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| Mammoth Cave (Elizabethtown Tourism & Convention Bureau) |
Written in 1905, published in The Vagrant (1918.06).
This story is essentially an example of Lovecraft "juvenilia", but it is often included as a "first" work in Lovecraft fiction collections.
Opening Statement:
The horrible conclusion which had been gradually intruding itself upon my confused and reluctant mind was now an awful certainty.What in Brown Jenkin's Name..?
Lost in a light-less cave, the narrator is stalked by a large creature. The truth of the creature's true nature is eventually revealed to be closer to home than first thought.Synopsis:
Lost in Mammoth Cave, the narrator hears unidentifiable, bestial footsteps in the total darkness. Panicking, he blindly throws rocks towards the sound of the approaching creature. Apparently knocking it unconscious, the explorer turns around and flees. Later, when he returns to the site with a guide and flashlight, he discovers his dying "attacker" babbling words in its death throes. The narrator and guide realize that this deteriorated, bleached creature had once been a man.From Dr. Armitage's Notes:
Written at the age of 14, Lovecraft here already shows a prodigious grasp of vocabulary. More importantly, it reflects the influence of Edgar Allan Poe, a writer whose style would hover over much of Lovecraft's early work. In any case, within the body of Lovecraft's fiction, this short story introduces a couple key elements which he would revisit and make part of his thematic vocabulary:
- First use of cavern/labyrinth environment.
- First "mutated" human.
The Horrible Conclusion:
The creature I had killed, the strange beast of the unfathomed cave, was, or had at one time been a MAN!!!Read it here.
Follow'd by "The Alchemist".
