Your favorite Lovecraft stories

ravenus said:
Lovecraft is an author I have very mixed feelings about. He had doubtless a colossal imagination (and probably would have been an utter delight to speak with) but he was also often hampered by ham-handed prose, and his best stories are IMO where his imagination triumphs over his (lack of) writing skill..
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In terms of a personal favorite, I like "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" best, for its sheer charm and probable personal significance to him. Objectively, though, it's probably not his best writing, since all his dream-stories are more or less pastiches of Lord Dunsany. (But as for Dunsany's own work, I will defend him to the death! To the DEATH! ;) )

So, aside from that... I think "The Colour out of Space" is my favorite lengthy Lovecraft story. It's just one of his most purely horrific works.

Jason
 
The Call of Cthulhu is the classic, the quintessential HPL, but the Mountains of Madness is very fine work, spooky and believeable(when it was written, the Antartic was very much terra incognita, and anything could happen there.

When I was working for the Society to Abolish the Worship of Rhan-Tegoth, we mounted an expedition to the South Pole(shudder) no one returned!

I'd have gone, but I was obliged to judge the quince jellies at the Arkham Old Fashioned Days that year. Heigh-ho!
 
The first HPL story I ever read was the outsider and I loved the twist at the end so much I made my wife read it as well. I have only read 2 collections of his stories and some of those were the same ones so my range is a little limited, but most of his stories are really solid in atmosphere and you can really feel the tension of his charecters.

other favs

Rats in the wall
colors out of space
Herbert West: Reanimator
the shaddow over innsmouth

other stories that I can't remember their titles at the moment
 
Hi, I'd like to know if the material available at this link are Lovecraft's works in their entirety or merely excerpts/incomplete:

en[dot]wikisource[dot]org/wiki/Author:H._P._Lovecraft
(please add http in front and swap [dot] for .s, 'cause I can't reply with links for a reason)

I learned recently that HP Lovecraft's work is public domain now and I felt like saving my allowance cash by printing it out for reading instead of purchasing publications, but I'd like to know whether the stuff from this source is whole first.

PS. I'll understand if what I intend to do is frowned upon in this forum and am prepared to delete this message and my request should anyone demand I do so.
 
You're welcome. Although, to be honest, I wouldn't have known of the existence of such had it not been for Nesa, so the thanks rightfully belong to her.
 
You're welcome. I work really long hours so I've got several sites bookmarked to read in between work.

HP Lovecraft is one of then and there's also Poe and Dunsany and several others. It's also been a good way to introduce people to HPL without them having to go out and buy a whole lot of books and then discover the don't care for his work.

At least this way I'm quite sure they will read at least a few tales and hopefully get hooked. So far, the strategy has worked very well indeed, probably a relection of the age of the masheen.

Books or the Internet ... at the end it's more disciples for the Elder Gods. ;)
 
I read The Hound last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I love the build up of strange occurances...the rattling at the windows, the shadow that keeps appearing fleetingly and the strange scratchings at the door. It's the small, strange things that I like the best because they're so subtley creepy.

I also enjoyed The Statement of Randolph Crater...hearing Warren's voice over the telephone thingy but not knowing what's happening to him, or what he's seeing...make your imagination go into overtime trying to fill it all in. And then that final, terrible voice that speaks to Crater...rergh, brilliant!

I'm making my way through The Call of Cthulhu and other Weird Stories at the moment, so I'll probably add more as I read them!

Oh! The Call of Cthulhu...another one I enjoyed...I especially loved the description of R'lyeh, how the angles seen to keep changing and shifting, sometimes producing things that shouldn't be possible. Great!
 
At the Mountains of Madness. Shoggoths, human dissection, and ancient Antarctic cities - what's not to love? I rank this as my favorite, although I'm almost as fond of the next two.

The Call of Cthulhu. Huge alien cities rising from the Pacific are as much fun as Antarctic ones, especially with the big green guy himself making an appearance.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Call me crazy, but I think it would be kind of fun to be a evil croaking human-fish hybrid.
 
mogora said:
At the Mountains of Madness. Shoggoths, human dissection, and ancient Antarctic cities - what's not to love? I rank this as my favorite, although I'm almost as fond of the next two.

The Call of Cthulhu. Huge alien cities rising from the Pacific are as much fun as Antarctic ones, especially with the big green guy himself making an appearance.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Call me crazy, but I think it would be kind of fun to be a evil croaking human-fish hybrid.
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Oh, you'll fit in fine here... The Cat and I have had this discussion before, and we're agreed... I'm wondering now how to locate Y'ha-nthlei...;)
 
My favourites. (Some spoilers)

  • The Colour Out Of Space. Gave me a horrible feeling, that the infected land of the blasted heath would spread and spread until eventually the entire world would be engulfed, and we'd never escape it... Still makes me worry :D
  • The Rats In The Walls. That shocking discovery underneath the house, all the mystery, gave me chills. Although the ending I didn't fully understand. I never understood if actual rats came, or if it was all in his mind, or what. Still enjoyed it though.
  • The Shadow Over Innsmouth. This is probably the story that I had heard talked about most before reading. I figured it had to be good, and it sure was. Such a tense thrill as he escaped the village! Fantastic.
  • The Statement Of Randolph Carter. Short and very sweet. Mystery, put you into Randolph's shoes and really made me terrified at what could be happening down there. And the voice at the end...
 
The shadow over Innsmouth,Dagon,The Festival,The Nameless City and I also greatly like "The thing on the doorstep" .
 
The Nameless City.
The Curse of Yig.
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
And The Colour Out Of Space.
 
Can plz anybody tell me why "Dreams In The Witch-house" is considered such a weak story by the majority?What are its great weaknesses or shortcomings-at least to that majority?
 
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