The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft are available in a handsomely compiled e-book from the Arkham Archivist, so there’s never been a better time to read Lovecraft’s original stories if you’ve been depriving yourself until now.
If you’re feeling ambitious and want to read all of Lovecraft, then simply reading the stories in the order that they were written is definitely the way to go: You’ll see the evolution and transition of his ideas in “real time” (so to speak) as the mythology of the Mythos grows up around you. I, personally, find this experience fascinating because, at the beginning of his career, Lovecraft was extremely racist, virulently xenophobic, and cynically terrified of the future. At the end of his career he would certainly not be considered liberal by today’s standards, but his views on all of these subjects had radically shifted and softened. I find Lovecraft’s racism appalling, but I find the totality of his career to be hopeful and uplifting: People can learn. People can get better. People can expand their horizons.
But tackling the complete corpus of Lovecraft is definitely a major undertaking, so it’s understandable if you’d rather just sample his work. For that approach, this is the list I recommend for getting a good overview:
- The Dunwich Horror
- The Call of Cthulhu
- Shadow Over Innsmouth
- The Colour Out of Space
- Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
- At the Mountains of Madness
The order in which you read these six stories doesn’t matter much (although I’d save At the Mountains of Madness until last). But if you read all six you’ll have a pretty good sense of Lovecraft’s breadth, you’ll have experienced most of the “big ideas” that people talk about when they talk about Lovecraft, and you’ll have read a good selection of Lovecraft’s best work.
A case could be made for adding “The Shadow Out of Time” and “The Statement of Randolph Carter” to this list (the latter of which should be read before “Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” if you read both). But I, personally, don’t think they’re as good as the six stories listed above.
I am really not a fan of Call of Cthulhu and must admit I never read Dream-Quest. But the other four are clearly among the big iconic stories of Lovecrafts work. Especially Innsmouth and Dunwich. If you know nothing about what Lovecrafs stuff is about, read at the very least those two before deciding it’s not your thing at all. If it is, the other items on the list are clearly a good choice to follow up.
I fondly remember doing a monologue of “The Statement of Randolph Carter” in a junior high drama class about the same time I learned to blow dry my hair (mid 80s). Ah, the horror!
The Shadow Out of Time is one of my favorites and I feel has a great edge to it in regards to the mythos and horror. Glad it got the “maybe it should be on the list” mention.
I have never really thought about it that way, but having read Mountains first as a kid probably colored my perspective on the rest a good deal going forward.