What's your favorite Lovecraft story?

For me, it's At the Mountains of Madness

For me:The Shadow Out of Time. Greatest body switch story ever.

Wow, I find it interesting that there's more responses in the non-Lovecraft thread. Hmmm.

To the aforementioned, I would add The Call of Cthulhu and The Colour Out of Space. The short story "The Outsider" is one of my favorites from his early Poe phase.

My favorite would be The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Definitely Pickman's Model!

Here's another for Pickman's Model

I'm going with The Call of Cthulhu. However, The Shadow over Innsmouth and The Dunwich Horror are close behind.

Thanks for inviting me John. My favourite Lovecraftian tales are the ones with strong science fiction elements, notably At The Mountains of Madness, "The Whisperer in the Darkness", and The Shadow Out of Time. I also really like The Call of Cthulhu.

David

At the Mountains of Madness

It was the first one that I read that I really "got". I still remember reading on the bus on the way home from school.

I've always been curious about Lovecraft but never read anything. What would you recommend as a good first book to try?

Any collection of shorts (and there are a lot of them) that includes 'The Call of Cthulhu', 'The Dunwich Horror', 'The Shadow over Innsmouth', 'The Rats in the Walls', 'The Picture in the House', 'At the Mountains of Madness' or any combination of at least three of the above. Do NOT start with his poetry.

It's hard to choose, but "Dreams in the Witch-House" scared the living crap out of me when I first read it. First short story to ever do that. I've been a Lovecraft fan ever since.

"Pickman's Model" was the first Lovecraft tale I ever read, so it has a special place in my heart. It's not his absolute best work, but that ending was a real kick in the pants for me at thirteen years old.

So far, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, no doubt. It's really good. But I have more books to read from him, so maybe I'll change my mind.

Hated At The Mountains of Madness (I think he never finished it).

The story that got me hooked into Lovecraft was The Picture in the House, which I found mesmerizing despite its obvious flaws. My favorite stories would have to be The Colour Out of Space and The Shadow Over Innsmouth, though I also think The Quest of Iranon and The Strange High House in the Mist are oft-overlooked gems.

Oh! Too hard to pick just one, or even several. But The Colour Out of Space probably stands as one of my favorites---interestingly, that story was Lovecraft's favorite, too. I also greatly enjoy At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and I'm fond of The Rats in the Walls, The Music of Erich Zann and The Quest of Iranon. Though as I said, it is awfully hard to pick favorites. :)

Wow, favorite? Couldn't possibly pick just one..maybe Haunter of the Dark...though I also love Dunwich Horror, and...lots more...

Mine is a two-way tie between At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time - I have been absolutely haunted by the ancient worlds and the imagery in both of them. But a close runner-up is The Outsider. I think I'm hooked on the vividness of Lovecraft's imagery and self-contained worlds in all of these.

The Colour Out Of Space for me, I think.

The Colour Out of Space is one of my favorites, too. For a longer story, I'll pick The Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath.

I'll go with The Colour Out of Space, because there is literally nothing else like it out there.

I'm a fan of all the dream cycle stories, but the best are Celephais and The Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward without a doubt.With it's opening lines 'From a private hospital for the insane near Providence,Rhode Island,there recently disappeared an exceedingly singular person,to the fantastic ending,this short novel is just great! Read-shudder-and enjoy!

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is certainly the most engrossing of Lovecraft's longer work. I am, I admit, rather fond of his sonnet cycle The Fungi from Yuggoth despite it's goofy title.

Early Lovecraft: The Quest of Iranon

Later Lovecraft: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Dunsany-inspired Lovecraft and Cthulhu Mythos Lovecraft can be so different at their extremes, I can't choose between those.

The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath is by far his best work! I can read it over and over and I notice something new almost every time. It is a timeless tale and if anyone disagrees with me... well then I guess we just disagree!

I'll plump for the Shadow over Innsmouth, although it is hard to pick just one.

I agree, it's hard to pick just one. Dunwich Horror for atmosphere. Shadow Out of Time for creativity. Call of Cthulhu was his best crafted and executed. I wish Dunsany and Lovecraft had gotten together and melded their worlds into one. I wish Lovecraft had written more Dreamlands stories because, as weirdfictionforever mentioned above, there are so many places to go and explore.

At The Mountains of Madness mainly becuse it was my first and I was astounded. Read recently they are making it into a film at the moment - haven't seena film inspired by Lovercraft that does justice to the milase and unease his writing cuases - lets see if this one can come close.

I really do cherish the copy of The Shadow Out of Time that ST Joshi sent to me a few years ago but it's not the story I turn to first in a Lovecraft compilation. That honor is granted to Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family. Yes I know it over the top and my stuffed dragons might be able to figure out the ending. But it's a good cheesy.

I really do cherish the copy of The Shadow Out of Time that ST Joshi sent to me a few years ago but it's not the story I turn to first in a Lovecraft compilation. That honor is granted to Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family. Yes I know it over the top and my stuffed dragons might be able to figure out the ending. But it's a good cheesy.

The Rats in the Walls, I think, which was the first story actually written by Lovecraft that I read.

Of course I love all of Lovecraft's works and really admire the foresight he had to connect his works to a single mythos as well as not be upset by others writers when they chose to add to his creation. It was his willingness to share his dark concept of the universe around us with other readers and writers that has been the key to the long life his fiction currently enjoys. As long as others continue to add to the Cthulhu Mythos, others will continue to learn about it and come back for more. As for my favorite Lovcraft tale it would have to be The Hound as it was the first Lovecraft tale I ever read and I remember thinking, wow this is demented. I love it!

I can't go past The Call of Cthulhu. Apart from its other merits, a small part of the story is set in Dunedin, New Zealand, where I lived for 17 years.

I always enjoyed Rats in the Wall. And you can never go wrong with everybody's favorite homeboy Cthulhu

WWCD

Andy

I usually consider The Rats in the Walls my favourite, but it is a difficult choice... Other than the mentioned short story, I really enjoy The Colour Out of Space, Pickman's Model, At the Mountains of Madness and The Cats of Ulthar.

The Outsider is still my all time favorite, followed closely by The Call of Cthulhu and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. I also have a fond spot for The Cats of Ulthar and The Other Gods from his early writings.

I've been reading Lovecraft since I was in "junior" high school -- more than 20 years ago, now! I well remember the first Lovecraft story I ever read -- THE DUNWICH HORROR. It was included in a paperback volume called 11 GREAT HORROR STORIES which I ordered through a classroom book club called Scholastic. I loved it -- more detailed than Poe, more concrete, and thus, to me, far more frightening. I became an immediate fan, and began acquiring as many Lovecraft books as I could (but there weren't many available back then, as horror was still a neglected genre). But my absolute favorite story is still THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. It has everything that attracts me in a great horror story -- a sense of ancient, dark history; a mystery connected to the present; a semi-sympathetic protagonist -- which makes the ending even more shocking. I haven't read THE CATS OF ULTHAR -- I will have to try to get hold of that one. I also like the one about ARTHUR JERMYN -- the version I have is fairly short, but still gripping.

Isn't it amazing that with all the incredible FX and CG we have today, there are still very few really great horror films made? Oh, I grant you there are a plethora of slasher flicks flooding the rental shelves, but darned few great horror films that capture the eerieness and the malaise you mention -- that subtle sense that something is very, very wrong in the world.

I still feel the B&W version of Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (called THE HAUNTING and starring Julie Harris) is one of the most evocative films of that nature. The hand-held cameras, the deliberately obtuse angles, and the director's gritty determination NOT to succumb to cheap tricks and showy effects still make that film a horror classic, in my opinion. Another good film, for both atmosphere and story, is THE CHANGELING, starring George C. Scott.

I think the brilliance of both films lies in their damaged protagonists -- which allows the viewer the initial luxury of thinking that every "supernatural" occurrence may, just may, have a factual explanation.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Love at the Mountains of Madness. Can't beat giant albino penguins!

I agree with you, Rachel. I really don't like CGI. It's too literal for me and seems to look "wrong." There's no sense of weight to the animation and most of it's ugly. I like the evocative. Have you ever seen the BBC version of Susan Hill's The Woman in Black? I think it's very creepy. I also saw the play in London quite a few years ago. The audience was terrified. The ghost comes onto the stage at one point by walking down the theater aisles and you could see everyone pulling away and twisting around, trying to make sure they knew where she was.

For me, it has always been The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. One of those stories I can't get out of my mind.

They're all wonderful. I like "The Temple" even if the German u-boat commander is like a caricature from an allied propaganda poster. And I like the imagery in the "White Ship."

It's a toss-up between The Dunwich Horror and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward!
#44 I have seen the BBC version of The Woman in Black. It scared the hell out of me!!!!

I would have to say that my favorite, or perhaps favorites, are Dreams in the Witch-House and rats in the walls for those are the two that stick in my head the most and I will always think back on them.

The Rats in the Walls

This is a really hard call. I like "Dreams in the Witch-House" (and I'm sort of surprised to see it so well represented here) and "The Haunter of the Dark" as straighforward, HPL-inflected occult horror. The Dreamlands stories are great, especially "The Silver Key." But the one that made the greatest impression on me at first reading is "The Shadow over Innsmouth."

And I'm fond of what Blue Oyster Cult did with it: Perfect Water

I did not realise that Perfect Water was linked to Lovecraft! I'll have to dig out my copy tonight and look up the lyrics. I've always appreciated the inspiration BOC derived from literature and film, but didn't pick that one up.

Definitely not my favourite album, but one of the better songs on it. Who wrote the lyrics for that track?

ETA: Ah, after following your link I see it was one of those penned by Buck Dharma with Jim Carroll. I don't know "The Shadow over Innsmouth" well enough to get the allusions, but I've always liked those lyrics.

Hard call. Yes, I'm very fond of the 'gothic' tales like "The Haunter of the Dark" and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". But my absolute favorite would still be "The Colour out of Space" - I like the idea of the horror being impersonal and totally beyond our grasp.

>#23, Monohex, I agree with you, probably my two favorites are The Colour out of Space and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. It's very hard to pick.

Call of Cthulhu, followed closely by The Dunwich Horror

I'm going with The Call of Cthulhu, although The Whisperer in Darkness, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and At the Mountains of Madness come close behind it.

Also, The Thing on the Doorstep has one of the best opening lines ever:

"It is true that I have sent six bullets through the head of my best friend, and yet I hope to shew by this statement that I am not his murderer."

I guess it'd have to be At the Mountains of Madness. Always had a soft spot for world-building*. Others I especially like include "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Colour Out of Space", and, if a prose poem be admitted, "Nyarlathotep".

* I've seen a couple literary critics speak of world-building as a fault; allegedly a good author uses an imaginary world solely as backdrop for interesting characters. Clearly, the critics concerned need to be fed to the shoggoths.

>56 AndreasJ:

I love "Nyarlathotep". I was going to do a reading of it for my friend's literary group but I kept mispronouncing the title character's name. :)

That's my favorite, too - I'd like to learn it by heart!

> 57

What's the right way to say it, and on whose authority?

>59 paradoxosalpha:

I really don't know what the right way to say it is - I pronounced it "nyar-luh-THO-tep", just 'cause it seemed correct and sounded euphonius to me. I actually misspoke a bit earlier - I didn't really mispronounce it (how can you mispronounce something when you don't know what the correct pronunciation IS?) as much as I failed to pronounce it the same way consistently, as it's a bit of a tongue-twister (unlike, say, Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn. :D )

FWIW, I pronounce it roughly nyar-LAT-ho-tep. The -th- as two consonants since the latter half is surely the Egyptian element "hotep", as in Imhotep, Amenhotep, etc.

I propose: NIGH-are-luht-HO-tep, which takes into account the concerns of #61 and deploys the "Jeremy Taylor" meter: "I had read in some book or other that the most favourable name for becoming famous was one consisting of a dactyl followed by a spondee, as at the end of a hexameter: like 'Jeremy Taylor'." --Confessions of Aleister Crowley (ch. 6, p. 140)

>61 AndreasJ: & 62

Either one of those is probably closer to what HPL intended than what I came up with. I just figured that since I was probably going to be the only Lovecraft geek there I could get away with just about any pronunciation as long as I pronounced it the same way consistently. :D

Cthulhu is the only Mythos being the pronunciation of whose name I've heard discussed (pardon the awkward construction there). As I recall, they discuss it fairly extensively in the film LOVECRAFT: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN.

The Shadow over Innsmouth - I've always had a great affinity for the sea and spent a great deal of my youth living beside it. This is why I also have a great deal of affection for the collaborative tale, The Night Ocean, as well.

numbers of how many times a title is marked as favorite. Since not everyone had chosen a most favorite I have also mentioned second bests:

The Call of Cthulhu 10

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward 8

At the Mountains of Madness 7

The Shadow over Innsmouth 6

The Shadow Out of Time 5
The Colour Out of Space 5
Rats in the Walls 5

Pickman's Model 4
The Dunwich Horror 4

Dreams in the Witch-House 3

The Outsider 2
The Cats of Ulthar 2
The Whisperer in the Darkness 2
The Haunter of the Dark 2
The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath 2
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family 2

The Hound as it was 1
The Quest of Iranon 1
The Other Gods 1
The Temple 1
The White Ship 1
The Silver Key 1
The Night Ocean 1