[Abouna]

I just read the Call of the Cthulhu by Lovecraft.  I'm surprised it's taken me till my 40th year to get around to his stuff. 

I liked the story well enough.  It was engaging enough to make me want to read more.  I am however at a loss on where to go from here.  I'd like to keep things somewhat organized. 

Some help?

 

[TheAutomaton]

Well...I think you can find the MobiSomething version of all his books in one download for only a couple bucks.
I can't remember what it's called. Just search for H. P. Lovecraft and look for it to be by something with Mobi in the title. And then you could read his other stories.

I started on "Call of" a few weeks ago, but have not yet finished it.

 

[Geemont]

I've been reading Lovecraft for more than 30 years. Here are just a few good ones. Almost all his stories are in the public domain.

The Shadow out of Time (Some critics call it his best story)
At the Mountains of Madness (Almost novel length)
The Outsider
The Rats in the Walls
The Music of Eric Zann

and many others.

 

[Silver]

I am also a long time Lovecraftian. "The Rats In the Walls" gave my teenaged self shivers for weeks. I recommend these collections. Although I haven't yet read (or re-read) all of the books and stories in them I did look them over, and they seem to be very nicely formatted with TOC and such. These volumes hold 93 stories, novellas, etc. Should be enough to keep most Lovecraft seekers busy for a while, and more than worth the .80/each price. As a note, the covers all look the same, but these are Volumes One, Two, Three and Four.

 

[Abouna]

Thanks everybody.  For some reason I didn't get notifications for this thread so am just now seeing it.

What I'm really looking for is a primer or storyline chronology for reading Lovecraft, in particular the Cthulhu stuff, but not limited to that.  I hate reading things out of order from any particular author.

 

[Geemont]

Chronological Order of Stories

BTW, I made my own complete Lovecraft anthology years ago. It works on the Kindle and I'll email it anyone who wants it.

 

[mwvickers]

Chronological Order of Stories

BTW, I made my own complete Lovecraft anthology years ago. It works on the Kindle and I'll email it anyone who wants it.

Does it differ greatly from the MobiReference version?

 

[Abouna]

Chronological Order of Stories

BTW, I made my own complete Lovecraft anthology years ago. It works on the Kindle and I'll email it anyone who wants it.

Thanks for the link.

Is your Kindle version indexed?

Can I assume then that there is no real chronology for sotriesd that pertain to Cthulhu, i.e. there are interspersed and can be read in any order?

 

[Geemont]

Does it differ greatly from the MobiReference version?

I've never download the MobiRefrence version to my Kindle, but my best guess is there probably wouldn't be much difference. I used html files from an old Lovecraft library site and I doubt somebody would go to the trouble to create them from text.

Is your Kindle version indexed?

Yes, all the stories are on the table of contents with subsections. They are listed in the order they were written.

I've got nothing that you can't get elsewhere for free, but all the stories are in one book, or two, if you want his public domain collaborations with other authors.

 

[ElLector]

Absolutely!  Big fan of H.P. Lovecraft here.  If one wants to boost his/her vocabulary, hes's the perfect source.

 

[jason10mm]

Lovecraft doesn't really have a "chronological" order as his stories are not very interconnected. I guess you could read them in order of writing if you prefer, but I find that Lovecraft is like a fine wine, best sipped during special occasions, not chugged back all day long He is taxing at best, and repeats themes often, so just ploughing through his stories may actually turn you off. So I'd recommend hitting the "highlights" as it were, such as the stories mentioned above, then fill in the gaps as you can.

Other authors have gone to great lengths to weave Lovecraft into a "coherent whole", and I prefer to think of it that way, but the stories actually read better if they are taken individually with only faint references to common arcane texts or gods.

Also, be aware that "Call of Cthulhu" is probably the most action oriented story he has done

Robert Howard (of Conan fame) did a handful of actiony Cthulhu mythos stories that I highly recommend. Not sure if Howard is on Kindle though.

 

[J Dean]

Not a big Lovecraft buff personally, but I do recommend "The Dunwich Horror" although I don't know which anthology it belongs to.

 

[stormhawk]

I have loved Lovecraft since my first encounters with his work ... seeing the film version of the Dunwich Horrow (starring a young and demented-looking Dean Stockwell) on late-night TV, and also the occasional Night Gallery offerings based on his stories ... Cold Air and Pickman's Model are the two that I remember the best.

As as consequence of those very chilling stories I scoured my local library for more, but once upon a time he wasn't so easy to find! I do have the DTB reprints from DelRey, and a complete works was one of my first Kindle downloads (After a complete Sherlock Holmes, but before The Jungle Books).

 

[CS]

BTW, I made my own complete Lovecraft anthology years ago. It works on the Kindle and I'll email it anyone who wants it.

I'd love it. Please check your PM. Thanks!

 

[liannallama]

Love it!  Every few years (usually around Halloween) I re-read all my favorites.  The only bumper sticker I've ever considered buying is one that says "Vote for Cthulhu: Why choose the LESSER of two evils?"  Once in a while I'll see one that says "Arkham U" and it always makes me smile.

You can be sure I will be getting these for my kindle this Halloween!

 

[jrector]

Funny, but I've tried to read Lovecraft for years, and each time I've walked away bored and confused by his writing...  Then I got the Kindle and downloaded one of his collections, now I can't get enough.  I don't know if anyone else has had a similar experience while reading on the Kindle, but some things are just easier to read.  I can't explain why, but they are, and for me, Lovecraft is one of them.

 

[askenase13]

For you Lovecraft fans, I want to recommend two great books by Colin Wilson that feature the Cthulhu mythos.  They are "The Philosopher's Stone" and the sequel "The Mind Parasites."  (They are old books, not on a kindle, but available used from Amazon for just a few bucks each.)  They are fascinating novels which I remembered really captivated me.  Too complex (and too long ago) for me to summarize, but they were great.  He is an occult and SciFi writer, but these are different from his usual apparently.  Highly recommended and little known.  Hope you enjoy them.

 

[Brenda Carroll]

I really have been wanting to post on this site, but was kind of askeered to. I know that the OP wanted a chronological listing of Lovecraft works, but the name of the thread is about Cthulhu. Well, I can't say that I'm a fan of Cthulhu, but I am a fan of sorts of the Neconomicon. As far as I can tell, there are two schools of thought. One says that the Necronomicon was written in some obscure antiquity by Arabs and the other school says that H.P. Lovecraft made it all up. I'm wondering if anyone out there has an opinion on this and if so, what is your opinion? Sincerely, Brendan.

 

[Geemont]

One says that the Necronomicon was written in some obscure antiquity by Arabs and the other school says that H.P. Lovecraft made it all up. I'm wondering if anyone out there has an opinion on this and if so, what is your opinion?

Lovecraft made it all up. It is all fiction.

 

[mlewis78]

I just read the Call of the Cthulhu by Lovecraft. I'm surprised it's taken me till my 40th year to get around to his stuff.

I liked the story well enough. It was engaging enough to make me want to read more. I am however at a loss on where to go from here. I'd like to keep things somewhat organized.

Some help?

I can't help, but I'm glad you started this thread. I just last week downloaded Call of the Cthulhu and a volume of Lovecraft stories from manybooks.net and saw the volumes on Amazon. I think it was called to my attention by the Amazon recommendations (computer!). I'd only heard of Lovecraft through the blogger/author Travis Prinzi. He had talked on one of his podcasts about Lovecraft connection and influence on JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. I can't remember what that connection was though. This is Travis Prinzi's blog, Hogshead.org with a page of articles that referenced Lovecraft:

http://thehogshead.org/tag/hp-lovecraft/

I see that Barnes & Noble has a complete volume of Lovecraft's work that Prinzi gave away in October.

I haven't started reading Lovecraft on my kindle yet. I do most of my reading very late at night and wonder if I should read any of this before bedtime.

Marti