The earliest, Dunsany-iest stuff is the weakest (unfortunately the Randolph Carter / Kingsport / Dream Lands material falls into this category) - I happen to like DREAM QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH, but it's not as strong as his later, tighter work.
In many ways it's best to think of Lovecraft as a fan author who has stayed in his basement reading the antique stuff he loves for so long that he's lost touch with the fact that people don't speak the way they did 100 years earlier (in 1825 idioms as opposed to 1925 idioms), who never wrote any more than one draft, and who had no Beta-reader other than the editor he was attempting to sell the story to.
That being said - when he comes to the creepy stuff, he's laid such a webwork of normal that the strange just kind of jumps at you.
I also like THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP, THE WHISPERER IN THE DARKNESS and, of course, CALL OF CTHULHU.
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In many ways it's best to think of Lovecraft as a fan author who has stayed in his basement reading the antique stuff he loves for so long that he's lost touch with the fact that people don't speak the way they did 100 years earlier (in 1825 idioms as opposed to 1925 idioms), who never wrote any more than one draft, and who had no Beta-reader other than the editor he was attempting to sell the story to.
That being said - when he comes to the creepy stuff, he's laid such a webwork of normal that the strange just kind of jumps at you.
I also like THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP, THE WHISPERER IN THE DARKNESS and, of course, CALL OF CTHULHU.