For other sections, dates are the time of composition, not publication. My favorite is at the moutains of maddness but you should practice reading him first. People new to lovecraft s fiction should start with. The stories range from the famous, such as poe s fall of the house of usher, to the obscure, such as bulwerlytton s the house and the brain. Many of the stories he read directly influenced his own writings. If you want to thoroughly enjoy lovecraft s writing, in my opinion, you should purchase two books. The first 201 entries were typed by barlow from the original notebook in may 1934 with lovecraft anoting previous and writing new ideas in the. And i dont know if youre into bloodborne, but it reminds me very much of that if it was a world of multiple of cities and climates and such. There s a brief scene in the novel where a character stumbles onto some grafitti that reads yogsothoth rules. If youre already familiar with lovecrafts works, we suggest you simply dive in and start listening to some of your favorite stories. Most of these stories were originally scattered across different magazines. Ive read most of lovecraft s work by now, and my favorite stories are the dunwich horror, the colour out of space, and the whisperer in darkness. Jekyll dorian gray edgar allan poe phantom of the opera hunchback of notre dame dantes inferno dagonbytes homepage goth radio vampire site library of the classics graveyards frite on film. Lovecraft set out to create a truly alien entity that did not resemble a human.
Lovecraft in a free, clean, and easy to read collection. But it s also worthwhile and rewarding to read some of his stories so a you can be in on what the fuss about cthulhu is, and b more importantly, you can see how he formed the source code for modern day horror. Lovecraft historical society produced the first complete audio recording of all of lovecraft s stories. Recently i have written about great weird fiction short stories by thomas ligotti, whereas this time i take a closer look at another classic of this genre h. Others have used lovecrafts stories as a springboard for their. Black sabbath s album behind the wall of sleep is named for a lovecraft short story.
Influenced by various literary interests, first in the tales of arabian nights, then greek mythology and also gothic tales told to him by his grandfather, lovecraft mixed these together with an interest in science and gave voice to his ideas in a series of dark tales of fantasy and horror. These lists of his favorite weird tales make for a truly landmark lovecraftian anthology. The call of cthulhu probably the most well known and popular of the stories the call of cthulhu is a story told in three parts by a narrator who discovers aspects of a mysterious and savage cult centered around. The call of cthulhu probably the most well known and popular of the stories the call of cthulhu is a story told in three parts by a narrator who discovers aspects of a mysterious and savage cult centered around an inconceivable horror at the bottom of the sea. Lovecrafts favorite weird tales and millions of other books are. Smashwords mom takes it all a book by laura lovecraft. I love many things about his tales, but perhaps my favorite is his choice of locales. Awesome works of fiction inspired by hp lovecraft book riot. Jul 03, 2019 this book also includes a generous sampling of other stories published throughout lovecrafts career, including dagon one of his earliest and the haunter of the dark among his last. Dates for the fiction, collaborations and juvenilia are in the format. Ten things you should know about hp lovecraft books.
Dont know if that makes sense, but anyways, that story is awesome. I ended up getting this so i could finally pick up one of his books to read. Im not 100% certain how the authors make this distinction, except that most of the popular weird tales seem to have been written while lovecraft was alive, while the literary tales are much older. Most people dont realize that this story was the direct result of lovecraft s racism. Smashwords her daughters boyfriend a book by laura. On october 9, 1947, derleth purchased all rights to weird tales.
They are the stories weve known since we were children. When he was 16, he wrote the astronomy column in the providence tribune. Lovecraft s real life experiences living and working in new york city led to this tale of a cult of subhuman immigrants conducting ghastly pagan rituals in hopes of raising an ancient horror. Lovecraft made some lists of both literary and popular stories having the greatest amount of truly cosmic horror and macabre convincingness. Welcome to the vox book club s second week of discussion on n. This story is a rattling precursor to the shadow over innsmouth, written a couple years later, which would bring lovecraft s ideas about humanmonster spawn to full fruition. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of 352 pages and is available in paperback format. The book of the dead, discovered in a cabin in sam raimi s evil dead films, is based on lovecraft s. The cthulhu mythos is a system of entities, books, and locations created by h. This is the only collection in print of stories selected by h. These zombie stories comprise lovecraft s reanimator minicycle, starting with his most famous work herbert west reanimator, the basis for the cult 1985 film reanimator many of these stories are, to put it bluntly, lovecraft s satirical take of mary shelley s frankenstein, although he does add a lot of his own spin to the genre the book also contains cool air and pickman.
That hurts me to write as a lovecraft fan, but his incredibly xenophobia and racism are hard to overcome. Elizabeth bear s shoggoths in bloom now part of a collection is a modern take on one of lovecraft s fictional groups, told from the point of view of a character that lovecraft himself would never dream of using. Personally i love the dunwitch horror because it is by far the book that gave me the most chills. This week, were tackling chapters six through 10, in. Lovecraft archive polled over 1,000 visitors regarding lovecrafts fiction. Little lovecraft fans favorite books c is for cthulhu. West of arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. Lovecrafts 10 favorite words and a free lovecraft ebook. So to help out newbies sample his work, here s a suggested reading order to get your feet wet in the best h. This lovecraft s writing however, brings thrills of a completely different kind.
Lovecraft s favorite horror stories, those that inspired and awed him. Im not sure why and im curious what your favorite lovecraft story is and why. Specifically, we asked visitors to tell us what their favorite lovecraft stories were, as well as what lovecraft stories they would recommend to those new to lovecrafts works. Although it s a smaller collection with only 11 stories, this book is extremely well put together. The nameless city, perhaps the best known short story of this book, was inspired by a dream. A novel by matt ruff in 1950s america, atticus turner searches for his missing. Volume 2 of lovecraft s favorite series each story is hand picked by lovecraftian scholar s. Lovecraft night shade books, 2001, while much of his juvenilia, various essays on philosophical, political and literary topics, antiquarian travelogues, and other things, can be found in miscellaneous writings arkham house, 1989. The call of cthulhu and other weird stories book cover picture. But the colour out of space probably stands as one of my favoritesinterestingly, that story was lovecraft s favorite, too. The fantasyhorror author continues to influence his successors. Lovecraft s favorite weird tales is certainly interesting take several stories that horror master lovecraft regarded as his favorite pieces of weird short fiction, based on his correspondence, and compile tham together in one volume. Below is an alphabetical list of lovecrafts fiction, revisions, collaborations, and miscellaneous minor works, as well as some tales that are not extant. As intimated, the answer depends a great deal on what you look for in a scary story, and indeed, how you wish to be scared.
The horror magazine weird tales bought some of his stories in 1923. It contains all the original stories which lovecraft wrote as an adult. Cool air is a short story by the american horror fiction writer h. The commonplace book is notebook of 221 entries for characters and stories written by h. Lovecraft was born on august 20, 1890, in providence, rhode island. Lovecraft, written in march 1926 and published in the march 1928 issue of tales of magic and mystery. His writings steeped in speculative scifi, weird fiction, and lovecrafts own literary philosophy.
I also greatly enjoy at the mountains of madness and the shadow over innsmouth, and im fond of the rats in the walls, the music of erich zann and the quest of iranon. His most famous novel is considered to be at the mountains. This story always felt like a christian morality tale and not really related to hpl directly, but one of my favorite things about it is the descriptive depth he uses to describe the town and characters. In the story fragment, the narrator is given an ancient book by a strange bookseller, and when he takes it home and. Lovecraft became a published author in 1923 with the poetry collection the poetical works of jonathan e. Lovecrafts poetry is collected in the ancient track.
Lovecraft s book of horror, collects both lovecraft s original essay along with twenty one of the stories mentioned. A twentiethcentury successor to edgar allan poe as the master of weird fic. Between 1908 and 1923, he wrote short stories for weird tales magazine, among others. Lovecraft was born in providence, rhode island, in the us in 1890. Lovecraft, was an american author of odd tales and horror stories that can be attributed to the gothic, horror, supernatural, science fiction and weird genres he died unknown and in poverty but achieved great acclaim after his death. Lovecrafts favorite weird tales is a landmark collection of stories.
However, since april 1926 at the latest, lovecraft had reserved all second printing rights to stories published in weird tales. A list of lovecraftian stories by stephen king lovecraft. Born in providence, lovecraft was a sickly child whose parents died insane. We personally assess every books quality and offer rare, outofprint treasures. Lovecraft was a voracious reader of supernatural and fantastic fiction, and he was continually on the hunt for powerful and stimulating works in these genres. It was first published in the journal leaves in 1938, after lovecraft s death. The dates for each of the tales are based primarily on s. Lovecraft historical society has produced an audio recording of all of lovecraft s stories. A new collection of lovecraft stories looks like an. Visitors favorite stories the hp lovecraft archive. If youre new to lovecraft, we suggest you start with our greatest hits list in the tab to the right once youve heard those stories, you can explore the rest of them on your own. Add a few of lovecraft s favorite tropes once or twice i have literally written out a dream.
These are not dramatizations like our dark adventure radio theatre rather, this is an audiobook of the original stories, in allnew, neverbeforeheard recordings made by the hplhs own andrew leman and sean branney. You can also find audiobooks and audio plays alongside the original short stories and books. Also, an awesome movie ive only seen available on youtube, necronomicon. Though it has been mentioned before, the colour out of space really goes above and beyond for the full on oppression that makes lovecraft so tantalising. Howard phillips lovecraft 1890 1937, who published as h. Many of the books contain lovecraftian themes evil magicmonsters beyond time. And from beyond, which is made by the same people as the reanimator movies. Lovecraft included in arkham house s dagon and other macabre tales, but. But clark ashton smith s stories creep me out way more and yet i like lovecraft s stories better.
Horrorbabble s cthulhu mythos adheres to lovecraft. Lovecraft books that frequently appears in connection with the old ones. The stories in this book are divided into two main sections. It s an interesting contemporary use of lovecraft s cosmology to study identity and morality and political power. The novel frankenstein is probably a better version of any of lovecraft s stories anyway. Barlow and published after lovecraft s death along with some essays. The dreams in the witch house and other weird stories is the third book in the lovecraft paperback collection and was released in 2004. I think it does matter where you start with lovecraft because his stories do vary in. Not only that, but the necronomicon also contains a vast majority of hp s stories as they were originally published making this an extremely valuable piece of the lovecraft collection. Discover the roots of modern horror by reading the master s favorite stories, those which inspired, awed, and scared him. Lovecraft proteges and part owners of arkham house, august derleth and donald wandrei, often claimed s over lovecrafts works.
And in the case of lovecraft there is an embarrassment of riches if i may, like the proverbial wine connoisseur, recommend. This story has one of my favorite lines, blasphemous fishfrogs. The story is set up as the narrator s explanation for why a draught of cool air is the most detestable thing to him. Some people discovered lovecraft s works in the 1960s1970s when many of his stories were rereleased in the form of graphic novels, pulp stories, and other works. Lovecraft s books in order of when they were originally published. Although laura has dabbled in many genres and kinks, she s most famously know for keeping it in the family. Lovecraft s stories are also mostly about these vast, interdimensional horrors that drive people mad, or require them to try to comprehend the incomprehensible, and so i wanted to provide a. The main characters of this horror, short stories story are. Oct 23, 2019 add a few of lovecrafts favorite tropes once or twice i have literally written out a dream. August 20, 1890 march 15, 1937 was an american writer of weird fiction and horror fiction, who is known for his creation of what became the cthulhu mythos born in providence, rhode island, lovecraft spent most of his life within new england. Lovecrafts favorite stories presents 16 stories that lovecraft found to be of particular merit. Lewis theobald, humphrey littlewit, ward phillips, and. Lovecraft s favorite stories presents 16 stories that lovecraft found to. He was born into affluence, which ended with the death of his grandfather.
That is not to say that all authors need to be perfect, i think t. Lovecraft, i find october to be the perfect time to reread his classic stories of horror. Why you should catch up on cthulhu, dagon, nyarlathotep and h. This collection includes some of the more fantasy style stories. The first edition of the novel was published in 1935, and was written by h. These are not dramatizations like our dark adventure radio theatre rather, these are audiobooks of the original stories, in allnew, neverbeforeheard recordings made by the hplhs own andrew leman and sean branney exclusively for this collection. S eliot is an amazing poet despite his intense antisemitism. The dunwich horror also prominently features the necronomicon, a critical text in h. The best hp lovecraft books thatll give you nightmares. Dont let that pretty little pout fool, erotica s bad girl is not for the faint of heart. Winner of the this is horror award for best short story collection and the charles dexter award strange aeons for favorite collection of the year. He died in providence, in poverty, on march 15, 1937. Thriftbooks sells millions of used books at the lowest everyday prices. Lovecraft, believed to have been written in late 1933.