H.P. Lovecraft

Hello PA members,

I am a big fan of HPL, and have read all his works. As TM said in the above post, he was a writer of short stories rather than novels - much like his spiritual mentor, Edgar Allan Poe. Personally, I find his shorter works better than his longer ones, with the exception of the stunningly beautiful The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. My favourite work of his, however, is the terrifying "The Call of Cthulhu", one of the best horror stories ever written - I remember that, after reading it, I had trouble falling asleep at night, and that without having to resort to gore and other such nastiness.

Raff:  Thanks! that work that you cited: The Call of Cthulhu here in México is found on a thick book called "The Myths of Cthulhu", did you suggest that i could start in this?

Raff wrote: Alberto, many of those books named after "The Myths of Cthulhu" are in fact collections of stories written by other authors as a tribute to Lovecraft after his death. I have read a few of them, and in a few cases the stories were quite good, though not on a par with the originals. However, I suggest you look at the table of contents before you buy anything, and make sure the stories are by Lovecraft himself.  If you want to know more about the author, here's his Wikipedia entry in English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft

At the Mountains of Madness is much more overtly science-fictiony than his other stories, probably because the main characters are natural scientists, which makes it a bit of an oddity but I don't mind that even though it's a bit "drier" than something like The Colour out of Space. Yeah, I guess it ends up being more exposition than storytelling which is actually what makes a lot of sci-fi not work that well as literature, so maybe my affection for it as a favourite is kinda silly! Then again, Lovecraft was generally better at big ideas than his writing. I mean, if his prose was any more purple it'd be full of Ritchie Blackmore guitar solos.

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)

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 read my signature

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.

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.