Résumé
Résumé de L’Abomination de Dunwich
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love atmospheric horror, New England settings and the roots of modern weird fiction, with forbidden books, dark rituals and fear of what lies beyond the world.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
The Dunwich Horror is a long short story, or short novella, by H. P. Lovecraft. He wrote it in 1928, and it appeared in the magazine Weird Tales in 1929. It is set in the hill country of north central Massachusetts, in a decaying village called Dunwich, where the people keep to themselves and the hills hold old stones and older rumors.
The story follows the Whateley family, poor and strange, and above all a boy named Wilbur, who grows far too fast and who wants something from a forbidden book. Around him Lovecraft builds a slow dread, told in the manner of a report put together from rumors, local talk and the notes of scholars. You get a story about fear of the unknown, about knowledge that should stay buried, and about things that lie beyond the world we can see. It is also one of the key stories in what readers later called the Cthulhu Mythos. Let us begin where the story begins, with the road into Dunwich and the land around it.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A cursed countryside and its peopleFree
- 2Wilbur Whateley is born and grows
- 3Strange sounds from the Whateley farm
- 4Wilbur seeks the forbidden book
- 5Fear of what lies beyond the world
- 6How Lovecraft tells the tale
Point clé 1 sur 6
A cursed countryside and its people
The story opens on the road. A traveler in north central Massachusetts takes a wrong fork and finds himself in a lonely, curious country. The hills are too steep, the woods too thick, and the farms look worn out. Lovecraft lets the land itself feel wrong before any person appears.
Dunwich is a village of few people and little life. The houses sag, and the church has long been empty. The locals are described as a degenerate, inbred lot, suspicious of strangers and full of old tales. Lovecraft is harsh here. Still, the picture is clear: a place cut off from the modern world, where old fears have had centuries to grow.
On the hilltops stand rings of standing stones and a rounded summit called Sentinel Hill. The locals say that in the old days, Indians held rites there, and that later settlers heard strange sounds from the hills. Preachers in the old days spoke of evil spirits and of noises from underground. The land carries a memory of something that was never fully explained.
This opening does a quiet job. Before you meet a single character, you feel that the place has a secret and that it is watching. The narrator keeps a calm, reporting tone, as if gathering facts for a file. That calm makes the oddness land harder, and it prepares you for the Whateley family, who seem to belong to the land more than to the people around them.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Wilbur Whateley
- Wilbur is Lavinia's unnaturally fast-growing son, taught by his grandfather and intent on obtaining a forbidden book.
- Old Whateley
- Old Whateley is Wilbur's grandfather, a reputed wizard who instructs him from ancient books on the family farm.
- Lavinia Whateley
- Lavinia is Wilbur's pale, reclusive mother, who lives with her father and never identifies her son's father.
- Dr. Henry Armitage
- Dr. Henry Armitage is Miskatonic University's learned librarian, whose concern grows when Wilbur requests a dangerous occult book.
- Yog-Sothoth
- Yog-Sothoth is an otherworldly being whom the Whateleys serve and seek to bring into the human world.
- The villagers of Dunwich
- The villagers of Dunwich are suspicious neighbors who share fearful rumors about the Whateleys and their isolated farm.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 18,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h 10 min
- Listening time2 h
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about L’Abomination de Dunwich
What is The Dunwich Horror about?
It tells of a strange family in the Massachusetts hills, especially a boy named Wilbur Whateley who grows unnaturally fast, and of the scholar who tries to stop a threat from beyond the world.
Is The Dunwich Horror part of the Cthulhu Mythos?
Yes. It names Yog-Sothoth, the Necronomicon and Miskatonic University, which appear in other Lovecraft stories. You can read it alone, but it fits into his wider shared world of cosmic horror.
When was The Dunwich Horror written and is it a true story?
Lovecraft wrote it in 1928 and it appeared in Weird Tales in 1929. It is fiction. Dunwich is an invented village, though the setting draws on real New England hill country.
What is the Necronomicon in The Dunwich Horror?
It is a fictional book of forbidden lore, said to be written by Abdul Alhazred. Wilbur wants a copy from the Miskatonic University library to help carry out his family's plans.
Is The Dunwich Horror hard to read?
The plot is clear.