Which are better?

[sanityassassin]

Just to throw something else into the mix I just picked up a copy of wordsworth editions collected stories they come in 2 volumes the first with supposedly some of his best sories and the second the one I picked up is a collection of the stuff he did with other people, like rewrites, ghost writing and collaborations called the Loved Dead it contains 19 stories including a serial ghost-written for Harry Houdini. I have only read a couple of stories so far and they seem to be a little hit and miss

 

[BeerClark]

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos[/i] and Cthulhu 2000, originally published by Arkham House, are also reliable, but these are anthologies not Lovecraft collections....

.

I hope you don't have the same bad opinion of "Bloodcurdling Tales.."
and "The Road to Madness"
Since those are the only books I've read so far!

 

[j d worthington]

I hope you don't have the same bad opinion of "Bloodcurdling Tales.."
and "The Road to Madness"
Since those are the only books I've read so far!

Well, Pyan, yes, those are textually corrupt, too; especially "The Colour Out of Space" in Bloodcurdling Tales, which is missing about a half-page of text, as I recall....

However, as I discovered HPL in older, corrupt editions, all this has meant to me is that I've found his work richer via the later editions than I did at first... which is much better than the other way 'round....

 

[Pyan]

Well, Pyan, yes, those are textually corrupt, too; especially "The Colour Out of Space" in Bloodcurdling Tales, which is missing about a half-page of text, as I recall.....

Err...thanks for the reply, jd....shall I ask the question now?

 

[j d worthington]

Err...thanks for the reply, jd....shall I ask the question now?

LOL. I'll have to dig out my copy and compare to find exactly what's missing....

 

[Pyan]

As long as you don't mix me up with BeerClark again....

Regards,

PYAN

 

[BeerClark]

As long as you don't mix me up with BeerClark again....

Regards,

PYAN

LOL... you should be so lucky!

I find the tough thing about reading Lovecraft (as so many have mentioned before!) is that there are no 'complete' sets. I've gotten a list of all his works and have been checking off read stories just so I don't end up buying a book with mostly stories I've already read! Though I'm sure it will happen sooner or later.

Unfortunately, my County Library (which seems extensive) has very little in the way of Lovecraft.

 

[ghyle]

BeerClark,

have you looked into interlibrary loan of Lovecraft books? You may be able to get hold of the books you need that way.

 

[j d worthington]

It's called being distracted, Pyan and BeerClark... I've already copped to senility, so I'll try this excuse for a while....

My apologies, folks....

*mumble, mumble, mumble as he goes off to get some new glasses*

 

[Ningauble]

I find the tough thing about reading Lovecraft (as so many have mentioned before!) is that there are no 'complete' sets. I've gotten a list of all his works and have been checking off read stories just so I don't end up buying a book with mostly stories I've already read! Though I'm sure it will happen sooner or later.

I think I addressed this in another thread. For a complete edition you'll need:

1) The Dunwich Horror and Others (Arkham House, 1984)
2) At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels (Arkham House, 1985)
3) Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (Arkham House, 1987)
4) The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions (Arkham House, 1989)
5) Miscellaneous Writings (Arkham House, 1995) -- contains the remaining scraps of fiction, ranging from "The Little Glass Bottle" which HPL wrote when he was seven to "The Battle That Ended the Century"
6) The Challenge from Beyond (Necronomicon Press, 1990) OR Nameless Cults (Chaosium, 2001) -- since Miscellaneous Writings contains only Lovecraft's contribution to the round-robin "The Challenge from Beyond"
7) Eyes of the God: The Weird Fiction and Poetry of R. H. Barlow -- contains the two rare revisions "The Slaying of the Monster" and "The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast", plus slightly revised versions of "The Battle That Ended the Century" and "The Night Ocean"

If you want the corrected versions of "Hypnos" and "The Shadow Out of Time", you may also want to pick up The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories (Penguin, 2004).

With the above books, you should get a minimum of overlap -- the largest being if you decide to get The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories.