The Thing in the Moonlight
"The Thing in the Moonlight" is a short story by J. Chapman Miske. The story is based on a letter dated November 24, 1927 from H. P. Lovecraft to Donald Wandrei[1] describing one of Lovecraft's dreams. The story was prepared for publication by Miske, who filled in the story surrounding the description of the dream. In places, the letter and published story are identical to Lovecraft's style. It was first published in Bizarre magazine in January 1941.[2]
Plot
Morgan, the protagonist, is an illiterate man. One evening, Morgan is sitting alone and suddenly feels compelled to start writing. Despite his illiteracy, he records the dream of Howard Phillips, another man. In Morgan's writing, Phillips says that he fell asleep on November 24, 1927, and has never reawakened.
The dream's setting takes place in a strange marshland. Phillips explores the marsh's cliff side, noting the eerie and mouth-like caves dotting the plateau. Eventually, Phillips encounters a set of railway tracks. On these tracks he finds "a yellow, vestibuled car numbered 1852—of a plain, double-trucked type common from 1900 to 1910."[3] This car is able to start and he climbs aboard, searching for a light switch so that he can see better. He hears a noise behind him, and, turning to look, sees two men (assumed to be the motorman and conductor) approach him. The first man lifts his head to the sky, sniffs, and howls, while the second drops to all fours and charges toward the Phillips and the car. Phillips immediately flees out of the car until he is too tired to continue.
Phillips reveals that the reason for his terror was not "because the conductor had dropped on all fours, but because the face of the motorman was a mere white cone tapering to one blood-red-tentacle..."[3]
Phillips is aware that it is a dream, but is unable to wake up. During the day, he travels the strange land, and each night, is brought back to the place with the train car. He always alerts the howling beast to his presence, and always flees from it.
The narrator closes the story by saying that he would visit Phillips' house in Providence, but fears what he might find.
Publication history
- "The Thing in the Moonlight" was first published in Bizarre magazine in January 1941.[4]
- In 1962, it was published in Dreams and Fancies (Arkham House 1962).[4]
- In 1970, it was published in The Tomb and Other Tales by Ballantine Books.
- In 1995, it was published again in Dreams of Terror and Death: The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft by Ballantine Books.
- In 2005, it was published again in Shadows of Death by Del Rey Books.
- In 2011, it was published again in Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre by Victor Gollancz Ltd.
Footnotes
References
- Complete story at Berkley
- H. P. Lovecraft Archive
- Comparison of story and original letter
External links
- Works related to The Thing in the Moonlight at Wikisource
- v
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- "The Beast in the Cave"
- "The Alchemist"
- "The Tomb"
- "Dagon"
- "A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson"
- "Polaris"
- "Beyond the Wall of Sleep"
- "Memory"
- "Old Bugs"
- "The Transition of Juan Romero"
- "The White Ship"
- "The Street"
- "The Doom That Came to Sarnath"
- "The Statement of Randolph Carter"
- "The Terrible Old Man"
- "The Tree"
- "The Cats of Ulthar"
- "The Temple"
- "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family"
- "Celephaïs"
- "From Beyond"
- "Nyarlathotep"
- "The Picture in the House"
- "Ex Oblivione"
- "Sweet Ermengarde"
- "The Nameless City"
- "The Quest of Iranon"
- "The Moon-Bog"
- "The Outsider"
- "The Other Gods"
- "The Music of Erich Zann"
- "Herbert West–Reanimator"
- "Hypnos"
- "What the Moon Brings"
- "Azathoth"
- "The Hound"
- "The Lurking Fear"
- "The Rats in the Walls"
- "The Unnamable"
- "The Festival"
- "The Shunned House"
- "The Horror at Red Hook"
- "He"
- "In the Vault"
- "Cool Air"
- "The Call of Cthulhu"
- "Pickman's Model"
- "The Silver Key"
- "The Strange High House in the Mist"
- "The Colour Out of Space"
- "The Descendant"
- "History of the Necronomicon"
- "The Very Old Folk"
- "Ibid"
- "The Dunwich Horror"
- "The Dreams in the Witch House"
- "The Thing on the Doorstep"
- "The Evil Clergyman"
- "The Book"
- "The Haunter of the Dark"
- "The Green Meadow"
- "Poetry and the Gods"
- "The Crawling Chaos"
- "The Horror at Martin's Beach"
- "Under the Pyramids"
- "The Curse of Yig"
- The Mound
- "Medusa's Coil"
- "The Horror in the Museum"
- "Through the Gates of the Silver Key"
- "Out of the Aeons"
- "The Tree on the Hill"
- "Till A' the Seas"
- "In the Walls of Eryx"
- The Cancer of Superstition
- "Supernatural Horror in Literature"
- To Quebec and the Stars
- Autobiography: Some Notes on a Nonentity
- H. P. Lovecraft: A Life
- H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life
- An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia
- Lovecraft: A Biography
- Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos
- Lovecraft studies
- Works influenced by the Cthulhu Mythos
- H. P. Lovecraft (band)
- H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society
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- Lovecraft (crater)
- Cthulhu Macula
- Aklo
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- Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (documentary)
- Sonia Greene (wife)
- The Thing in the Moonlight
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