| The Horror at Oakdeene | |
|---|---|
| by Brian Lumley | |
 Cover showing Spellman (right) with Yibb-Tstll (left) | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Published in | The Horror at Oakdeene and Others |
| Publication type | Anthology |
| Publisher | Arkham House |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Publication date | 1977 |
"The Horror at Oakdeene" is a 1977 horror novella by Brian Lumley.
Martin Spellman is a trainee mental nurse at Oakdeene Sanitarium in 1935. He desires to be an author and is using the inmates cases as sources for a possible book. Two other trainees there are Alan Barstowe and Harold Moody. Eventually he is invited to look at the file of one Wilfred Larner, who became insane due to his occult researches, particularly the Black Book (Larner's amateur translation of the Cthäat Aquadingen ). Spellman is allowed to study Larner's materials. He later makes an enemy of Barstowe, whom the inmates seem to both fear and hate. Later an inmate dies during Barstowe's shift, having apparently gouged out one of his own eyes. Larner later asks Spellman for a copy of the Sixth Sathlatta, from the Cthäat Aquadingen, to deal with "a matter of justice". Spellman studies the chant and the notes, which involve Yibb-Tstll. Later Spellman sees Yibb-Tstll in a dream, after reciting the Sixth Sathlatta, but believes it to have been a coincidence. He gives Larner the promised information and a crayon to write with. He later observes Larner passing information to eleven other inmates in the exercise yard. Larner later confirms that they intend to call Yibb-Tstll, and apologizes to Spellman about the consequences, especially the "reversals and penalties" involved in performing the ritual without using the Naach-Tith formula. Larner and the others attempt to build the Naach-Tith Barrier, using the formula, but they know only the first part. Spelllman again pronounces the Sixth Sathlatta and dreams of Yibb-Tstll, this time recognizing that it has smiled at him. On New Years Day, he learns that Barstowe has quit his job. That night he again dreams of Yibb-Tstll, in an alien clearing. The twelve other inmates are also there for the calling. Spellman refuses to participate, but Yibb-Tstll forces him to.
Barstowe is later found outside the grounds of the Sanitarium, having been killed in a hideous manner. Five of the 13 are completely cured and five others are found dead, including Larner. Spellman is a victim of a reversal and is now kept sedated in a cell.
Several "cases" from Lovecraft's works are mentioned, such as those of Joe Slater and Robert Olmstead's cousin.
Lumley submitted this novella to August Derleth in 1970, but it was not published until 1977, after Derleth's death, in The Horror at Oakdeene and Others . It was reprinted in The Taint and other novellas in 2007. [1]
August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and for his own contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the cosmic horror genre, as well as his founding of the publisher Arkham House, Derleth was a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography.
Arkham is a fictional city situated in Massachusetts. An integral part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft, Arkham is featured in many of his stories and those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers.
Arkham House is an American publishing house specializing in weird fiction. It was founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to publish hardcover collections of H. P. Lovecraft's best works, which had previously been published only in pulp magazines. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham, Massachusetts. Arkham House editions are noted for the quality of their printing and binding. The colophon for Arkham House was designed by Frank Utpatel.
Brian Lumley is an English author of horror fiction. He came to prominence in the 1970s writing in the Cthulhu Mythos created by American writer H. P. Lovecraft but featuring the new character Titus Crow, and went on to greater fame in the 1980s with the best-selling Necroscope series, initially centered on character Harry Keogh, who can communicate with the spirits of the dead.
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Peter Francis Straub is an American novelist and poet. He has written numerous horror and supernatural fiction novels, including Julia and Ghost Story, as well as The Talisman, which he co-wrote with Stephen King. Straub has received such literary honors as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award.
Solar Pons is a fictional detective created by August Derleth as a pastiche of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.
Titus Crow is the main character in the eponymous series of horror fiction books by Brian Lumley. The books are based on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
"The Statement of Randolph Carter" is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in December 1919, it was first published in The Vagrant, May 1920. It tells of a traumatic event in the life of Randolph Carter, a student of the occult loosely representing Lovecraft himself. It is the first story in which Carter appears. Its adaptations include the film The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter.
Joseph Payne Brennan was an American writer of fantasy and horror fiction, and also a poet. Of Irish ancestry, he was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and he lived most of his life in New Haven, Connecticut, and worked as an Acquisitions Assistant at the Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University for over 40 years. Brennan published several hundred short stories, two novellas and reputedly thousands of poems. His stories appeared in over 200 anthologies and have been translated into German, French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish. He was an early bibliographer of the work of H.P. Lovecraft.
The Deep Ones are creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. The beings first appeared in Lovecraft's novella The Shadow over Innsmouth (1931), but were already hinted at in the early short story "Dagon". The Deep Ones are a race of intelligent ocean-dwelling creatures, approximately human-shaped but with a fishy appearance. The females would regularly mate with voluntary human males along the coast, creating societies of hybrids.
Speculative poetry is a genre of poetry that focusses on fantastic, science fictional and mythological themes. It is also known as science fiction poetry or fantastic poetry. It is distinguished from other poetic genres by being categorized by its subject matter, rather than by the poetry's form. Suzette Haden Elgin defined the genre as "about a reality that is in some way different from the existing reality."
A Cthulhu Mythos anthology is a type of short story collection that contains stories written in, or related to, the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror fiction launched by H. P. Lovecraft. Such anthologies have helped to define and popularize the genre.
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Weird Tales was a series of paperback anthologies, a revival of the classic fantasy and horror magazine of the same title, published by Zebra Books from 1980 to 1983 under the editorship of Lin Carter. It was issued more or less annually, though the first two volumes were issued simultaneously and there was a year’s gap between the third and fourth. It was preceded and succeeded by versions of the title in standard magazine form.
American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) created a number of fictional deities throughout the course of his literary career. These entities are usually depicted as immensely powerful and utterly indifferent to humans who can barely begin to comprehend them, though some entities are worshipped by humans. These deities include the "Great Old Ones" and extraterrestrials, such as the "Elder Things", with sporadic references to other miscellaneous deities. The "Elder Gods" are a later creation of other prolific writers who expanded on Lovecraft's concepts, such as August Derleth, who was credited with formalizing the Cthulhu Mythos. Most of these deities were Lovecraft's original creations, but he also adapted words or concepts from earlier writers such as Ambrose Bierce, and later writers in turn used Lovecraft's concepts and expanded his fictional universe.
Lord of the Worms is a 1983 horror novella by Brian Lumley.