If One Lovecraft Story Was All You Could Read…

[Palanan]

…which one would it be?

I've never read anything by Lovecraft, looking for suggestions, especially those which maximize the Far-Realms-style creepiness.

[comicshorse]

'The Rats in the Walls' was always my favourite

[warty goblin]

Go for the motherload and At the Mountains of Madness. It's one of his longer works (but still very short), has a lot of excellent weird stuff, nothing exceptionally objectionable in the racism department, and is a generally excellent exemplar of early twentieth century genre fiction. Alternatively, go very short and read The Statement of Randolf Carter, or go for the (extremely) weird and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadeth.

[Palanan]

Thanks for the quick replies.

By "weird," do you mean creepy Far-Realmsy, or generally mind-bendingly odd? I'm looking more for the former, but not having read Lovecraft I'm not sure if those are just different ways of describing all of his work.

[Zyzzyva]

Go for the motherload and At the Mountains of Madness. It's one of his longer works (but still very short), has a lot of excellent weird stuff, nothing exceptionally objectionable in the racism department, and is a generally excellent exemplar of early twentieth century genre fiction. Alternatively, go very short and read The Statement of Randolf Carter, or go for the (extremely) weird and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadeth.

Seconded on Mountains. Read At the Mountains of Madness.

A shorter one, still good and quintessentially Lovecraft, would be The Colour out of Space. Call of Cthulhu is the big one, of course, and is racist as whoa, but that's honestly something you have to grapple with with Lovecraft, not something to ignore.

Kadath is very good but it's more "strangish heroic fantasy done up in really purple prose" than anything usually denoted by "Lovecraftian".

The Shunned House is, basically, a Call of Cthulhu session set to text, which is probably not what you want but which amused the hell out of me.

ETA:

Thanks for the quick replies.

By "weird," do you mean creepy Far-Realmsy, or generally mind-bendingly odd? I'm looking more for the former, but not having read Lovecraft I'm not sure if those are just different ways of describing all of his work.

Kadath is quite good, and I would very much describe it as "creepy Far-Realmsy", but it's not conventionally Lovecraftian. I'd read it fourth, say, after Mountains, Colour, and Call.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Go for the motherload and At the Mountains of Madness. It's one of his longer works (but still very short), has a lot of excellent weird stuff, nothing exceptionally objectionable in the racism department, and is a generally excellent exemplar of early twentieth century genre fiction.

I'd put this in tied with - or close second to - The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

Whilst I like At the Mountains of Madness (it's where one half of my handle comes from, after all), it is all about discovering things that manne was notte meant to knowe in a cold and hostile clime. The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward is the same sort of thing, but right in the back yard (so to speak).

On the plus side, they are both in the Lovecraft Omnibus (Volume 1).

[warty goblin]

Thanks for the quick replies.

By "weird," do you mean creepy Far-Realmsy, or generally mind-bendingly odd? I'm looking more for the former, but not having read Lovecraft I'm not sure if those are just different ways of describing all of his work.

I don't tend to think there's such a line between those in Lovecraft as the modern perception tends to claim. There's certainly stuff in Mountains that can be creepy, and a lot of it's very strange, but I would hesitate to try to bin the story one way or the other. Frankly I'd shy away from doing that with genre fiction of that period in general; and certainly when using modern genres. I'm halfway convinced that in the 30s and 40s, genres simply hadn't ossified quite yet, and there was still a good amount of flexibility. Either that or they were firm things, but rather out of alignment with our current understandings.

There certainly are Lovecraft stories that fit very well into a single modern genre (The Shunned House is straight horror for instance), but there's a lot that don't.

It's also worth noting that The Shunned House is enormously creepy if you've both studied non-Euclidean geometry, and happen to have more than a passing knowledge of the houses on Benefit Street, Providence, RI.

[Zyzzyva]

I don't tend to think there's such a line between those in Lovecraft as the modern perception tends to claim. There's certainly stuff in Mountains that can be creepy, and a lot of it's very strange, but I would hesitate to try to bin the story one way or the other. Frankly I'd shy away from doing that with genre fiction of that period in general; and certainly when using modern genres. I'm halfway convinced that in the 30s and 40s, genres simply hadn't ossified quite yet, and there was still a good amount of flexibility. Either that or they were firm things, but rather out of alignment with our current understandings.

There certainly are Lovecraft stories that fit very well into a single modern genre (The Shunned House is straight horror for instance), but there's a lot that don't.

It's also worth noting that The Shunned House is enormously creepy if you've both studied non-Euclidean geometry, and happen to have more than a passing knowledge of the houses on Benefit Street, Providence, RI.

Maybe I'm just a splitter, not a lumper, but I'm comfortable drawing a line between Mountains, Color, Call, Rats in the Walls, Shadow Over Innsmouth, etc, and Kadath, Doom that Came to Sarnath, Quest of Iranon, etc. I'll agree there's a continuum, though, with Sarnath certainly being a horrific fantasy/mythology-like horror.

[hamishspence]

I recall liking The Shadow Out of Time.

[Gopher Wizard]

I'd have to go with The Color Out of Space. Second would be Dagon, though Dagon might just be for nostalgia reasons: it was the first HP Lovecraft story I ever read.

[DoctorFaust]

I would say The Music of Erich Zann and Pickman's Model are probably two of his better short stories.

[BWR]

Gah! Only one?

That's a tricky one. For that I love Lovecraft's Mythos stories, his Dunsanian dream stories are my favorites. I think something like "Hypnos" or "the Quest of Iranon" have resonated more strongly with me than just about anything else. Unless you count "The Lurking Fear", which I read at 12. The scene where the main character and a friend hole up in a cabin and the MC goes to sleep in a thunderstorm, then wakes up and sees his friend still sitting in the same position by the window. When he checks on his friend, he finds that his friend's face has been eaten off. I read this in my grandparent's creaky old house, in a thunderstorm, sleeping next to an open window because there was little by the way of AC there.
Guess who didn't sleep a wink that night?

[Zyzzyva]

"The Lurking Fear"

Having just reread The Rats in the Walls and looked at the wiki article for that: man I keep forgetting how spectacularly racist Lovecraft was.

I'm almost thinking of trading my recommendation from Mountains to Rats just because "wow, that is a tremendously unsubtle metaphor for miscegenation" is part of the Lovecraft experience.

[Muz]

"The Shadow over Innsmouth" has always been my favorite. Creepy, gripping. I love the bit in the hotel.

[Aka-chan]

I have to agree with Doctor Faust--"The Music of Erich Zann" is an excellent story.

[Bulldog Psion]

Edit: I'm changing my recommendation to "The Rats in the Walls." I just read it again, and that is some powerful stuff. Personally, I prefer to read it as a really creepy story, at face value. I realize Lovecraft was racist as all get out, but I'm not entirely convinced that was his "point" in writing this specific story. Politics prevent me from delving any deeper that way, but I still think it's one heck of a story on its own merits.

Of course, I'm a bit more of a Clark Ashton Smith fan than Lovecraft. I like Lovecraft, mind you, but I can't pass up the opportunity to put in a good word for Klarkash-Ton.

[BWR]

Edit: I'm changing my recommendation to "The Rats in the Walls." I just read it again, and that is some powerful stuff. Personally, I prefer to read it as a really creepy story, at face value. I realize Lovecraft was racist as all get out, but I'm not entirely convinced that was his "point" in writing this specific story. Politics prevent me from delving any deeper that way, but I still think it's one heck of a story on its own merits.

Of course, I'm a bit more of a Clark Ashton Smith fan than Lovecraft. I like Lovecraft, mind you, but I can't pass up the opportunity to put in a good word for Klarkash-Ton.

Smith was a better wordsmith, certainly.

[GolemsVoice]

Just one? That's hard. Ole' HPL constantly evolved and changed his writing style, and as a result, has several very distinct phases.

However, I'd probably pick "The Music of Erich Zann" as that story. It's short, but impressive, with perfect atmosphere and that lingering sense of dread and cosmic horror of a world that suddenly shifted off-balance.

Honorable mentions:

"The Colour out of Space" has that classic Lovecraftian element of unexplainable stuff happening to undeserving people. It's cosmic in the direct sense of the word, and the descriptions of the wierd nature, the apathetic farmer and his mad wife are creepy and touching at the same time.

"The Innsmouth Horror" one of Lovecraft's more bearable "miscegenation". Creepy, and with a twist ending unusual for Lovecraft.

"The Mountains of Madness" contains the phrase "that night-crafted, penguin-fringed abyss" whcih someone on this forum has as a quote in their signature. Also an excellent story about discovering maddening truths.

"The Dream-Quest to Unknown Kaddath" isn't what people usually associate with HPL, and that's what makes this one so fresh. It replaces some of the dread and disgust most of Lovecraft's protagonists feel with wonder and sheer strangeness, and if you know how Lovecraft felt during his short life, this may be a very direct window into his soul. Gripping for the sheer fantastic scope.

"Nyarlathotep" is a wonderful story, which perfectly showcases what I look for in Lovecraft's writing. It's unexplainable, eerie, and leaves you with a sense of dread when faced with the destruction of humanity by a latter-day pied piper leading a dying universe to its grave.

[the_druid_droid]

There have been some great suggestions so far, and I'll mostly second them, but I'm a pretty big HPL fan, so I'd feel bad not contributing.

My first choice would probably be The Colour Out of Space, which in my opinion is one of Lovecraft's creepiest stories. I also really like Rats in the Walls, but as others have pointed out, it's super racist (depending on exactly how you connect the dots). However, I've always loved HPL for the crazy magic and fantasy ideas he throws out, and Rats certainly has room for all sorts of interesting speculation on horrible cult rituals and the like, if you can deal with the other stuff that's in it somehow.

I'd also recommend Pickman's Model; again you could view it as a statement about miscegenation, but I actually prefer to read it as a dark take on old faerie myths, and it works really well in that role. It also sort of nods to some of Lovecraft's ideas about weird fiction and art, which are interesting in their own right, and make for some historical context.

As far as his really short stories, I agree that The Statement of Randolph Carter is hard to beat for atmosphere, although if you're willing to make the trade of racist undertones for fantasy again, The Festival is also a strong contender.

In general, I'm more fond of HPL's shorter stories than his novella-length works, but tastes vary, and it's worth checking out Call of Cthulhu or At the Mountains of Madness and/or The Shadow Over Innsmouth if you find yourself getting hooked on the atmospheric horror.

[Fralex]

"The Innsmouth Horror" one of Lovecraft's more bearable "miscegenation". Creepy, and with a twist ending unusual for Lovecraft.

Are you sure you aren't thinking of "The Dunwitch Horror"? That's the one where,

Spoiler: unlike most of Lovecraft's Stories...

Show

the monster is actually defeated at the end by a group of researchers who managed to reverse-engineer a spell from the Necronomicon. Well, they got traumatized a little, but at least they got rid of it.

That one I enjoyed.

In terms of creepiness, the one that truly disturbed me was "The Whisperer in the Darkness." Fascinating concept, horrifying twist that made me regret only reading these stories at night (this isn't even intentional, it just always seems to be late when I'm reading something by him).

If you'd prefer your cosmic horror set to music, I recommend Call of Cthulu - The Musical! It's an amalgam of a bunch of different stories, interspersed with songs set to familiar tunes like "I am the Very Model of a Miskatonic Gentleman," or "Gotta Hide Another Corpse with my Friend"!

[GolemsVoice]

Are you sure you aren't thinking of "The Dunwitch Horror"? That's the one where,

Spoiler: unlike most of Lovecraft's Stories...

Show

the monster is actually defeated at the end by a group of researchers who managed to reverse-engineer a spell from the Necronomicon. Well, they got traumatized a little, but at least they got rid of it.

That one I enjoyed.

Nah, I'm thinking of the part where the narrator

Spoiler

Show

actually becomes a Deep One and is absolutely ok with the fact

[Bulldog Psion]

Nah, I'm thinking of the part where the narrator

Spoiler

Show

actually becomes a Deep One and is absolutely ok with the fact

Spoiler

Show

And seems to be fiercely exultant over it, to boot.

[comicshorse]

Spoiler

Show

And seems to be fiercely exultant over it, to boot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tTH...I&spfreload=10

[Bulldog Psion]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tTH...I&spfreload=10

[SaintRidley]

Lovecraft was no slouch at humor, so while I would normally recommend Mountains or Colour, I'm going to recommend "Ibid" - a very short, very offbeat entry in his oeuvre, but well worth the read.

[KillingAScarab]

Having just reread The Rats in the Walls and looked at the wiki article for that: man I keep forgetting how spectacularly racist Lovecraft was.

I'm almost thinking of trading my recommendation from Mountains to Rats just because "wow, that is a tremendously unsubtle metaphor for miscegenation" is part of the Lovecraft experience.

Heh, for those same reasons I have the opposite thought of which of those two to suggest.

Then I remembered, "The Temple." The story is written from the perspective of a World War I U-boat captain who knows he will not survive. No one's going to put a reference to it on a t-shirt or a political campaign sticker, but I found it easy to get into the same head-space as the narrator, which made it creepier. It contains a bit of the Mythos, so it might get you interested in learning more, but it's not a requirement to enjoy.

[brionl]

Edit: I'm changing my recommendation to "The Rats in the Walls." I just read it again, and that is some powerful stuff. Personally, I prefer to read it as a really creepy story, at face value. I realize Lovecraft was racist as all get out, but I'm not entirely convinced that was his "point" in writing this specific story. Politics prevent me from delving any deeper that way, but I still think it's one heck of a story on its own merits.

Of course, I'm a bit more of a Clark Ashton Smith fan than Lovecraft. I like Lovecraft, mind you, but I can't pass up the opportunity to put in a good word for Klarkash-Ton.

I've got to say, Lovecraft wasn't noticeably more racist than most other people writing at the time. Read anything else from the period, for instance the Tom Swift stories by Victor Appleton (among others). Finding anything from that era that isn't will be quite a task.

But for the most quintessential Lovecraft story, I'm going to add on to the recommendations for Colour out of Space.

[Fralex]

Nah, I'm thinking of the part where the narrator

Spoiler

Show

actually becomes a Deep One and is absolutely ok with the fact

Ah, that's right. That one was actually called The Shadow over Innsmouth.

In all honesty, though, I wouldn't worry too much about which "one" story you choose to read. Lovecraft's work is all available online for free, legally, in various places on the Internet. All a story will cost you is your time.

[Zyzzyva]

I've got to say, Lovecraft wasn't noticeably more racist than most other people writing at the time. Read anything else from the period, for instance the Tom Swift stories by Victor Appleton (among others). Finding anything from that era that isn't will be quite a task.

Having read the Tom Swift stories: no, Lovecraft is a hell of a lot more racist. Tom Swift is kinda appalling in places; Lovecraft has whole stories all about the visceral, skin-crawling dread that is miscegenation.

I'm not sure where the board policy line lies, so I'm going to hold my peace on this subject after that.

[nyjastul69]

... The Shunned House is enormously creepy if you've both studied non-Euclidean geometry, and happen to have more than a passing knowledge of the houses on Benefit Street, Providence, RI.

I've never studied non-Euclidean geometry, but I can say, as a lifelong RIer and resident of Providence for 15 years, that being familiar with the specific areas he mentions in his stories is very revealing. I'm very familiar with the East side, although I never lived there. I lived in Elmhurst. I visit his grave site fairly frequently while cycling and the things people leave there are amazing, creepy, and weird.

To the OP, for whatever reason, The Dreams in the Wictch House has always stuck out in my head. Although, I wouldn't argue with any of the other suggestions. Don't read a single story and judge his authorship. Read several and enjoy them.