1 h 14 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 1 h 14 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if an ordinary house holds a sickness that no family record can explain?
On a steep street in Providence, an old house carries a history of illness and death. The narrator has wondered about it since boyhood. Now he joins his uncle, Dr. Elihu Whipple, to trace the suffering through old deeds, family records, local gossip and the evidence before their eyes.
Whipple is a retired physician with a sharp memory and a stubborn love of local history. Their search leads through the sorrows of the Harris family and toward the Roulet family, whose reputation shadows the ground beneath the house. In H. P. Lovecraft’s short horror story, each clue makes an ordinary place feel less safe.
What you’ll discover
- A house with a history Follow generations of suffering through a place that the whole street avoids.
- An unlikely pair of investigators Join a curious nephew and his courteous, stubborn uncle as they gather unsettling evidence.
- Dread in the records Watch old deeds and family histories turn a ghost story into a chilling case file.
- Clues beneath the house Enter a damp, earthy cellar where the investigation meets strange physical evidence.
- A past that lingers Explore how family secrets, old fears and grudges can shape the life of a place.
Who will love it
Readers who love haunted house tales rooted in old records and carefully drawn New England settings will enjoy this novella. It suits those drawn to gathering dread, investigative narrators and the folklore and science of the early twentieth century.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dreadful house that Poe walked past
- A boy learns to fear the cellar
- The Harris family is worn down one by one
- Servants whisper and later tenants suffer
- The Roulets of Caude leave a trail
- Two men prepare to watch the cellar
- The gentle uncle who guides the search
- What the story is really about and how it is told
Who’s who
- The narratorA young antiquarian who grew up fearing the house and now gathers records and builds a plan to learn what lives there.
- Doctor Elihu WhippleThe narrator's uncle, an old physician and local historian who keeps notebooks on the house and joins the cellar watch.
- William HarrisA merchant captain who builds the house in 1763 for his family and sees illness spread among them soon after.
- Rhoby Dexter HarrisWilliam's wife, whose mind breaks after her family dies, leaving her to rave in French in the upper rooms.
- Mercy DexterRhoby's strong, devoted sister, who moves in to keep the household together as her own health fades.
- Ann WhiteA servant from Exeter who spreads the tale of a vampire buried beneath the cellar and wants to dig it up.
- Etienne RouletA French Huguenot who settled in Providence in 1696, whose family graveyard once lay where the house now stands.
- Carrington HarrisThe last of the family line and owner of the house, who must decide whether to tear it down or rent it.
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The Shunned House
by H. P. Lovecraft · 1937
In Providence, a house on Benefit Street drains its tenants, and a doctor and his nephew plan a night watch.
ChallengingUnder 2 hours to readEnglish
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In short
What if the most frightening house in a city stood on a street where Edgar Allan Poe walked again and again, and he never gave it a glance? That is how H.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dreadful house that Poe walked past
The story begins with an irony. In the late 1840s, Edgar Allan Poe comes often to Providence to court the poet Mrs. Whitman. His favorite walk leads north along Benefit Street to her home and to the gravestones of St. John's churchyard.
On every one of those walks, Poe passes a dingy old house on the eastern side of the street. It sits on a steep slope amid a broad, neglected yard. There is no sign that Poe wrote of it, or even noticed it. Yet to the two people who know certain facts, that house matches the worst of Poe's own inventions.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 8 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1937
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 45 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Lovecraft, H. P. The Shunned House. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-shunned-house.
Lovecraft, H. P. (2026). The shunned house. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-shunned-house (Original work published 1937)
Lovecraft, H. P. The Shunned House. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-shunned-house.
@book{lovecraft2026shunned,
author = {Lovecraft, H. P.},
title = {The Shunned House},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-shunned-house},
note = {First published 1937}
}
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What is The Shunned House about?
It tells of an old house on Benefit Street in Providence where many occupants sicken and die. The narrator and his uncle study its history, find a French family tied to the land, and plan a night watch in the cellar.
Is The Shunned House based on a real place?
The tale is fiction, but it uses real Providence settings such as Benefit Street, St. John's churchyard and the North Burial Ground, along with local history and Edgar Allan Poe's visits to the city.
Who are the Roulets in The Shunned House?
They are a French Huguenot family who settled in Providence in the 1690s. Their graveyard once lay where the house stands, and the narrator ties their name to a dark tale from France.
The author
H. P. Lovecraft
1890–1937 · American horror writer
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an American writer and editor born in Providence, Rhode Island. He lived mainly in Providence, but also lived in New York City from 1924 to 1926. He wrote horror stories, including “The Call of Cthulhu,” published in 1928, and “The Dunwich Horror,” published in 1929.
More by H. P. Lovecraft
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