The Shadow Over Innsmouth [Paperback]

Howard Philip Lovecraft (1890-1937) did not have a high regard for his novelette "Shadow Over Innsmouth". To paraphrase from the Wikipedia: Lovecraft wrote to August Derleth that the story "has all the defects I deplore especially in point of style, where hackneyed phrases & rhythms have crept in despite all precautions.... No I don't intend to offer 'The Shadow over Innsmouth' for publication, for it would stand no chance of acceptance". It was eventually published as a slim book with a run of 200 copies. The only book of Lovecraft's fiction distributed during his lifetime. August Derleth called The Shadow Over Innsmouth " a dark, brooding story, typical of Lovecraft at his best."

Not withstanding Lovercraft's oppinion this reader believes that the "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" to be a spendid example of HPL's fictional writings and exhibits many of the compelling theams used in his other works.

I will attempt a very abbreviated summary of the plot with no spoilers. Our narrator, who is never named, undertakes a "tour of New England for sightseeing, antiquarian and genealogical - and had planned to go to Newburyport and on to Arkham whence my mother's family was derived". He takes a dilapidated old bus that makes the Newburyport - Innsmouth - Arkham run only to have it break down in Arkham stranding him for the night. The back-story of strangeness and horrors in Arkham are conveyed to the narrator by three individuals: the curator at the Newburyport Historical Society, a clerk in the First National (grocery) Store in Innsmouth and by the most intriguing character in the story 96 year old Zadok Allen, town drunkard. The narrator escaped Innsmouth and capture by the very peculiar inhabitants with the help of a map given to him by the store clerk.

I suspect readers new to Lovecraft will finds this story more than mildly confusing what with all the unexplained terms, Lovercraft's over the top descriptions of terror and the maze like journey thought Innsmouth's many streets.

Lovecraft peppers his story with terms that beg a description but none are giving. We encounter the old topper Zadok Allen and his mouths "R'lyeh wgah-nagl fhtaga" with no explanation and asks his listener if "ever hear tell of shoggoth?' A what, you say. The narration visits Miskatonic University in Arkham. This town and school show up in several other stories but you would not know it from this tale. Several references are made to the "Esoteric Order of Dagon". Hmmm sounds very creepy. Fan of HPL relish these links to other stories but new readers be warned.

Lovecraft had a way with words and used them, overused some would say, to convey the atmosphere of dread or creepiness he was attempting. For example: "It took no excessive sensitiveness to beauty to make me literally gasp at the strange, unearthly splendor of the alien, opulent phantasy of the tiara...the pattern on the piece hinted of remote secrets and unimaginable abyss in time and space". Innsmouth is a "Festering city of death and decay". Zadok lays it on thick also "Thar's whar it all begun-the cursed place of all wickedness where the deep water starts. Gates o' hell-sheer drop daown to a bottom no saoudin' line kin tech." and "Yew want to know what the reel horror is, hey? Wal, it's this- it ain't what thern fish devils haz done, but it's what they're a-goin' to do! They're a-bringin' things up aout o' whar they come from into the taown....ever hear tell of a shoggoth?" My favorite is "Haow'd ye like to be livin' in a taown like this, with everthing a-rottin' an' dyin' boarded up monsters crawlin' an' bleatin' an' barkin' an hoppin' aroun' black cellars and attics every where ye turn?" Whew what a place!

Well, it does not take much common sense to know that Innsmouth is no place to be if the fish-frog guys are after you so take out your map and make tracks. Lovecraft knew where he was going but I could never figure out his directions, for example: "At Bates Street I drew into a yawing vestibule...was soon on my way again approaching where Eliot Street crossed Washington at the intersection of South." Later the directions are, well, confusing " I edged around into Babson which crossed Federal...noised continued on Washington...darted around the corner into Lafayette Street and crossed Eliot...my greatest dread was re-crossing South Street" and on and on.

If you want to "dig in' to this story, and I hope you do, get a map of the fictional town of Innsmouth. Do a search on the internet, find it and print it out. Now it all makes sense.

Now about those mysterious terms shoggoth, Dagon, R'lyeh wgah-nagl fhtaga and ol' Miskatonic U. Well, you don't need to know about them to just enjoy the story unless, of course, you just have to know...well that's what Google is for!

Ok, "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn", which translates as "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming. Is it time to read another Lovecraft story?

Added 03-14-2011
There is another level of interest concerning this story that may appeal to the curiosity of some readers. Thoughout the text Lovecraft incorporated numerous real place and family names from Essex County in Massachusetts; in addition there are subtle references to other Lovecraft stories. If you are intrigued by this tale and motivated to fill your cranium with a lot of useless but interesting bits of trivia read the Necronomicon Press edition of the illustrated and annotated "The Shadow over Innsmouth". The book contains 150 detailed footnotes, a 15 pages introduction, a discarded draft of the story and 5 full-page illustrations by Jason Eckhardt. The two paperback editions of this title (1994,97) have long been out of print but copies are available used.
Oh yes, I was raised in Essex County and have visited many of the towns he enjoyed visiting and writing about.

The image used for this book is the cover of the anthology of stories edited by Stephen Jones when in fact all that is offered is Lovecraft's story . This is misleading and I would not have purchased this had I know as I already have three or four copies of this tale in various collections.