H.P. Lovecraft - The Nameless City (1921) [Short Story]

The Nameless City is a horror story written by H. P. Lovecraft in January 1921 and first published in the November 1921 issue of the amateur press journal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nameless_City#/media/File:The_Wolverine_November_1921.png, then in Fanciful Tales, Fall 1936, and in the Volume 32 of Weird Tales in the 1938. (Link Here). Lovecraft said that the story was based on a dream. It is often considered the first Cthulhu Mythos story.

(source wiki)

Story by H. P. Lovecraft

Plot

The unnamed narrator of the story goes into the middle of the Arabian Peninsula to seek out and enter a lost city. The protagonist states: “ It was of this place that Abdul Alhazred the mad poet [author of the Necronomicon] dreamed on the night before he sang his unexplainable couplet:


<span style="color:#323232;">"That is not dead which can eternal lie,
</span><span style="color:#323232;">And with strange aeons even death may die."
</span>

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The Nameless City by Alexander J

After hearing a clanging seemingly coming from deep inside the earth, the narrator inspects mysterious carvings and ruins until nightfall. The narrator discovers a cliff riddled with low-ceilinged buildings, unfit for human use. While he attends to his suddenly nervous camel, the narrator discovers a somewhat larger temple, with altars, painted murals, and a small staircase going down.

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The Nameless City, art by Sprech4

After he descends, his torch dies, and he crawls on his hands and knees until he enters a hallway with small wooden coffins containing bizarre bodies inside of them lining the walls. The narrator notices a large amount of light coming from an unknown source. After crawling to it on his hands and knees, he sees a large brass door with a descent into a misty portal…

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