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j. d. worthington · 7th December 2007, 11:11 PM

I had understood that "The Thing in the Moonlight" isn't entirely spurious, but only the central section is HPL's writing... from a letter (I forget to whom), and J. Chapman Miske(?) added the other sections in order to give it more the feeling of a story when he published it... or is my memory failing me on this? At any rate, it's not "straight" Lovecraft, but about 50/50 at best.... If i remember correctly, the paste-up problem with the opening sentence is in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward; and yes, it's very annoying....

For the time being, the best low-price edition of Lovecraft will be the Penguin volumes (which include the recovered full text of "The Shadow Out of Time", among other things). Even the Arkham House editions, though wonderful books and otherwise the standard in many ways, don't have that last....

As for which stories to try... I'm a bit reluctant to suggest trying those he thought his best, myself; I think a mixture would be a good idea. Otherwise, you may get "spoiled" and miss the really good points in his lesser work. Contrariwise, if you read nothing but his lesser work to begin with, you won't be quite "getting" HPL... what makes him unique, that is.

Despite the fact that they're both among my personal favorites, I don't think a newbie should usually tackle either The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath or At the Mountains of Madness, for various reasons. Those should probably come later, once you've had a chance to acclimatize to his style. I think I'd probably suggest (since you're asking about the two volumes you have):

"Polaris"
"The Cats of Ulthar"
"Nyarlathotep"
"The Rats in the Walls"
"The Festival"
"The Call of Cthulhu"
"The Strange High House in the Mist"
"The Colour Out of Space"
"The Whisperer in Darkness"
"The Shadow Over Innsmouth"
"The Haunter of the Dark"

These are pretty much in chronological order, so you can see different themes, etc., developing, as well as getting something of a cross-section of HPL's work, from his traditional to his Dunsanian to his mythos tales....

7th December 2007, 11:11 PM	#9 (permalink)
j. d. worthington Moderator Join Date: May 2006 Location: Texas Posts: 8,635	Re: A Query: I had understood that "The Thing in the Moonlight" isn't entirely spurious, but only the central section is HPL's writing... from a letter (I forget to whom), and J. Chapman Miske(?) added the other sections in order to give it more the feeling of a story when he published it... or is my memory failing me on this? At any rate, it's not "straight" Lovecraft, but about 50/50 at best.... If i remember correctly, the paste-up problem with the opening sentence is in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward; and yes, it's very annoying.... For the time being, the best low-price edition of Lovecraft will be the Penguin volumes (which include the recovered full text of "The Shadow Out of Time", among other things). Even the Arkham House editions, though wonderful books and otherwise the standard in many ways, don't have that last.... As for which stories to try... I'm a bit reluctant to suggest trying those he thought his best, myself; I think a mixture would be a good idea. Otherwise, you may get "spoiled" and miss the really good points in his lesser work. Contrariwise, if you read nothing but his lesser work to begin with, you won't be quite "getting" HPL... what makes him unique, that is. Despite the fact that they're both among my personal favorites, I don't think a newbie should usually tackle either The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath or At the Mountains of Madness, for various reasons. Those should probably come later, once you've had a chance to acclimatize to his style. I think I'd probably suggest (since you're asking about the two volumes you have): "Polaris" "The Cats of Ulthar" "Nyarlathotep" "The Rats in the Walls" "The Festival" "The Call of Cthulhu" "The Strange High House in the Mist" "The Colour Out of Space" "The Whisperer in Darkness" "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" "The Haunter of the Dark" These are pretty much in chronological order, so you can see different themes, etc., developing, as well as getting something of a cross-section of HPL's work, from his traditional to his Dunsanian to his mythos tales....