Spoiler
Overall, I'd say this one is quite long-winded, but still strangely absorbing. So absorbing, in fact, that the first time I ever read it (years ago) on the bus, I travelled for three miles beyond my stop before I realised what had happened!
This time around, my more advanced knowledge-base helped me to appreciate the historical details of the story more.
First, a few FUN FACTS:
1. The real-life Shunned House -- 135 Benefit Street -- is literally just around the corner from Lovecraft's home in Providence -- the same home where he wrote (and set) The Haunter of the Dark.
2. Lovecraft's aunt Lillian lived at 135 Benefit Street for a time.
3. Edgar Allan Poe, who is mentioned at the opening of the tale, was very briefly engaged to one of his literary admirers, Sarah Helen Whitman, also mentioned in the tale, whose house was also around the corner from 135 Benefit Street (hence why Poe would theoretically walk past the place). Apparently Poe, at the time, was drinking, on drugs, dating a couple of other women at the same time, and hated Whitman's friends, so their relationship was a little "rocky" to say the least, and not destined to last. I think he dumped her the day before their planned wedding in a drunken outrage that required the police to be called.
4. The weapons that the narrator and his uncle bring to the house -- the battery-powered Crookes' Tubes -- were an experimental device for projecting a ray of electrons, invented by Sir William Crookes, who has the most amazing waxed mustache:
The discovery of X-Ray technology was developed from this device. How the narrator and his uncle worked out that these devices could be effective for blasting ghosts is a little curious, but it's arguably a precursor of the "Proton pack" from Ghostbusters. Though, these completely fail to work against this horror (unsurprisingly).
5. The narrator's uncle, Dr. Elihu Whipple, was likely based on Lovecraft's maternal grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, who Lovecraft was very close to, and who encouraged his literary pursuits:
~
My favourite bits:
1. How cool is your 81-year-old uncle when he agrees to go on a ghost-hunting expedition with you, armed with experimental ray guns and MILITARY FLAME THROWERS?
2. Military flame throwers in the basement a wooden house. Good call. Can't see any problems there.
How exactly did they get their hands on that kind of hardware? I guess there was a lot of surplus army kit for sale after the Great War?
3. You thought the Deviant Dutch were bad? The Awful Asians? Now we're dealing with THE FRIGHTFUL FRENCH! I chuckled a bit when he said:
Bits I don't get:
1. Why did the monster, which I assume is the transformed corpse of the occultist Paul Roulet, target the old man, but didn't touch the narrator?
2. Why, when all the other inhabitants of the house wasted away gradually, as their life and health were slowly sucked out of them, did Dr. Whipple rapidly "melt" before his nephew's eyes?
3. A HAPPY ENDING?! Sweet apples and nesting birds? This is the most unusual Lovecraft story ever for this feature alone.
This time around, my more advanced knowledge-base helped me to appreciate the historical details of the story more.
First, a few FUN FACTS:
1. The real-life Shunned House -- 135 Benefit Street -- is literally just around the corner from Lovecraft's home in Providence -- the same home where he wrote (and set) The Haunter of the Dark.
2. Lovecraft's aunt Lillian lived at 135 Benefit Street for a time.
3. Edgar Allan Poe, who is mentioned at the opening of the tale, was very briefly engaged to one of his literary admirers, Sarah Helen Whitman, also mentioned in the tale, whose house was also around the corner from 135 Benefit Street (hence why Poe would theoretically walk past the place). Apparently Poe, at the time, was drinking, on drugs, dating a couple of other women at the same time, and hated Whitman's friends, so their relationship was a little "rocky" to say the least, and not destined to last. I think he dumped her the day before their planned wedding in a drunken outrage that required the police to be called.
4. The weapons that the narrator and his uncle bring to the house -- the battery-powered Crookes' Tubes -- were an experimental device for projecting a ray of electrons, invented by Sir William Crookes, who has the most amazing waxed mustache:
The discovery of X-Ray technology was developed from this device. How the narrator and his uncle worked out that these devices could be effective for blasting ghosts is a little curious, but it's arguably a precursor of the "Proton pack" from Ghostbusters. Though, these completely fail to work against this horror (unsurprisingly).
5. The narrator's uncle, Dr. Elihu Whipple, was likely based on Lovecraft's maternal grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, who Lovecraft was very close to, and who encouraged his literary pursuits:
~
My favourite bits:
1. How cool is your 81-year-old uncle when he agrees to go on a ghost-hunting expedition with you, armed with experimental ray guns and MILITARY FLAME THROWERS?
2. Military flame throwers in the basement a wooden house. Good call. Can't see any problems there.
How exactly did they get their hands on that kind of hardware? I guess there was a lot of surplus army kit for sale after the Great War?
3. You thought the Deviant Dutch were bad? The Awful Asians? Now we're dealing with THE FRIGHTFUL FRENCH! I chuckled a bit when he said:
~The words were at first indistinguishable, and then—with a tremendous start—I recognised something about them which filled me with icy fear... For the venerable Elihu Whipple was muttering in French[!]
Bits I don't get:
1. Why did the monster, which I assume is the transformed corpse of the occultist Paul Roulet, target the old man, but didn't touch the narrator?
2. Why, when all the other inhabitants of the house wasted away gradually, as their life and health were slowly sucked out of them, did Dr. Whipple rapidly "melt" before his nephew's eyes?
3. A HAPPY ENDING?! Sweet apples and nesting birds? This is the most unusual Lovecraft story ever for this feature alone.