H.P. Lovecraft

Those of you into Lovecraft may want to check out another author that influenced him; although not as influential as Poe stories like "The Cats of Ulthar" show clear signs of influence by British author Lord Dunsany; who wrote a number of short stories and a few novels with a fantasy setting; some of which had elements of horror as well.

I do think that you should get your hands on a chronological comp, if only because in the earlier stories Lovecraft's prose tends to run away from him (see "The Lurking Fear" for a prime example of that). I'd say start with the shorter stuff ("Rats in the Walls" is one of his finest; if you can stand the name of his cat, of course), and work your way up the longer stuff, like "Dreams in a Witchhouse" and...crap, sorry Raff, "Mountains of Madness," which I personally found enthralling enough to finish in a day.

Jim Garten wrote: Even Stephen King had a crack at writing on the Cthulu Mythos in his short story, Crouch End; not a bad stab at it, but nowhere near HPL of course. Alberto - if you want a great place to start with HPL & you can get it in your neck of the woods, I'd recommend this: 900 page leather bound collection of his best works; on Amazon.co.uk it's at a ridiculously low price too: Necronomicon @ Amazon Good luck (and don't forget to look behind you in the dark.....)

Jim: I agree with you on "Crouch End"... Fairly good story, though not on the same level as HPL, of course.

Alberto: since your English is very good, try to read Lovecraft in the original. Many translations are not up to scratch, and his prose is anything but easy to translate anyway. When his stories were first published in Italy, the translators edited them massively, and they ended up missing large chunks.

Even Stephen King had a crack at writing on the Cthulu Mythos in his short story, Crouch End; not a bad stab at it, but nowhere near HPL of course.

Alberto - if you want a great place to start with HPL & you can get it in your neck of the woods, I'd recommend this:



900 page leather bound collection of his best works; on Amazon.co.uk it's at a ridiculously low price too:

Necronomicon @ Amazon

Good luck (and don't forget to look behind you in the dark.....)

Jim Garten wrote: How about August Derleth too? Co-wrote several stories/novellas with HPL & also contributed many of his own to the Cthulu Mythos.

In the essay Lovecraft wrote on Supernatural Horror in Literature you'll find lots of great recommendations for further reading. I'm not a big fan of Hodgson, though, while I find Algernon Blackwood's stories to be really gripping and well-written.

^just read my signature

Raff wrote: Just found something for you.... http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html   Thanks!! Raff this is great!!! somethign to read before any buy... I'm not a big fan of reading stuff on a computer screen, but you could give it a try before you spend any money on a book. As regards "Beyond the Wall of Sleep", here's the Wikipedia entry (attention spoilers!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_the_Wall_of_Sleep_(short_story)

Just found something for you....

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html

I'm not a big fan of reading stuff on a computer screen, but you could give it a try before you spend any money on a book. As regards "Beyond the Wall of Sleep", here's the Wikipedia entry (attention spoilers!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_the_Wall_of_Sleep_(short_story)