Start anywhere. He has a lot of short stories, I'd maybe recommend his Necronomicon which collects a huge amount of them. Roll a D20 dice and read whatever story the number corresponds with. Then just pick after that.
Link here - Necronomicon
Ich klinke mich mal mit ein. Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft habe ich.
Many people have already answered but I’ll just chime in that the Necronomicon is what I have and it’s great. Haven’t read all the stories yet though. Also Barnes and Noble have multiple (faux) leather bound Lovecraft collections.
Someone elsewhere in the thread recommended Uzumaki by Junji Ito. I’d also recommend Tomie by the same author. It’s not necessarily cosmic horror but it’s definitely an interesting take on horror and it was his first work. Both Uzumaki and Tomie can be found on amazon in a full hardback collection as well as some of his other works.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Fiction-GOLLANCZ/dp/0575081562 I found this recently, it's a beautiful book, with a nice leather feel and inside their are some wonderfully chilling drawings scattered throughout chapters.
I bought it before bloodborne because the appearance of the book snatched my interest and while playing bloodborne at the moment. Makes me want to read the shit out of it.
I was in the same position last year, i didn't know where to start. So i bought this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Fiction-GOLLANCZ/dp/0575081562/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341264327&sr=8-1 It's a collection of most of his works and contains all of his more famous stories. It starts with a few of his short stories and as the book progresses the material gets longer. It was a really easy way to ease myself into his works.
If you're in Europe, have a look at this. I bought it as an all but newbie to Lovecraft's writing, having only read a few of his short stories.
Lots and lots of book for that price, and a very comprehensive tour of Lovecraft indeed. There's a follow-up called Eldritch Tales which I might give a look next time I go shopping for books.
Necronomicon: the Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft was probably my best buy, ever. It's a beautiful book with all the best stories (in my opinion). If I were you I'd start with that. You can't go wrong!
Book collection:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Fiction-GOLLANCZ/dp/0575081562
​
Audiobooks:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG8klsjxFY-P3ITpqoMqvTyRDd7qg7RVK
​
Video series (lore):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-aprpylMuCdnaFEYwTzAobqUZGxS1D5p
A book with a collection of his most popular stories:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Fiction-GOLLANCZ/dp/0575081562
​
Horrorbabble Audiobooks:
https://www.youtube.com/c/HorrorBabble/playlists
​
Another audiobook Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG8klsjxFY-P3ITpqoMqvTyRDd7qg7RVK
​
Lovecraft lore playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-aprpylMuCdnaFEYwTzAobqUZGxS1D5p
​
Stories that I enjoy and would recommend to a new reader:
- Dagon
- Nameless City
- Pickmans Model
- Herbert West - Reanimator
- The Call of Cthulhu
I'd suggest just getting something like Necronomicon to start with.
smile.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Best-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft/dp/0575081562
There's another one that isn't, I think. This is the one I'm talking about
If I were you, I would prioritize a nice edition that you like the look and feel of rather than a complete edition. Hear me out.
First of all, its difficult to actually find a "complete" edition. You have to decide whether you count the stories that he wrote to be published under someone else's name, you have to decide whether you count the stories he collaborated on, and even then you have to decide between "primary revisions" (when he wrote or rewrote the bulk of the story) versus "secondary revisions" (when he made minor changes or added only some sections). Plus there is the "juvenelia", poetry, etc. You will be hunting for a while if you insist on getting "complete" collection, and even buying one that claims to be complete will leave you for hunting for some early work or collaborations that weren't included.
Secondly, while I am ultimately glad that I did track down every piece of Lovecraft's fiction that is extant, it took many years and many sources and some ebooks online, and while it made me happy to complete the checklist, many of the pieces that are not often anthologized are really not very good. There are 3-5 incredible stories, 10-15 good stories, 15-20 pretty good stories, and a lot of stuff that has not held up well at all. Lovecraft was writing for such a small audience that he often just experimented with short-form things, fragments, fan-fiction based on other authors that he admired, sort of lame jokes (see "Ibid"), pieces of a dream that he had... many of the pieces collected in "Complete Fiction" are a curiosity that an archivist or biographer might want to study, but are not stories that a modern reader would want or need to read.
Frankly, if you read this edition you will read all the Lovecraft stories that are really worth reading in my opinion:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/466845/h-p-lovecraft-tales-loa-155-by-h-p-lovecraft/9781931082723/
It doesn't have the fantasy/dream quest stuff that some people like, but I find that that material holds up much more poorly than the rest.
If you want more stories or a less bland presentation, you probably can't go wrong with this collection:
https://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Best-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft/dp/0575081562/
And if you finish that and find that you really want more, there is a companion piece that collects additional stories:
https://www.amazon.com/Eldritch-Tales-Miscellany-H-P-Lovecraft/dp/1473230640/
I would get that first Necronomicon edition and then if you still have momentum to read the rest of the stories by tracking down free or inexpensive ebooks that have the rare and more obscure pieces.
If you mean this
Yes and it was amazing.
A set of books called "Necronomicon" and "Eldritch Tales" might be what you're looking for.
The Necronomicon contains his most popular stories, with illustrations throughout the book.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Fiction-GOLLANCZ/dp/0575081562
The "Eldritch Tales" contains other stories by Lovecraft, also illustrated.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eldritch-Tales-Miscellany-H-P-Lovecraft/dp/0575099356
I recommend the large Necronomicon book that has almost all of H.P. Lovecraft's work and enjoying it on occasion. Trying to just read through it all is not enjoyable, so I recommend picking through stories as you go. https://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Best-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft/dp/0575081562
Stephen King's work is also often cosmic horror in nature, kind of a downstream derivative. IT is, especially the books (the movies much less so, as there wasn't much time to really investigate the origin of the monster and its struggles). Things like The Mist are a really, really good example. There's a great movie you might want to check out, but it's... emotionally rough.
The Necronomicon is a collection of HP Lovecraft’s most famous stories.
Well Amazon has all of them. Yeah sure it's pricy but still. It does have them.
https://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Best-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft/dp/0575081562
> LOL. Wait, when was it published? > > > > December 14,1988
um... I don't know where you got that date, but it was published in 1946, not 1988
>"A magnificent job of theoretical exposition."
>—Ayn Rand
She's not wrong.
>So to clarify, you recommend two books, one of which is thirty years old
No. much older. The age of a book does not correspond to the quality of said book.
>another which is by man who died in 1937
Yes.
>was virulently racist even by the standards of his own time
True, but that doesn't mean his fiction is any less spectacular. Lots of people back then were racist. It doesn't mean that they can't also be good authors of good fiction. If you're worried that buying a book of his would be financially supporting a racist, he's been dead for 80 years, so you don't have to worry about that. He's not going to get any of the money you may spend on his fiction.
>Gollancz published a compendium of the Mythos and some of his other tales in 2008, called Necromicon : the Best Wierd Tales of HP Lovecraft
Yes, that's the one.
>but Lovecraft never published a book called The Necronomicon
If you want to get technical, Lovecraft never published a single book. He wrote mostly short stories and the longest story he wrote was a novella, not even a full novel, and most of his stuff was published in old pulp magazines.
>Certainly not an 1000+ page one.
Well, it's 900 pages so close enough.
I think this edition (or something like it) is probably the best way to "get into" Lovecraft; aside, of course, from just grabbing one the excellent free ebook editions already mentioned.
I don't own the Necronomicon edition myself, but started out buying very similar "best of" editions.
Also, I like this interactive app, for a quick taste of Lovecraft.
Edit: Formatting Edit 2: Addendum:
Saw the Centipede Press edition, thought it looked cool. Be sure to check with this guy first though: It DOES NOT contain the Hound or the Unnameable!
Seriously, there's so much ~~wonderful~~ horrible Lovecraft media out there, just start reading and join the true Darkside.
This is the collection I ended up with. It doesn't have everything, but it has all of the best stuff. EDIT: plus these Gollancz collections are the prettiest. There are a couple of Conan ones that I highly recommend.
This is another good one. It's a collection of stuff that edited, reworked or completely rewrote for other authors, so there's a lot of his voice in it, only with a wider range of styles and themes.
Si mira, Necronomicon https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/0575081562/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_3Zv1DbAKJ1QH0
Al libro mágico al que te refieres pues por supuesto que no existe.