Until the end
To the limit (original title: Till A 'the Seas ) is a short story by the American writer HP Lovecraft , which he wrote in January 1935 together with Robert H. Barlow . It was first published in "The Californian" in the summer of that year.
action
In Lovecraft's doomsday scenariothe earth is getting closer and closer to the sun over eons. Mankind is in an increasing emergency, caused by rising temperatures and the associated lack of water. First life near the equator becomes impossible, then the seas dry up, until finally only a handful of people search for the last water reserves near the poles. After the death of his foster mother, a young man leaves his home in search of water and community. On the other side of the mountains there is said to be a settlement that he reached exhausted after days, but whose inhabitants also died. In the middle of the village he notices a well. When trying to lower the bucket into the well and retrieve the remains of the muddy water, it falls into the shaft and dies as the last person on earth. One of the final sentences sums up the development:The race of man, too puny and momentary to have a real function or purpose, was as if it had never existed. (The human race, too puny and ephemeral to have any real function or purpose, was as if it had never existed.)
background
The original English title of the story is borrowed from Robert Burns ' lyrics A Red, Red Rose : Till a 'the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun.
Barlow's manuscript with notes from Lovecraft in pencil has been preserved, so that the contribution of both authors to the work can be determined. Lovecraft's changes relate mainly to style and wording only, right up to the end of the story he wrote.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sunand T. Joshi , David E. Schultz: An HP Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press, Westport CT et al. 2001, ISBN 0-313-31578-7 , p. 268.
Web links
- The HP Lovecraft Archive: Till A 'the Seas . Full text of the short story, accessed on November 20, 2014