The origin and “core” of the Mythos start of course with the collection 23 of Lovecraft’s greatest weird tales. In these stories, monstrous entities traverse the gulfs of time and space and humankind cowers in fright at the havoc they wreak.
Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos - (Suggested Reading Order)
- Dagon - | [Post]
- Nyarlathotep - | [Post]
- The Nameless City - | [Post]
- Azathoth
- The Hound
- The Festival - | [Post]
- The Call of Cthulhu - | [Post]
- The Colour out of Space - | [Post]
- History of the Necronomicon
- The Curse of Yig
- The Dunwich Horror - | [Post]
- The Whisperer in Darkness - | [Post]
- The Mound
- At the Mountains of Madness - | [Post]
- The Shadow over Innsmouth - | [Post]
- The Dreams in the Witch House - | [Post]
- The Man of Stone
- The Horror in the Museum
- The Thing on the Doorstep
- Out of the Aeons
- The Tree on the Hill
- The Shadow out of Time - | [Post]
- The Haunter of the Dark
(Click the post for extra info)
EXTRA - The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales by H.P. Lovecraft from Barnes & Noble
Mythos Anthologies
- 1969 - Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
- 1971 - The Spawn of Cthulhu
- 1976 - The Disciples of Cthulhu
- 1980 - New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
- 1990 - Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos: Golden Anniversary Anthology
- 1992 - Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos
- 1994 - Cthulhu’s Heirs
- 1995 - The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute to H. P. Lovecraft
- 1995 - Cthulhu 2000
- 1996 - The New Lovecraft Circle
- 2001 - Song of Cthulhu
- 2002 - The Children of Cthulhu
- 2009 - Cthulhu Unbound
- 2009 - Cthulhu Unbound 2
- 2010 - Cthulhu’s Reign
- 2010 - Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror
- 2011 - Historical Lovecraft
- 2011 - The Book of Cthulhu
- 2011 - New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird
And beyond this, there are plenty of Cthulhu-adjacent stories not authored by HPL that are fantastic reads as well. The Lovecraft wiki has some good examples and a nice diagram for what is colloquially deemed “canon”, if someone reminds me, I can link it here if so desired.
I’ve been reading a collection of Innsmouth-related stories in a compilation aptly named “Shadows Over Innsmouth”, very great stuff. I can’t say it exactly emulates the Innsmouth feel, but I’m still loving what I’m reading so far. I do recommend it.
If you’re going to get the B&N collection get the 2011 edition (purple ribbon bookmark one). Because the 2008 version (gold bookmark) haves a ton of typos and spelling errors.