H.P. Lovecraft

[fancying_fantasy]

I can honestly say I have never read H.P. Lovecraft. I have often wondered what his writings would be like. Where should I begin? Is his writing moderately dark or very dark?
What actually brought me to wanting to read his books was finding another book, which in the review someone quoted the book as the love child of Disney and Lovecraft. Right off the bat I'd never heard of Lovecraft before, so I took the quote the wrong way and thought oh gosh Walt Disney had a love child, but I did some research and found duh Lovecraft was a man . They were actually saying the book was a combination Disney and Lovecraft. So that struck my interest with Lovecraft. Any suggestions???
By the way I never read the book with the quote about it being the love child of Disney and Lovecraft, I wanted to but decided to wait and then I forgot the title. So if anyone knows the title of this book please let me know. Although me not giving an author or a title is very unlikely anyone will know what book I'm talking about. It's worth the try though.

Thanks, fancying_fantasy

P.s. I hope this thread is ok, it's my first.

 

[j d worthington]

Hi there! Welcome to the Chronicles. And, yes, this is a fine start.... Glad to see you jumping right in.

As for where to start with HPL... people differ on that. My suggestion would be to go for one of the more recent Penguin paperback releases; if forced to pick, I think, for most newcomers, I'd suggest The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories, because of the inclusion of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, which tends to be more traditional in tone than many of his works, and therefore is a little more comfortable as a starting place for some people. Either that or The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, which contains many of his best (and most famous) stories.

Generally speaking: yes, his work is thoroughly dark, as he followed Poe's lead in believing that a short story should be a crystallization of a certain mood, and things extraneous to that tended to dilute the effect. But not all of his stories are totally dark; some, such as "The Cats of Ulthar" have a great deal of charm, whereas "Celephais" or "The Quest of Iranon" also have a good deal of pathos. And throughout his work there's also a sense of awe and wonder at the cosmos, as well.

You'll find plenty of Lovecraftians on this site, so feel free to pose any further questions you may have. Hope you enjoy!

Oh, one note: Lovecraft wrote in an older style, so if you're used to the post-Hemingway prose style, it may take some reajusting to enjoy HPL's richer textual flavor.

See you on the boards!

 

[fancying_fantasy]

Thank you for your suggestions and support of my first thread. I think I will read The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories. When I finish it, I say when because my ever mounting pile of books to read seems to get bigger not smaller, I will be sure to let you know what I think. Thanks!

fancying_fantasy

 

[genisis2]

JD you should have pointed out this shortcut for FF
http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/

 

[j d worthington]

Whoops! Well, like I said, it was Nesa who first brought my attention to it... I still tend to suggest the books, forgetting that there's a free access to his tales....

Thanks for bringing that up, genesis....

 

[Nesacat]

Meowrr fancying_fantasy ... so we now have another disciple of the Elder Gods. The stars must surely be coming right and soon R'lyeh will rise from the waves.

I'd suggest beginning with The Cats Of Ulthar but I'm terribly biased and that was also the first tale of the Old Gent's that I read. It got me hooked.

The link is a good one and has all his stories so you'd could get a feel before you went out and invested in the books. If you like what you read there's more people who've worked in the same realm such as Brian Lumley with his Titus Crow books and August Derleth with a whole slew of tales.

Welcome to the realm of the Elder Gods.

 

[fancying_fantasy]

Well I went to the library and I checked out one of his books. I'm not sure I'm going to read all of it, I may just pick a few stories to read. After doing some more research about him, I think he may be a little too dark for me. Not that I have anything against him, because I'm still gonna give him a chance.

 

[Karsa Orlong]

At the Mountains of Madness is a good starting place, methinks. It was for me, anyway.

 

[j d worthington]

Well I went to the library and I checked out one of his books. I'm not sure I'm going to read all of it, I may just pick a few stories to read. After doing some more research about him, I think he may be a little too dark for me. Not that I have anything against him, because I'm still gonna give him a chance.

If you don't really care for the darker things, you might enjoy what are called his "Dunsanian" pieces (because they were written under the influence of the great Irish fantaisiste, Lord Dunsany). These were collected together into two paperback volumes by Lin Carter quite a long time ago, called The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and The Doom That Came to Sarnath, and these have gone through multiple printings. The texts are not of the authoritative edition, but they are still quite good books, and among the earliest I read. They have a lighter touch, sometimes even whimsical, sometimes more a story of pathos, and occasionally a darker thread; but they're not generally of the bleaker, darker sort that his straightforward horror or "Cthulhu Mythos" tales tend to be. For a truly lighter bit of his work, try some of the things in his Miscellaneous Writings, such as "Ibid" (a biography of the ancient scholar of that name, very tongue-in-cheek), "Some Reminiscences of Doctor Samuel Johnson", where he wrote it as if he were a man two centuries and more old (in perfect 18th-century diction), and "Sweet Ermengarde", a sendup of the Horatio Alger type of tale with some (for HPL) very unusual use of slang included.

 

[sanityassassin]

I think if you want to start on H.P.L. The Outsider is a good place to start it certainly got me hooked and is quite short even by short story standards only a few pages long meaning you could read it within an hour even if you struggle with the older style prose.

 

[Leandra]

I'd suggest The Thing on the Doorstep. That drew me into Lovecraft all right! Not many occult beasts mentioned here (yet...).

 

[Nesacat]

I'm very fond of The Quest Of Iranon which is melancholy and beautifully written but does not have the darkness of his Elder Gods Tales.

There is also The Silver Key which is a beautiful, lyrical tale about the lost key to the Dreamlands and one man's search to find it again. I think this story is one which many dreamers will identify with and understand.

 

[j d worthington]

True... I suppose, for my part, I was suggesting things someone more used to traditional supernatural themes would find attractive, before getting involved in the mythology (or anti-mythology, according to some) that he created....

 

[w h pugmire esq]

JD you should have pointed out this shortcut for FF

This is an excellent site -- however, I noticed that at the end of "The Haunter of the Dark" they have "titan blue" rather than ye correct "titan blur." With the Penguin editions, we have a reasonably trustworthy text. I had to remove the link to be able to post this, by the way.