Lovecraft Anthologies: My Dream Collection

Table of Contents:
Dagon
The Call of Cthulhu
The Music of Erich Zann
The Doom That Came to Sarnath
The Dunwhich Horror
Celephais
The Colour Out of Space
The Quest of Iranon
The Ulthar
The Rats in the Walls
The Silver Key
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Tomb
101,000. Doing it in less is impossible.
If given more space (by my strict inner editor!) I would add:
The Whisperer in Darkness
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Curse of Yig
Pickman's Model
The White Ship
Cool Air
Hypnos
All of these stories are available online on the Lovecraft Archive website:
www.hplovecraft.com/writings/t...
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[@rationalthought846]

Mountains of Madness is my favorite Lovecraft. As he developed his craft he drifted more and more to science fiction that reached its pinnacle in the Mountains of Madness and Shadow out of Time. If you watch any horror movie in the Artic or Antarctic, this one started it all- including the various of versions of the Thing. At one time Del Torro was going to make this into a movie- I think it would have been very impressive. I read this novelette when I was older and could not believe how I had missed it all these years.

[@lyndao7356]

A compelling, full-bodied & lyrical review of a not yet existent anthology. It's a great line up.

[@RSEFX]

A sound selection. It never even occurred to me that author anthologies need be presented chronologically. I think subject matter and/or tone and/or style are more important factors in creating an order for story presentation. THE DUNWICH HORROR is darn near the top HPL story for me. Active protagonists---Earth and humanity having a fighting chance is more in line with my own nature and it is refreshing that Lovecraft could venture into that area of story-telling. This tale is laid out like a perfect cosmic-terror/sf-horror film. Lots of events, interesting characters and locales, extremely weird antagonist/cosmic threat, big night-time nightmarish horror stalking the countryside, that insanely strange thing found on the library floor....Very full-blown Lovecraft poking into a variety of his image-making and unearthly situations. Joshi, I think, maybe far too rigid in attempting to tamp-down HPL into a neat formula. No mention of THE SHUNNED HOUSE? One of my favorites. That thing that manifests at the end, to me, has some of the same nebulously-evocative power of the chromatic entity" that takes hold of the farm in THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE. (I just wish it'd been something more visually striking---like an oversized eye---that was dug up at the end, rather than that stove-pipe elbow.) Thanks for the video and the go-through. I like the more disciplined, selective choices, which clears up a lot of the "sprawl" that characterizes many of the HPL collections. (My appreciation of his writings stems quite a bit from his use of byzantine description, unusual and arcane words and language. This is what is unique and appealing, and, like you say, he is an 18th century writer whose body, only, just happened to materialize in the 20th century. I've gotten so tired of critics and people like that graphic novel guy---whose name escapes me at the moment---level at Lovecraft; am tired of that "superior" attitude. Ugh. Tedious. It all leaves me feeling so very...frore! )

[@rkosurvivor]

DUDE! I found your channel in my youtube recommendations and I am so glad I clicked, looking forward to going through your videos. Thanks so much for the work you're putting in!

[@themetalhead92g]

Well I would expand it with white ship, the curse of Yig and MoM, all of them after the tomb. I would also like for each story to have two images drawn by Moebius and H.R. Giger. Other than that and with a good binding i thing that this anthology would be very good for a newcomer and perfect for re-reading while traveling or simply lying in bed!! Good job on this one!

[@thomaskittock2866]

My first introduction to Lovecraft outside of his books was seeing his life-sized figure on display for Guillermo Del Toro's exhibit when it came to Minneapolis. After seeing some of his other influences within the exhibit and a discussion with my older sister, I decided to try reading his works. The first collection was "The Doom That Came To Sarnath & Other Stories" published by Del Rey. I enjoyed that enough to purchase a Word Cloud collection, which was pretty brutal to get through. The font type and size was small and uninteresting to read, so I had to really push through. After that, I read Charlotte Montague's biography titled, "H.P Lovecraft: The Mysterious Man Behind the Darkness," which was rather intriguing. My stance these days is that I do not enjoy reading his works, but I'm fascinated by his lore and mythologies. That goes for a few other things as well more or less, but I'll continue to read his writings from time to time in order to refresh my memory. Any artwork associated with his tales are pretty fun too.

[@AlienFetus]

This is literally the order I first read Lovecraft. How could that be?! Only The Tomb came before Innsmouth.

[@warlockofwordsreturnsrb4358]

Been thinking about that on & off for years, in a hypothetical Lovecraft anthology of mine, I'd have to include Fungi From Yuggoth, as Wordsworth's Haunter of the Dark does. His poetic zenith, and one with a strong narrative through-line. Mountains of Madness, Cats of Ulthar, yes. Dreams in the Witch House for its still unique mix of hyperspace and occult ritual. Pickman's and the meta tale The Unnameable. The Dream Quest might stand for the peak of HPL's Dunsanian fantasy. As a side note, with his lifelong appreciation for weird illustrations I'd include some (old or new) images from a number of artists for each piece.

[@TheBookchemist]

Like the illustrations idea, and of course why not the Fungi!

[@marinamaccagni5253]

You have an amazing and very rich vocabulary!

[@makebelievestunt]

Thank you so much for your Lovecraft segments -- I love his fiction as well. I recently finished the two-volume Joshi biography of Lovecraft... it's wonderful!

[@TheBookchemist]

I agree, I loved it so much!

[@marinamaccagni5253]

I haven't read Lovecraft yet. So I'll start reading the stories that you have spoken of in this video. My first one will be the Call of cthulhu. Here we go!

[@ndmenglish6002]

Just ran into the video and just wanted to say this month of January I am doing commentaries on a few of H.P. Lovecraft's stories.I think the collection by Barnes and Noble that you talked about in the other video is pretty good. Yes, I understand that for beginners it can be challenging, but I think there is a lot of social media that can provide guidance.

[@nullset560]

How any anthology can not include 'The Music of Erich Zann' is beyond me.

[@rustcohle3803]

I bought the necromonicon from Barnes and nobles... I wished it was hardcover but it had the titles I was looking for and wanted. It's already starting to wear.... =(

[@DreamBigLiveReal]

I put together a mobi ebook file with these recommended selections for anyone who's interested: www.lauraknauth.com/Lovecraft_Anthology.zip The text comes from archive.org: "The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft". I used Calibre to convert it to a doc, cut & pasted, then converted back to mobi. Enjoy!

[@AlienFetus]

Let's. make. this. real. now.

[@roawesomeface1947]

While I am glad that you would include Dream Cycle stories in your personal anthology (I agree that they are too often overlooked or outright dismissed as irrelevant), it would end up including most of the stories from said cycle, and I feel that it would be a bit too much for a new reader. Personally, I would take out one or two of them out and replace them with: -"The Terrible Old Man": It is subtler (like "Erich Zann"), and it is, in a sense, more traditional, as the criminals get their come-uppance in the end. The possible message of respecting your elders is also the most down-to-earth Lovecraft ever put in his fiction (besides the pro-Prohibition "Old Bugs", from Lovecraft's odd collection of non-horror non-Dream Cycle stories that are not relevant to a new reader). I would maybe also put it in place of "The Cats of Ulthar", as I believe some readers may find that one too goofy. -"From Beyond": This is a distillation of the role of science in Lovecraft's fiction. I would include it just for that, and also for creating an atmosphere I have never seen anywhere else. -"Memory": Calm, nice atmosphere, fits on a single page. Otherwise, nice anthology, and thanks for recommending "The Curse of Yig". It was a very good story!

[@TheBookchemist]

Among these three I especially like "Memory" - it is a bit sensationalist and relatively predictable, but pulses with young Lovecraft's passion for (baroque) language and imaginative worldbuilding.

[@paloswag911]

Hey, about to make a small donation because of this video. I found it very informative. I’m about to make my first foray into Lovecraft and I’m going to use the list you defined here as my guide. Would you say that these stories are the can’t miss pieces? I want to cut the chaff and only read his best.

[@TheBookchemist]

I would say all of these are must reads :) there's certainly plenty of other stories that are deserving (Mountains of Madness above all) but I stand by my selection!

[@marinamaccagni5253]

How much time does it take to speak English so fluently? Do you speak English 24/7? Thanks!

[@jorgemedina8083]

About how many pages is 80,000 words?

[@rustcohle3803]

180 pages? It depends on the size of the book or words per page.

[@TheBookchemist]

Generally speaking (it really depends on a variety of factors), around 200.

[@ioanamolly8225]

Ciao, mi piacerebbe molto sentire le tue opinioni su Thomas Bernhard, qui sul canale non ho trovato nulla di suo, pertanto colgo l'occasione per segnalartelo. Probabilmente ne avrai già sentito parlare o forse no, se ne parla poco di lui, non è di facile lettura. Il mio Bernhard preferito è "Estinzione", il più pazzesco soprattutto per forma è Correzione, una prosa vertiginosa. Ciao.

[@TheBookchemist]

Grazie mille del suggerimento - mi è in effetti stato consigliato spesso e, seppure un po' lo tema, è senz'altro sulla mia lista :)!

[@nlhpens]

To be fair, all but one of these (including the expanded list) are included in the Barnes & Noble anthology, plus a great many others.. Only "The Curse of Yig" is missing. Why not recommend the B&N ? It seems like a bargain.