The thing I love is that you can read H. P. Lovecraft all your mature days and still find endless ways to appreciate him. Discussing with j. d. aspects of "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" have added my appreciation of that strange story, one of HPL's early science fiction tales. The stories that I love never dull for me, and I am constantly returning to them for the sheer pleasure they give me, as I return to Lovecraft's letters for the same reason. I have yet to really admire "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" or "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" -- but this year I think I may return to them for a careful re-reading and contemplation. I am also hooked on reading literary criticism and biography, and I find that when I read this sort of thing pertaining to HPL it fires my imagination and returns me to his fiction, which opens up as never before. This happens always when I read a new issue of Lovecraft Annual or when I return to something as heavy and mesmerizing as Robert H. Waugh's The Monster in the Mirror.
Oddly, I "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" has always been one I quite like, though as I grow older, I see the flaws more. Still, magnificent conceptions there, and some very fine prose, despite the unresolvable paradox.
As for Lovecraftian criticism -- such a wonderfully rich field! So many people have contributed to my enjoyment of HPL's work on various levels through this, and I'm always finding new pieces which stimulate me to go back to the stories and see them in a new light as well. Lovecraft remains one of the few writers whose work just continually seems to grow with repeated visits... and I have read many of his tales 30 or 40 times over (or more)....
I wish he had been as appreciated when he was alive as he is now and often wonder what he'd say if he were here now.
Hi, Cat! Glad to see you join the discussion(s) on HPL again...
As to what he'd say... well, we've a hint of that, from his letters. I think he would be both flattered... and appalled. The first simply a natural reaction to being appreciated; the latter because of his own harsh self-criticism...
I would add to the above list "Herbert West -- Reanimator", "The Outsider", "Shadows over Innsmouth" and "The Whisperer in Darkness", "Pickman's Model" and "The Shunned House" to those tales recommended as a place to start. I would not recommend "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" though, it's just too dense and long to be a good introduction for a new reader. I'm not saying it isn't good, just not for a place to start.
Well, as I said in my earlier post, I'm going on what I've seen as those which most frequently drew people in to his work, rather than ones I personally feel are either his best (though several of those mentioned are) or are among my own favorites. On the other hand, I've seen plenty of people turned off by the Herbert West tales or "Pickman's Model", and especially "The Shunned House" -- which latter is high on the list of my personal favorites, one of the earliest stories I read (in the Arkham House
At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels), and one I feel is a near-perfect development of such a theme. The reason for this reaction? The repetition in the West tales, and the long expository passages in "Pickman's Model" and especially "The Shunned House" (the family history, which to me always delivered a considerable
frisson through its careful accumulation of eerie detail and the development of a feeling of genuine history and depth).
If I were to list my favorites as a good starting place, I'd probably begin with
At the Mountains of Madness and
Ward, and go from there....
However all that said, certainly there have been others who have found the stories you name as great introductions. I think it just depends on how each type of tale hits a particular reader when they first encounter the Old Gent....