The Doom That Came to Sarnath by H.P. Lovecraft

Second reading; first read in the early '70s.


I first became a fan of scarey stories when I was about 10, and my older boy cousin let me borrow from his collection of horror comic books. I had to read them in secret, because my mother had forbidden them, saying I would have bad dreams. As so often happens, Mother was right. I did have bad dreams, and I can still remember some of the plots and images today. But I was hooked.

H.P. Lovecraft, who wrote short stories in the '20s and '30s, is one of the acknowledged masters of this genre, influencing many who came after him, including Stephen King. His horror is not the jumping-out-at-you kind, but the kind that comes to you in nightmares when some horrible nameless, faceless entity is stalking you and you are sure you will die of fright (or go mad) if it catches you. His stories invoke the instinctual dread which certain old houses or locations inspire. His horror is perhaps the kind experienced by some who take LSD and have a very bad trip. (I assure you, I don't know this for sure.) I believe we all sometimes have the feeling at the fringes of our consciousness that very bad things may exist of which we are usually not aware. Lovecraft taps into that wellspring of fear.

One way he does this is with the style of his writing, which is consciously archaic, invoking a bygone age when people were less attuned to the strictly rational and more susceptible to instinctual feelings and superstition.

But it's in his word choices that he especially shows genius in capturing horror and disgust, being particularly fond of such words as "eldritch" and "flabby" and "putrescent" and "abyss" and "demoniac." He also uses alliteration to great effect, such as in "crawling chaos" and "sinister secrets" and "writhing of worms."

Lovecraft specializes in telling just enough to arouse fear and anxiety and letting the reader's imagination and subconscious supply the rest. One story protagonist says, "I flung myself into the oily underground river, flung myself into the putrescent juice of earth's inner horrors before the madness of my screams could bring down upon me all the charnel legions these pest-gulfs might conceal." He never describes the "charnel legions," but can't you see them in your mind's eye?

This collection of short stories comes from early Lovecraft, before he really hit his stride in the horror genre. It includes stories influenced by Poe, stories in the fantasy style of Lord Dunsany, and even one science fiction story. Other collections, especially At the Mountains of Madness, are more representative of the style for which he is most well known.

Certainly not everyone enjoys this kind of literature, but for those who do, this is a must-read.