The Shunned House
Ratings11
Average rating3.6
For many years the protagonist and his uncle, Dr. Elihu Whipple, have nurtured a fascination with an old, abandoned house on Benefit Street. Dr. Whipple has made extensive records tracking the mysterious, yet apparently coincidental sickness and death of many who have lived in the house for over one hundred years. They are also puzzled by the strange weeds growing in the yard, as well as the unexplained foul smell and whitish, phosphorescent fungi growing in the cellar. After the protagonist discovers a strange, yellowish vapour in the basement, which seems to be coupled with a moldy outline of a huddled human form on the floor, he and his uncle decide to spend the night in the house, investigating the possibility of some supernatural force. They set up cots and chairs in the cellar, arm themselves with military flamethrowers, and outfit a modified Crookes tube in the hopes of destroying any supernatural presence they might find.
Series
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1 primary book19 released booksDark Adventure Radio Theatre
Dark Adventure Radio Theatre is a 19-book series with 19 released primary work first released in 1923 with contributions by H. P. Lovecraft, H.P. Lovecraft, and Keith Herber.
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I didn't realise this was one of Lovecraft's earlier works until I read other reviews. I liked it quite a bit - it's probably the start of what made me love his prose.
It's in his usual style of having a narrator tell his story of an old house that had a bad reputation for having an unusually high number of deaths and misfortunes. It starts off slowly by taking the reader through the history of the house and its early occupants, as part of the narrator and his uncle's “research”, which were prompted by curiosity.
The flow and pacing is what makes a classic Lovecraft short story - the slow build-up of weird happenings and eerie sequences of events, leading into a growing sense of dread and foreboding - all the while immersed in beautiful descriptive prose.
Its only flaw was the ending. The final reveal of the source of the evil in the shunned house was somewhat of a dampener. It wasn't quite what the narrator, in his investigations and imaginations, had alluded to, so it didn't leave any lasting impression on me. The closing paragraphs on how the narrator dealt with it was also weak, feeling a bit too abrupt and too unresolved for me.
But I still loved reading it, for this kind of suspenseful build-up is what I really enjoy reading.
