The rats in the walls

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The Rats in the Walls , English title The Rats in the Walls , is a fantastic short story of American writer HP Lovecraft . The approximately 8,000 word work was written between August and September 1923 and first appeared in March 1924 in the pulp magazine Weird Tales . The title refers to the rustling of rats in the walls of the family estate, which the narrator Delapore rebuilt after 300 years on the ruins of the ancestral home of his ancestors. As the narrative progresses, the rats lead Delapore to discover the gruesome secret of the tomb of his estate and the dark past of his family. After Lovecraft , the basic idea for the story came about when one late evening his wallpaper began to crackle.

The work is even closer to the genre of classical horror literature of the 18th and 19th centuries than later Lovecraft stories that revolve around the so-called Cthulhu myth . It clearly shows the influence of Edgar Allan Poe . Many themes and motifs typical for Lovecraft's work are dealt with: a dark inevitable legacy, the terrifying unknown as a historical secret, meaningful dreams, forbidden knowledge, degeneration, madness, cats, etc. Today the story is considered a classic of horror literature .

content

American Delapore decides to buy back Exham Priory, his ancestors' property in southern England , and spend his late years restoring and moving in. The foundation walls date from the time before the Romans in the 2nd century AD. His ancestors had lived there for several generations when at the beginning of the 17th century the entire family except for one survivor was exterminated under mysterious circumstances. The surviving Walter de la Poer settled - despite suspicion of murder - relatively undisturbed to Virginia and founded the Delapore family there. During the American Civil War , the narrator's grandfather was killed in the flames of his home, taking with him the family secret that was only passed on from father to son at the deathbed. The family had to flee to Massachusetts and soon forgot their mysterious roots in the busy Yankee life . It was only when the narrator's son was stationed in England during the First World War that the old family heritage was discovered by chance through a war acquaintance with Captain Norrys. His uncle owns the property, and Norrys is selling it to Delapore at a bargain price. Already at this time the narrator heard strange legends about Exham Priory and his ancestors through his son, which he dismissed as myths . The son is seriously injured in the war. Therefore, the restoration of Exham Priory with Norrys' help does not begin until after his death in 1920. Delapore learns more and more terrible details about his ancestors and the property in the course of the work: It was built around the time when Stonehenge must have been built, during the time the Romans were worshiped there the terrible Cybele and Attis cult until it was transferred to the rule of his ancestors in the middle of the 13th century.

Shortly after he moved in in July 1923, Delapore received new information that his ancestor murdered the rest of the family because he had discovered a terrible secret. Soon he was haunted by eerie noises of rats in the walls of the property, which apart from him only the cats perceived. He is also plagued by disgusting, recurring dreams. In it he looks down on a grotto in which a “devil shepherd” is driving a “pack of fat, fungus-overgrown pigs” in front of him, and when he “stopped and nodded off, a swarm of rats jumped down into the stinking abyss and devoured the pigs together their unfortunate shepherd. ”A few days later, the cats chasing the noise of the rats lead him to spend a night in the cellar with Norrys. When the rats scurry inside the walls again, the two discover a secret passage under a rectangular, ancient stone altar with the help of the narrator's favorite cat. With an expedition team made up of scientists, they opened the passage at the beginning of August and, to their horror, found an ancient stone staircase covered with bones gnawed by rats, which, as they soon discovered, must have been carved from below upwards according to the direction of the chisel blows. The stairs lead you further down into a gigantic grotto that is partially illuminated through a gap. There are buildings from prehistoric times to the end of the rule of his ancestors. Everywhere are cages and slaughterhouses with human and primeval skeletons and scattered rat bones. One of the skeletons found wearing a ring with the emblem of the de la Poers. After these discoveries, Delapore went mad, he was overcome by forces from the dark expanses and depths of the grotto “at the edge of one of the horribly yawning gullies”. A short time later he is discovered over the half-eaten corpse of Norrys and makes strange words and noises. He is admitted to a mental hospital and asserts that “it was these rats, these horrible rats that race like mad behind the upholstery of this room, that do not let me sleep, that want to lure me down into this infinite horror, into a horror that is bigger than everyone else; those rats that only I can hear; the rats, the rats in the walls ... "

Interpretative approaches

Narrative

The short story uses a narrative situation that is typical for Lovecraft, but also for many other authors of horror literature . It is allegedly a documentary account of the personal experience of the first-person narrator Delapore, who argues soberly, rationally and scientifically across large parts of the story, typically for Lovecraft; however, its trustworthiness is called into question as the story progresses to the extent that Delapore's state of mind is revealed to the reader and that he proves to be a potentially unreliable narrator . However, this point has also been criticized as inconsistent, as the rational style of writing for much of history is inconsistent with the state of mind of the author Delapore. The historical references in history move partly in a gray area between authenticated history and artistic fiction. For example, the Romans conquered and controlled Great Britain within the specified time, and the Cybele cult was actually introduced into new areas under the rule of the Romans , but the 3rd Legion of Augustus was never on southern English territory.

Based on a first-person narrative situation , the protagonist describes over large parts in the past tense events that he himself experienced or researched. Experienced and researched events alternate without a strict chronology and slowly reveal the entire story. In addition to reflections on the part of the narrator, proleptic allusions to events that have not yet been told and knowledge that has been withheld for the time being are inserted. The narrated time of the report extends, as becomes clear at the beginning and again at the end of the story, to the present day; the past tense gives way to the present tense at these points .

The narrative follows a plot curve which is characteristic of Lovecraft's short stories and which in certain respects is reminiscent of a detective story : First, a mysterious problem or crisis is presented: “I hadn't spent a full day in Anchester before I realized that I was going out came from a cursed house. And this week workers have blown up Exham Priory and are now trying to remove any trace of the foundation. ”Gradually the details of the story and the chronological sequence of events are revealed, and in the process, clues are introduced that provide a natural solution to the riddle make it more and more improbable. Nevertheless, the narrator tries to hold on to this idea until the overwhelming, supernatural reality asserts itself at the climax of the plot (here “on the edge of one of the horribly yawning gullies”).

teller

The narrator's conception is reminiscent of the protagonist Edgar Allan Poe. Like most fantastic creators, Lovecraft's theory focuses primarily on describing events and comprehensive narrative effects rather than character drawing. By Michel Houellebecq , the view was expressed that the lack of characterization and focusing on events which lovecraft rule " cosmic horror match" in which humanity as insignificant element of the cosmos is perceived. The characters would primarily serve to perceive the cosmic horror. Poe's - like Lovecraft's - typical protagonist is, according to Lovecraft, a usually gloomy, proud, melancholic, intellectual and sometimes a little crazy gentleman of an old, rich family who delves into strange traditions and penetrates the forbidden secrets of the universe in a mysterious and ambitious way seeks. The name of the narrator could also be a reference to Poe. Lovecraft was a work about Poe known in which the thesis was put forward that Poe's ancestors were named "le Poer". But even without this background knowledge, the name de la Poer is reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe. Lovecraft often incorporated elements of his own life into his stories. Lovecraft named the protagonist's cat after his own, and Lovecraft corresponded to the narrator in certain habitual aspects. Some of his stories, which deal with heredity and madness, are also set in their plot around mid-July, the time when his father died.

writing style

Although he came from the USA, Lovecraft often used borrowings from more ancient formulations and oriented himself on British English. In addition, his unusually pronounced use of adjectives was emphasized. At certain points in his stories, the writing style is modified through the increased use of rhetorical stylistic devices . So the last sentence of the short story goes: “ They must know it was the rats; the slithering scurrying rats whose scampering will never let me sleep; the daemon rats that race behind the padding in this room and beckon me down to greater horrors than I have ever known; the rats they can never hear; the rats, the rats in the walls. ”It contains, for example, word repetitions (six times rats ), anaphoric connections ( rats that race ), alliterations ( slithering, scurrying, scampering ) and an epanadiplosis from the title and the final statement of the work.

Lovecraft's horror

In addition to his literary work, Lovecraft also wrote some theoretical treatises on horror literature, in which he developed his concept of " cosmic horror ", among other things . The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is therefore fear , and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. The horror story as a form of literature must build on this moment if it wants to achieve authenticity and dignity. The horror of what is unknown to modern humans is also central to The Rats in the Walls . However, the unknown does not primarily come from space, as in some of Lovecraft's best-known stories ( Cthulhu's reputation , The Color from Space ), but, as in other stories, from the unknown depths of the earth as well as human history and prehistoric times . Linked to this is a second central motif of cosmic horror, the insignificance of human existence on a cosmic (spatial and temporal) scale. Lovecraft assessed conflicts over time as a central theme for his stories.

In addition to the unknown, which is primarily inherent in time and the universe , for Lovecraft it is above all the large residue of powerful associations that cling to once mysterious objects and processes that creates fear. In his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature , Lovecraft deals in detail with the handling of horror and the mysterious in the history of literature, from prehistory to the Middle Ages, the horror literature of the 18th century to modern horror literature. Many central motifs of literary horror from the origins to the present are “preserved” in the corresponding layers of Exham Priory, the setting of the narrative. A medieval motif would be hidden hideous cults of night worshipers from ancient times, who practiced unimaginable fertility rites hidden from the peasants and the ruling religion. The legendary old castle with its ghostly rats and hidden catacombs are part of the typical inventory of a classic horror story.

The figures of the expedition team and especially the protagonist, on the other hand, are from the present and walk a tightrope between psychological-scientific rationality and madness in the face of unknown horror. For this psychological / rational turn, Poe is central - he would have brought the modern horror story for Lovecraft into its final and perfect state. He would have found a distant artistic approach combined with a scientific approach by locating and tapping the true sources of terror in the human mind.

atavism

Atavism is a central motif in Lovecraft's work. Lovecraft also takes up the motive of return, which cannot escape from one's own terrible family history, despite not knowing about it and the temporal and spatial distance, in other of his stories, for example in Shadows over Innsmouth , The Verderben that came over Sarnath or Der Charles Dexter Ward case . In the course of the story , the narrator undergoes a regression that first manifests itself in the reassessment of his original name and a short time later in his dreams. In the end, the human beast breaks out in the narrator, referring to his gruesome family heritage; This is reinforced by the atavistic exclamation of the narrator with the tongues of his ancestors: “ Curse you, Thornton, I'll teach you to faint at what my family do! … 'Sblood, thou stinkard, I'll learn ye how to gust… wolde ye swynke me thilke wys?… Magna Mater! Magna Mater!… Atys… Dia ad aghaidh's ad aodann… agus bas dunarch ort! Dhonas' s dholas place, agus leat-sa! … Ungl unl… rrlh… chchch… ”He carries out a linguistic regression from modern English into early New English ('Sblood, thou…), Middle English (wolde ye…), Latin ( Magna Mater , Atys ), into Old Scottish / Irish or Celtic (Dia ad aghaidh's ...) to end with primeval animal noises. The old Scottish-Irish adopted by Fiona Macleod means roughly: “ God against thee and in thy face… and may a death of woe be yours… Evil and sorrow to thee and thine! ”

Exham Priory itself reveals through its architecture its different development steps, which are traced back one after the other with the ever deeper exploration of the expedition team. Linked to this is the revelation of the narrator's family secret and family heritage. The ever more in-depth exploration of the building and the revelation of the family history was also interpreted as symbolizing the narrator's regression.

Race, gender, class

The story The Rats in the Walls is often mentioned in debates about racist elements in Lovecraft's works, as a central figure in the story - the homeowner's favorite cat - is called " Nigger Man". Lovecraft himself owned a cat with this name until 1904. In addition, the motif of degeneration and the ominous family inheritance was interpreted as an expression of Lovecraft's racial worldview and associated fears. In Lovecraft's story, women are practically absent as acting characters and are only discussed in the context of family history. The narrator only briefly mentions his mother twice, the center of his family stories include the grandfather, the father and the “motherless” son. Women are also absent during the expedition. The absence of the feminine contrasts with Lovecraft's own feminine family background. Like many of the protagonists of his stories, the narrator, like Lovecraft himself, comes from an Anglo-Saxon higher social class, he is a businessman with noble ancestors and a sense of his status and family history.

A dream CG guys

Barton Levi St. Armand believes that CG Jung is crucial to understanding the place and meaning of horror in Lovecraft's work. In his work The Roots of Horror in the Fiction of HP Lovecraft, he points to a boy’s dream that has strong parallels to Lovecraft’s story, although they did not perceive each other in literary terms: “I was in a two-story house I did not know . […] I went down the stairs and got to the ground floor. Everything was much older there, and I saw that this part of the house was around the 15th or 16th century. The furnishings were medieval, […] I came to a heavy door that I opened. Beyond that I discovered a stone staircase that led to the cellar. I went down and found myself in a beautifully vaulted, very ancient room. I examined the walls and discovered [...] that the walls came from Roman times. My interest was now extremely high. I also examined the floor, which was made of stone slabs. I discovered a ring in one of them. When I pulled on it, the stone slab rose, and again there was a staircase. There were narrow stone steps that led down. I went down and came into a low rock cave. Thick dust lay on the floor, and within it lay bones and broken vessels like the remains of a primitive culture. I discovered two apparently very old and half-decayed human skulls. - Then I woke up. ”CG Jung Jung saw symbols of a collective unconscious in his dream . In his dream he interpreted the house as a “kind of picture of the psyche”: “Consciousness was characterized by the living space. It had an inhabited atmosphere despite the ancient style. The unconscious already began on the first floor . The deeper I got, the stranger and darker it got. In the cave I discovered the remains of a primitive culture, that is, the world of the primitive man in me, which can hardly be reached or illuminated by consciousness. The primitive soul of man borders on the life of the animal soul, just as prehistoric caves were mostly inhabited by animals before humans claimed them. ”Lovecraft's work has subsequently been described as a kind of literary exploration of the most fundamental and terrifying Interpreted archetypes . According to Jung, Sigmund Freud would have been particularly interested in the two skulls at the end of the dream. Jung gave the impression that Freud viewed them as symbols of a secret death wish against two loved ones from the family environment.

Psychoanalysis

Although Lovecraft largely sticks to allusions, according to Peter Priskil the narrator's will to know what is going on in the deep catacombs of the castle is directed towards the threatening, the rats, human sacrifice , degeneration, and “refers in a strikingly open manner to their sexual character, on the pleasure that granted the satisfaction of knowledge and show drive. "the meticulous investigation of spaces by the narrator as a representative of infantile curiosity interpreted and the joy of discovery with respect to the genitals. Priskil makes a number of arguments for the relationship between fearful childish curiosity and the exploration of the mysterious building, such as the smells that appear when examining the secret rooms.

Lovecraft holds "the illusory promise of a majestic revelation" of the final abysses of existence as the only real pleasure of mankind. “The tense expectation in view of the imminent fall of the last envelopes is expanded here into the cosmic and declared to be of human interest; the oversized dimensions illustrate the intensity of the sexual curiosity and the curiosity to watch [...] “In his analyzes, Priskil combines autobiographical and literary texts and ignores the respective narrator as his own authority. From Priskil's point of view, the autobiographical I in Lovecraft's notes and the protagonist in the stories appear to be identical. The research of the narrator of the rat story thus becomes a documentation of "the sexual defense in Lovecraft".

The cannibalistic plot of the protagonist at the end is associated with the Kronos myth and early childhood notions in which the father eats his son. Norrys is seen as the protagonist's replacement son.

reception

Contemporary reception

The contemporary reception of the work was thoroughly positive, but was limited to a small circle of authors who wrote for pulp magazines and did not affect the so-called high social culture . JC Henneberger, one of the editors of Weird Tales , certified Lovecraft that The Rats in the Walls is the best that has been submitted to him so far. Robert E. Howard wrote in 1930 in a letter to Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright that Lovecraft had placed itself in a class of its own with the climax (" Climax ") of history. Only he can draw pictures in shadows (“ paint pictures in shadows ”) that appear shockingly real. August Derleth regarded the story as "perhaps the best horror story since 1900".

Impact history

It was only after Lovecraft's death that his works gained increasing attention in popular culture and literary studies and exerted a strong influence on the horror genre.

Lin Carter called The Rats in Walls one of the best Lovecraft stories . For Robert M. Price it is a brilliant work. When Lovecraft was on the right track (“ on the money ”), as in The Dunwich Horror , The Rats in the Walls and especially The Color from Space , his stories were of incredible power for Stephen King (“ his stories packed an incredible wallop. ”). When he wrote stories like this, he didn't just joke around to earn a little extra income, he stood behind his stories (“ he meant it ”). As a child, John Carpenter found the story “ mind-blowing ”, it was really creepy and got under your skin. According to Guillermo del Toro , Lovecraft succeeds in creating a mood that enables readers to immerse themselves in the story, the sound of the rats can almost be experienced.

ST Joshi describes the work as an almost flawless example of a short story in its condensation, its narrative and thundering climax, as well as its mixture of horror and melancholy (“ a nearly flawless example of the short story in its condensation, its narrative pacing, its thunderous climax, and its mingling of horror and poignancy. ”) It would clearly be the best story before 1926. With its rich texture, the complexity of the topic and the perfect short story technique (“ rich texture, complexity of theme, and absolute perfection of short-story technique ”), comparison with The Downfall of the House of Usher or other Poe's masterpieces shouldn't be afraid. Besides the case of Charles Dexter Ward , it would be Lovecraft's greatest literary triumph in the tradition of classic horror stories (" greatest triumph in the old-time 'Gothic' vein "), although here too he modernizes the typical inventory of horror stories to make it more convincing (" modernized and refined so to be wholly convincing. ”). The fundamental assumption that a human being could retrace the path of evolution could also only be assumed in the light of Darwin's theory of evolution .

Jörg Drews notes in the second edition of Kindler's Literature Lexicon that the story is considered one of Lovecraft's “master stories ”. In this early work, "the outline of the horror mythology that he developed in his later stories and novels would first emerge." The story is interpreted in the context of an incorrectly attributed quote to Lovecraft, namely that all of his stories are based on the legend are based on "that this world was once inhabited by another race, who fell and was driven out while practicing black magic, but lives on outside, ready at any time to take possession of this earth again." Lovecraft's horror motifs vary in his stories with “an ingenious, highly suggestive imagination; he is never at a loss for linguistic characters to identify ominous "black slime, fog-chewed" places, disgusting "Mephitic stinking" abortions and choking states of fear and repeatedly allows ambiguous allusions to connections between his mythology and the voodoo cult, [...] the enigmatic stones of Stonehenge [ …] [Etc.]. ”The article was deleted for the third edition of the lexicon, but the entry on HP Lovecraft states that he“ takes up the complex situation of the first-person narrator who realizes his own guilt too late ”. who, either through his family tradition or his excessive curiosity, has reached beyond the limits of what can be explained and is now faced with madness and inevitable doom. "

Origin background

Emergence

After Lovecraft had not written and published any stories for almost a year, he wrote two other short stories ( The Unnamable and The Festival ) in the fall of 1923 in addition to The Rats in the Walls , which were published in 1925. The Rats in the Walls was one of the first stories written for a professional magazine and his longest work to date. The writing of the story coincides with the period between his mother's death in May 1921 and his marriage to Sonia Greene and the associated move to Brooklyn in 1924.

According to Lovecraft, the development of his stories was always different. While writing down a dream several times, he usually started with a mood, an idea or a picture that he wanted to express. He began to develop this subject in his head until he could express it in words in a chain of events. The impetus for The Rats in the Walls , as Lovecraft later stated, was the late evening perception of crackling wallpaper. As the heart of the story, Lovecraft described in a notebook the discovery of the gruesome secret of the tomb of an ancient castle by its inhabitants. For Lovecraft, the actual writing process was typically divided into five steps, the first two of which were often carried out purely mentally. First he developed a chronological sequence of events in order to bring these events into their narrative composition in a second step. Only in the third step did he write down a first rough version, in a fourth step he revised the text linguistically, in a fifth step he edited it again and brought it into a preliminary final version. However, no manuscript of history has survived.

Literary role models

As a literary model was sometimes referred to The Fall of the House of Usher by Lovecraft's very esteemed Poe. In addition, Robert M. Price pointed out parallels to Poe's Ligeia . For Fritz Leiber , Arthur Machen's influence is evident in the subject of the human beast. The story of the army of rats that fell over the village of Anchester, Lovecraft could have adapted from Sabine Baring-Gould's Courious Myths of the Middle Ages (1869), in which the legend of the Binger Mouse Tower is told. There are also similarities to the cave of the pilgrimage site Purgatory of St. Patrick and the stories surrounding it. Part of the exclamation of the narrator at the end of the story took Lovecraft history The Sin Eater by Fiona Macleod . It was also suggested that Lovecraft might have borrowed the motif of atavism or regression from Irvin S. Cobb's story The Unbroken Chain (1923), which he was familiar with. A Frenchman with slave ancestors is caught by a train and exclaims in the unknown language of his ancestors: "Niama Tumba!"

Position in the complete works

Nyarlathotep

Lovecraft wrote the rats in the walls before his classic stories, which later became known as the so-called Cthulhu myth . It also differs from the works of the so-called dream cycle. Compared to these types of stories, Lovecraft in The Rats in the Walls was largely limited to the inventory of themes from the classic horror story and was heavily based on Poe. Also, the setting of the story is not set in New England as in many stories , the only reference to this is the origin of the protagonist from Massachusetts . While in this work typical motifs and themes of Lovecraft are clearly emerging, the horror still moves on an individual character level, while in later works the cosmic horror assumes increasingly human-threatening proportions. Only at the end of the story are there any hints of the Cthulhu myth. The narrator mentions that the devil-born rats tried "to drive me into the ultimate caves in the innermost intestines of the earth, where Nyarlathotep , the insane, faceless god howls blindly to the whistling of two idiotic flute players," and before that he remarks: "Never will we learn what eyeless Stygian worlds yawned behind the short stretch we walked; because it was predetermined that such secrets are not good for mankind. ”In addition, the passage from the grotto into the castle was“ chiseled from below […]. ”

Release history

Lovecraft first offered the story to Argosy All-Story Weekly , but rejected it as too horrible for the faint of heart. In March 1924 it was finally published in Weird Tales magazine, which also published his short story Ashes under a pseudonym . The Rats in the Walls was Lovecraft's third publication under his name for the magazine. In this the story was reprinted again in June 1930. On this issue, Robert E. Howard came in contact with Lovecraft , because he wrongly suspected that Lovecraft represented an unconventional theory of the colonization of Great Britain. From this a detailed correspondence developed between the two, which lasted until Howard's death.

While Lovecraft was still alive , the story was published again in 1931 by Christine Campbell Thomson in the anthology Switch On the Light . In 1939, two years after his death, it was published in an anthology of stories by Lovecraft by Arkham House . It was printed again in 1944 in the anthology Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, edited by Herbert A. Wise and Phyllis Fraser, of the renowned Modern Library ; This was an important Wegstein to spread the love craft is rule work. Since then, the stories has been included in numerous other compilations. From the 1950s and 1960s, the story was translated into other languages ​​such as French, Italian or Spanish.

The short story was first translated into German in 1965 by Ingrid Neumann under the title The rats in the walls for Heyne Verlag (published in 22 Horror Stories , 1985 in Traumreich der Magie ). 1968 was The rats in the walls in the anthology Cthulhu. Ghost stories translated by HC Artmann at Insel Verlag and published in 1972 in the Fantastic Library in Suhrkamp . The anthology was published in 2007 in its 17th edition. In 1996 Suhrkamp published the work again in the same series in the anthology Cthulhus Ruf. The Best of HP Lovecraft . In 2008 the story was published by Suhrkamp in the anthology Horror Stories ( Lovecrafts stories selected by Wolfgang Hohlbein ). A translation by Andreas Diesel and Frank Festa for Festa Verlag took place in 2005.

Fabric processing and adaptations

According to Robert M. Price , August Derleth would have taken elements from the short story for his stories The Lurker at the Threshold and The House in the Valley . Even Graham Masterton The Manitou was influenced by Price by history. The magazine Crypt of Cthulhu , published by Price, published two short stories in its 72nd issue in 1990 that take up the story ( Exham Priory by Price and Scream for Jeeves; Or, Cats, Rats, and Bertie Wooster by Peter Cannon). In the anthological film HP Lovecraft's Necronomicon from 1993, the story The Drowned is based on The Rats in the Walls .

The Rats in Walls was first published as a comic in the American horror magazine Creepy in 1968. In 1972 the story of Richard Corben was adapted into Skull Comix . This version was published in German as Die Ratten in den Wwall 1974 by U-Comix . The story of The Black Mass was published as a radio play in 1964 and the Atlanta Radio Theater Company in 1990. One of the many audio book adaptations was spoken by David McCallum in 1973 .

literature

Text output

  • English; published in:
  • German; published in:
  • Other languages; published in:
  • French (Les Rats dans les murs): Par-delà le mur du sommeil , translation by Jacques Papy, Denoël 1956.
  • Italian (I ratti nei muri): Un secolo di terrore , translation by Bruno Tasso, Sugar 1960.
  • Dutch (rats): Griezelverhalen , translation W. Wielek-Berg, Prisma Boeken 1958.
  • Russian (Крысы в ​​стенах): В склепе , translation T. Talanowa, Джокер 1993. ISBN 5-87012-023-6 .
  • Spanish (Las ratas de las paredes): Cuentos de terror , translation by Rafael Llopis Paret, Taurus 1963.

Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ HP Lovecraft: The rats in the walls. Translation HC Artmann; in: The Best of HP Lovecraft Suhrkamp 1996, p. 17 f.
  2. ↑ a b c H. P. Lovecraft: The rats in the walls. Translation HC Artmann; in: The Best of HP Lovecraft Suhrkamp 1996, p. 28.
  3. ↑ HP Lovecraft: The rats in the walls. Translation HC Artmann; in: The Best of HP Lovecraft Suhrkamp 1996, p. 29 f.
  4. ↑ See negative on this: ST Joshi: A Subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosophy of HP Lovecraft, 1996, p. 99.
  5. ↑ Cf. ST Joshi: A Subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosophy of HP Lovecraft, 1996, p. 98 f.
  6. ↑ a b c d cf. Csóka Bálint: HP Lovecraft, the Horroristic Literary Mythology  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / insula.sjehok.org   , Section 2.1. Characteristics of Lovecraft's writing. (accessed March 12, 2012)
  7. ↑ HP Lovecraft: The rats in the walls. Translation HC Artmann; in: The Best of HP Lovecraft . Suhrkamp 1996, p. 8.
  8. ^ Michel Houllebecq: HP Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life. 2nd essay. 1999.
  9. ↑ a b See HP Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature. 1927. Section VII. Edgar Allan Poe.
  10. ↑ See ST Joshi, David E. Schultz: An HP Lovecraft Encyclopedia. 2001, p. 223.
  11. ↑ Kenneth W. Faigh Jr .: Parents of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. P. 56. in: David E. Schultz, ST Joshi (Ed.): An Epicure in the terrible: a centennial anthology of essays in honor of HP Lovecraft. 1991.
  12. ↑ a b H. P. Lovecraft: The Rats in the Walls. in: Weird Tales, Vol. 3, No. 3, March 1924.
  13. ↑ a b See HP Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature. 1927. Section I. Introduction.
  14. ↑ a b See HP Lovecraft: Notes on Writing Weird Fiction , 1937. (accessed March 12, 2012)
  15. ↑ See HP Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature. 1927. Section II – IV.
  16. ↑ in some texts also aodaun, which is supposed to represent an older spelling of aodann
  17. ↑ Cf. Fiona Macleod: The Sin Eater ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . (accessed March 12, 2012)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.horrormasters.com
  18. ↑ Cf. Matolscy Kalman: Confronting "the boundless and hideous unknown": Science, categorization, and naming in HP Lovecrafts Fiction. 2010, p. 135.
  19. ^ Joshi, The Annotated HP Lovecraft , 1997, p. 35.
  20. ↑ a b c See Bruce Lord: The Genetics of Horror: Sex and Racism in HP Lovecraft's Fiction , 2004. (accessed March 12, 2012)
  21. ↑ Csóka Bálint: HP Lovecraft, the Horroristic Literary Mythology  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / insula.sjehok.org   , Section 2.2.5. Women of Lovecraft's writing, sexuality. (accessed March 12, 2012)
  22. ↑ Csóka Bálint: HP Lovecraft, the Horroristic Literary Mythology  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / insula.sjehok.org   , Section 2.1.2. Self-implementation; 2.2.3. Race and blood: question of purity. What is Lovecraft racist? (accessed March 12, 2012)
  23. ↑ Barton Levi St. Armand: The Roots of Horror in HP Lovecraft. P. 8; quoted from: Robert M. Price: Jung and Lovecraft on Prehuman Artifacts , Crypt of Cthulhu 1982.
  24. ↑ a b c cf. Aniela Jaffé: Memories, Dreams, Thoughts by CG Jung. Recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffé. Rascher, Zurich / Stuttgart 1962; New edition by Patmos , Düsseldorf 2009, p. 163 f.
  25. ↑ a b c cf. Peter Priskil: The horror in Howard Phillips Lovecraft. P. 135.
  26. ↑ See Peter Priskil: The horror in Howard Phillips Lovecraft. P. 141.
  27. ↑ See Peter Priskil: The horror in Howard Phillips Lovecraft. P. 167.
  28. ↑ See Peter Priskil: The horror in Howard Phillips Lovecraft. P. 168.
  29. ^ Lin Carter, Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos, p. 36.
  30. ↑ Quoted from: Don Herron: The Dark Barbarian: The Writings of Robert E Howard, a Critical Anthology. 1984, p. 121.
  31. ↑ a b c d Cf. Jörg Drews: The Rats in the Walls. In: Kindlers Literatur Lexikon, 2nd edition. 1988-1992.
  32. ↑ Cf. Don G. Smith: HP Lovecraft in popular culture: the works and their adaptations in film, television, comics, music, and games. 2006.
  33. ↑ See Darrell Schweitzer (Ed.): Discovering HP Lovecraft. 2001, p. 4.
  34. ↑ Cf. Lin Carter, Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos , p. 34.
  35. ↑ a b c quoted from the film: Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown. Director Frank H. Woodward, 2008.
  36. ↑ a b Stephen King: Danse Macabre. 1981/2010.
  37. ^ Joshi, The Annotated HP Lovecraft , 1997, p. 10.
  38. ↑ ST Joshi: A subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosophy of HP Lovecraft, 1996, p 96th
  39. ^ A b c S. T. Joshi: A Dreamer and a Visionary: HP Lovecraft in His Time. 2001, p. 170 f.
  40. ↑ See Myth: Lovecraft's Black Magic Quote , hplovecraft.com.
  41. ↑ See Paul Neubauer: Lovecraft, Howard Philip. In: Kindlers Literatur Lexikon, 3rd edition. 2009.
  42. ^ Will Murray, Lovecraft and the Pulp Magazine Tradition. S. 107. in: David E. Schultz, ST Joshi (Ed.): An Epicure in the terrible: a centennial anthology of essays in honor of HP Lovecraft. 1991.
  43. ^ "Suggested by a very commonplace incident - the cracking of wall-paper late at night, and the chain of imaginings resulting from it. "; HP Lovecraft, Selected Letters Vol. V, p. 181, cited from ST Joshi and David E. Schultz, An HP Lovecraft Encyclopedia. P. 223.
  44. ^ "Horrible secret in crypt of ancient castle — discovered by dweller." ; quoted from ST Joshi and David E. Schultz, An HP Lovecraft Encyclopedia . P. 223.
  45. ↑ Darrell Schweitzer: Discovering HP Lovecraft. 2001, p. 100.
  46. ↑ See ST Joshi, David E. Schultz, p. 207.
  47. ↑ Robert M. Price: Lovecraft and "Ligeia" ( Memento of the original of November 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed March 12, 2012)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / lore-online.com
  48. ^ Fritz Leiber: A Literary Copernicus. In: Ben JS Szumskyj, ST Joshi: Fritz Leiber and HP Lovecraft: Writers of the Dark. 2004, p. 283.
  49. ↑ See Donald R. Burleson: On Lovecrafts Themes: Touching the Glass. In: ST Joshi, David E. Schultz (eds.): An Epicure in the terrible: a centennial anthology of essays in honor of HP Lovecraft. 1991, p. 140.
  50. ↑ HP Lovecraft: The rats in the walls. Translation HC Artmann; in: The Best of HP Lovecraft Suhrkamp 1996, p. 28 f.
  51. ↑ HP Lovecraft: The rats in the walls. Translation HC Artmann; in: The Best of HP Lovecraft Suhrkamp 1996, p. 25.
  52. ↑ See ST Joshi, David E. Schultz, p. 119.
  53. ↑ See ST Joshi and David E. Schultz, An HP Lovecraft Encyclopedia . P. 224.
  54. ↑ A bibliography can be found under The Rats in the Walls on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database pages . (accessed March 12, 2012)
  55. ↑ Cf. Robert M. Price: Legacy of the Lurker ( Memento of the original of July 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Crypt of Cthulhu, No. 6 1982. (accessed March 12, 2012)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / crypt-of-cthulhu.com
  56. ↑ Robert M. Price (ed.): Crypt of Cthulhu. No. 72 Roodmas 1990.
  57. ↑ See Lovecraft Movies , at: hplovecraft.com (accessed March 17, 2012)
  58. ↑ See Lovecraftian Comics , on: hplovecraft.com (accessed March 17, 2012)
  59. ↑ See The Rats in the Walls ( Memento of the original from August 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.muuta.net archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on: The Most Complete Comicography of Richard Corben, muuta.net (accessed March 17, 2012)
  60. ↑ See Lovecraft Dramatizations , on: hplovecraft.com (accessed March 17, 2012)
  61. ↑ See Lovecraft Readings , on: hplovecraft.com (accessed March 17, 2012)
  62. ↑ A bibliography can be found under Les Rats dans les murs on the nooSFere website . (accessed March 12, 2012)
  63. ↑ A bibliography can be found under I ratti nei muri in the Catalogo della Letteratura Fantastica .
  64. ↑ See ST Joshi: HP Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography. 2002, p. 249.
  65. ↑ A bibliography can be found under Крысы в ​​стенах in fantlab.ru . (accessed March 12, 2012)
  66. ↑ See ST Joshi: HP Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography. 2002, p. 255 f.