childhood nightmares - that thing hovering in the corner, just outside our peripheral vision...and yes, definitely a writer's writer, judging by his representation in forums and college courses formerly devoted solely to "serious" literature.

[Aurélien Arkadiusz]

Yes, I also read HPL's tales.

In my (entirely prejudiced) view HPL's work can be summed up thusly -

Fiction inspired by a truly cosmic imagination, letters that are a significant contribution to literature, but :) only a few poems that are worth the reading, such as:

P r o v i d e n c e

Where bay and river tranquil blend,
And leafy hillsides rise,
The spires of Providence ascend
Against the ancient skies.

Here centuried domes of shining gold
Salute the morning’s glare,
While slanting gables, odd and old,
Are scatter’d here and there.

And in the narrow winding ways
That climb o'er slope and crest,
The magic of forgotten days
May still be found to rest.

A fanlight's gleam, a knocker's blow,
A glimpse of Georgian brick -
The sights and sounds of long ago
Where fancies cluster thick.

A flight of steps with iron rail,
A belfry looming tall,
A slender steeple, carv’d and pale,
A moss-grown garden wall.

A hidden churchyard's crumbling proofs
Of man's mortality,
A rotten wharf where gambrel roofs
Keep watch above the sea.

Square and parade, whose walls have tower’d
Full fifteen decades long
By cobbled ways 'mid trees embower’d,
And slighted by the throng.

Stone bridges spanning languid streams,
Houses perch’d on the hill,
And courts where mysteries and dreams
The brooding spirit fill.

Steep alley steps by vines conceal’d,
Where small-pan’d windows glow
At twilight on the bit of field
That chance has left below.

My Providence! What airy hosts
Turn still thy gilded vanes;
What winds of elf that with grey ghosts
People thine ancient lanes!

The chimes of evening as of old
Above thy valleys sound,
While thy stern fathers 'neath the mould
Make blest thy sacred ground.

Thou dream’st beside the waters there,
Unchang’d by cruel years;
A spirit from an age more fair
That shines behind our tears.

Thy twinkling lights each night I see,
Tho’ time and space divide;
For thou art of the soul of me,
And always at my side!

H. P. Lovecraft, 1924
[Version in “THE ANCIENT TRACK”]

HPL's New England background in general, and his love for the College Hill section of his home city of Providence in particular, underpin so much of his writing that I make no excuse :p for quoting the above poem on this thread.

‘Aurélien Arkadiusz’

[Cathy]

Does anyone else find his works hard to get hold of? Do you have to look in a special section of the bookshop? (not for me, for someone else!)

[Grammath]

I'd have thought Lovecraft would be in the horror section in most book stores, although given that there are collections of his stories available in Penguin Classics (I own the "Call of Cthullu" one), if a store has a classics section they could conceivably be shelved there.

Of course, if you were to buy online this wouldn't be a problem.

[Aurélien Arkadiusz]

But if you aren't a fan of buying on-line, Cathy, you might like to try the bookstores catering to the students of your local university/college - perhaps not if it's a Women's College, given that even these days noticeably fewer women read HPL.

Beware of the Lovecraft imitators. There are several books with H. P. Lovecraft proclaimed as the author on their cover that were :( 95%++ written by one of his fans, so unless you already have a definite shopping list you may need to check the small print on the reverse of the title page.

Good luck.

‘Aurélien Arkadiusz’

[Cathy]

Thanks for the tips, I love a challenge so I'll keep hunting :thinking: :geek:

[Jeremy DEagle]

I'm enjoying Lovecraft a lot. Not so much a fan of his dreamworld type stories where he goes of wandering on boats etc...

I have a huge big copy of 'The Necronomicon' that I paid 20 quid for. Loads of stories in it.

[megustaleer]

I never did finish the book of Lovecraft stories that I found so boring three years ago. I put it on my RiSi list and it was snapped up straight away.

[lostinfiction]

Other than Cthulu, most of his books are quite hard to find in bookstores here. Libraries are okay though, if they're the bigger ones. While on the subject, has anyone had a look at Lovecraft's <a href="http://www.infloox.com/person?id=8bd1e9b2">infloox page</a>? I especially liked the notes on his influence on Stephen King.