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The Shadow Out of Time
Voted one of the top ten Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2001 by Cinescape Magazine. " The Shadow out of Time " is H. P. Lovecraft's last major story. It was first published in Astounding Stories for June 1936. And yet, this text has never been published as Lovecraft wrote it—until now. The recent discovery of Lovecraft's handwritten manuscript allows readers to appreciate this magnificently cosmic story exactly as originally written. All previous editions of the story contain hundreds of serious errors, including errors in paragraphing, omissions and mistranscriptions of many words and passages, and erroneous punctuation. Leading Lovecraft scholars S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz have provided an exhaustive introduction and commentary on the story, elucidating names, places and other elements in this richly evocative story. A must for all devotees of Lovecraft and weird fiction!
140 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1936
205 people are currently reading
3074 people want to read
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
5,946 books19k followersHoward Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 513 reviews
March 18, 2019
This novella is Lovecraft's last major effort, and resembles—in relation to his own work, if not in literary quality—Joyce's Finnegan's Wake and James' The Golden Bowl: all three extend to the limits of aesthetic possibility their author's personal concerns, and as a result can be boring, infuriating, and sometimes just characteristically odd. Nonetheless, they are mature works by master craftsmen, and may often reveal the hearts of their creators more intimately than earlier, less ambitious, and more successful works.
The Shadow Out of Time is the story of Professor of Economics Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee who faints one day in the middle of a lecture and regains consciousness five years later only to find that he—or some entity inhabiting his body—has been pursuing eccentric researches in the obscure libraries and remote places of the world. As he follows the trail of this five year search—of which he has no conscious memory—he begins to dream (or remember?) cyclopean cities and the massive conical beings which inhabit them. Eventually his journey ends in the outback of Australia, amid cavernous ruins and terrifying revelations.
This 25,000 word tale often taxes the patience of the reader, but it also reveals—more subtly and precisely than many Lovecraft tales—the intimate relationship between imagination, memory and landscape, and the transcendent importance of the written word both as an affirmation of our identity and as a proof of our connection with the past.
July 24, 2020
The Shadow out of Time is one of the last stories by HPL, written a few months before cancer possessed his body and took him away. Also, it is probably one of his very best. The story is in keeping both with The Dreams in the Witch House, through a series of disturbing dreams in the first half of the tale, and with At the Mountains of Madness, through the second half and the archaeological excavation in the Australian sandy desert. The time-travelling race is redolent of H. G. Wells’ Time Machine.
The Shadow Out of Time seems to sum up, in one grand (albeit short) narrative, the whole of the Cthulhu mythos Lovecraft had been building through different angles over the years. It opens immense vistas on the history our planet which, although they seem petrifying and malevolent to the narrator, could well be perceived as grandiose and glorious (as suggested earlier, at the end of The Whisperer in Darkness). In a way, HLP's stories of the hidden past of our world are a dark counterpart of Olaf Stapledon's bright perspectives into the farthest future of the universe (see: Star Maker and Last and First Men). The ending of Lovecraft's tale is brilliant and unexpected.
The architectonic descriptions regarding the “Cyclopean” masonry of the “Great Race” — possibly evocative of ancient Egyptian or Inca buildings — are incredibly detailed and probably inspired the idea of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. To be sure, it also influenced the paintings and designs of H.R. Giger. I suspect Borges might also have remembered this tale when writing his Library of Babel (in Ficciones). Too, this story is a blueprint for Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life.
The Shadow Out of Time seems to sum up, in one grand (albeit short) narrative, the whole of the Cthulhu mythos Lovecraft had been building through different angles over the years. It opens immense vistas on the history our planet which, although they seem petrifying and malevolent to the narrator, could well be perceived as grandiose and glorious (as suggested earlier, at the end of The Whisperer in Darkness). In a way, HLP's stories of the hidden past of our world are a dark counterpart of Olaf Stapledon's bright perspectives into the farthest future of the universe (see: Star Maker and Last and First Men). The ending of Lovecraft's tale is brilliant and unexpected.
The architectonic descriptions regarding the “Cyclopean” masonry of the “Great Race” — possibly evocative of ancient Egyptian or Inca buildings — are incredibly detailed and probably inspired the idea of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. To be sure, it also influenced the paintings and designs of H.R. Giger. I suspect Borges might also have remembered this tale when writing his Library of Babel (in Ficciones). Too, this story is a blueprint for Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life.
November 8, 2018
H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time is an interesting, rambling discourse. Yes, it is interesting--with scattered gems here and there--but it rambles and shuffles and repeats itself. At first, the narrator is the focus, his amnesia and deteriorating mental faculties. However, in what seems like a fevered and reoccurring dream, the emphasis shifts to the narrator's exploration of the Elder Race and a civilization millions of years old. I well might read this again, but as a narrative I think it ultimately doesn't satisfy. 3.5 stars.
September 13, 2020
Dreams of a prof about cyclopean architecture and strange entities. Entities the Great Race was afraid of. We are talking about the Old Ones. When doing excavations in Australia those dreams come true. I absolutely liked this long novella about the Cthulhu Myth. There are many descriptive parts and at parts it's extremely uncanny and sinister. The creepiest description of a library I ever came across will be found in this tale. It's the last finished tale from Lovecraft and another classic. After reading this story you'll pray those trap doors into another darker and older world keep forever closed. Highly recommended!
Want to read
February 21, 2018Lovecraft Illustrated Volume 4
Contents:
ix - Introduction by S. T. Joshi
003 - "The Shadow out of Time" by H. P. Lovecraft
091 - "The Vanity of Existence in “The Shadow out of Time” "by Paul Montelone
108 - "The Shadow out of Plastic" by Pete Von Sholly
111 - "“The Shadow out of Time” as Lovecraftian Horror" by W. H. Pugmire
Contents:
ix - Introduction by S. T. Joshi
003 - "The Shadow out of Time" by H. P. Lovecraft
091 - "The Vanity of Existence in “The Shadow out of Time” "by Paul Montelone
108 - "The Shadow out of Plastic" by Pete Von Sholly
111 - "“The Shadow out of Time” as Lovecraftian Horror" by W. H. Pugmire
September 29, 2014
In some ways the boldest of Lovecraft’s tales, in that he risks dulling monotony in order to effect the sensation in the reader of his profoundest fears and nightmares. It begins, like many of his best tales, with a man experiencing or discovering something that irrevocably alters the fabric of his life, sending him scrambling to restore his sanity; but in this case this aspect is reduced to little more than a framing device for detailed descriptions of how the Great Race – an effectively disembodied race that successively inhabits the bodies of others throughout the universe – manages incredible feats of time and space travel, and of descriptions of the ruined habitations of the Old Ones in a desert in Australia. These descriptions do have a dulling quality, as Lovecraft autistically elucidates the details of how the Great Race time travels by inhabiting the minds of other races of the future, and of repetitive descriptions of cyclopean columns and enormous fallen walls as his protagonist scrambles over them in masochistic pursuit of proof of his nightmares; but at the same time by reducing the role his human protagonist plays in his basic thesis of the cosmic puniness of humanity is enhanced. His protagonist, who is a stand-in for all of humanity, literally diminishes in the reader's mind's eye. The real protagonist here is the Great Race, Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee is merely a pawn, a vehicle (one of many) for the Great Race’s survival. For five years his body is inhabited by the far superior mind of an individual from the Great Race, while his mind goes millennia back in time to inhabit the body of his possessor. After five years Peaslee’s mind is restored to his rightful body, and as would be expected he soon begins to experience strange haunting nightmares and quirks of thought. This leads him to scour arcane literature for other examples of his bewildering experience, and eventually leads him to an archaeological dig in a desert in Australia, where he discovers (or does he?) something that verifies his most terrifying hypotheses. What ends up haunting about this tale, and what makes it one of his most successful, is that only portions of his worst nightmares are actually verified. Yes, there was apparently a far superior race of beings inhabiting the earth in some dim prehistoric era, but did Peaslee actually suffer possession by one of their kind? He has incontrovertible evidence in his hand at one point, but then loses it, by which time reality and dream are so intertwined that he will never be able to unravel them. Whether he did or not there is no doubt his nightmares and psychological disturbances will continue. It seems no matter how many times I reread Lovecraft’s best tales they never fail to give me a physical sensation of vast dark realms beyond the perimeter of my daily mind, and for this I am perversely thankful.
September 1, 2019
•1/09/2019: Relectura. Qué bien escribes, Howard.
•7/05/2018: Relectura. Ante todo quiero decir que la reseña de abajo ya no me da vergüena ajena. Me parece muy tierna, escrita con el corazón; un tesoro de la adolescencia. Yo en 2015 no había leído muchos libros, y la forma de expresar mis opiniones era bastante limitada, como podéis comprobar. Además, todavía no había descubierto los matices de mis sentimientos y sensaciones.
Siempre recordaré esa primera lectura de La sombra fuera del tiempo. Supuso un antes y un después en mi vida. Los libros hasta entonces habían sido para mi un instrumento de entretenimiento, pero a partir de La sombra fuera del tiempo comenzó a operarse un cambio gradual en mi. Lovecraft me brindó a cambio de nada una nueva visión sobre la literatura. Descubrí junto a él el amor más incondicional que puede sentir un ser humano por los libros.
•5/07/2017: Relectura. Menuda obra orfebre.
•31/12/2016: Relectura. Ante todo quiero decir que esta review me da vergüenza ajena pero que la dejo por los recuerdos.
•18/01/2015:
5.0
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥¡Primera lectura maravillosa del año!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
"Permanecí toda la noche en vela, y al amanecer me di cuenta de lo estúpido que había sido dejar que la sombra de un mito me perturbara"
No miento al decir que este libro es de los mejores que he leído en mi vida. Cuando lo compré ayer , ávida de la prosa lovecraftiana, sabía que sería increíblemente hermoso, llamarlo intuición lectora, yo que sé.
Lovecraft escribe demasiado bien, es un hecho. Escribe de una manera que hace que el lector sea el protagonista y que vayas mucho más allá de lo que él escribe. Libera tu imaginación pero a la vez sabe como no dejar que se formen lagunas cuando lees la obra. ESO no sabe hacerlo una persona cualquiera, y desde luego este hombre no era cualquier persona.
(Sabe el-de-arriba-o-quien-sea que no.)
"Si aquello de veras sucedió, el ser humano debe prepararse para afrontar ideas sobre el cosmos y el lugar que ocupa en el bullente vórtice del tiempo cuya mera mención resulta paralizadora".
Me ha gustado la manera en la que ha mezclado la ciencia ficción y el terror. Te presenta como toca a la Gran Raza y a la vez le da ese toque oscuro, tétrico que embruja todos tus sentidos.
La trama cuando compré el libro, no me parecía muy atractiva, de hecho si no hubiese sabido quien era el autor no lo habría comprado, las cosas como son. Pero la forma en la que lo ha llevado Lovecraft ha sido como una carrera: hasta que no llegas a la meta , no paras de correr. Tiene un ritmo ágil y adictivo, hace que lector no se aburra y a la vez crea la necesidad de saber el destino del protagonista.
" Y siempre la sombra de un temor sin nombre pendía sobre las trampillas selladas y aquellas antigua torres, oscuras y desprovistas de ventanas"
También trata temas filosóficos y científicos. Utilizó una de las teorías de Freud; el mecanismo de defensa psicológica en el que una persona cuando se enfrenta a algo demasiado horrible o traumático, rechaza dicho pensamiento. Me pareció realmente interesante esa parte debido a que el curso pasado estudié a Freud en la asignatura de Psicología y bueno, sé de lo que habla.
Y casi se me olvida, también hay infinidad de menciones a obras de sus amigos escritores y escritores que le influenciaron y de sus propias obras, como el Necronomicón , entre otras, claro.
Si ya apreciaba a L. como persona - vamos a ser sinceros y a decir me importa un rábano que sea un xenófobo, un antisocial y un inadaptado - ahora lo aprecio todavía más y comprendo el por qué de la fama que sea labrado.
Daughter of the stars fuera.
•7/05/2018: Relectura. Ante todo quiero decir que la reseña de abajo ya no me da vergüena ajena. Me parece muy tierna, escrita con el corazón; un tesoro de la adolescencia. Yo en 2015 no había leído muchos libros, y la forma de expresar mis opiniones era bastante limitada, como podéis comprobar. Además, todavía no había descubierto los matices de mis sentimientos y sensaciones.
Siempre recordaré esa primera lectura de La sombra fuera del tiempo. Supuso un antes y un después en mi vida. Los libros hasta entonces habían sido para mi un instrumento de entretenimiento, pero a partir de La sombra fuera del tiempo comenzó a operarse un cambio gradual en mi. Lovecraft me brindó a cambio de nada una nueva visión sobre la literatura. Descubrí junto a él el amor más incondicional que puede sentir un ser humano por los libros.
•5/07/2017: Relectura. Menuda obra orfebre.
•31/12/2016: Relectura. Ante todo quiero decir que esta review me da vergüenza ajena pero que la dejo por los recuerdos.
•18/01/2015:
5.0
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥¡Primera lectura maravillosa del año!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
"Permanecí toda la noche en vela, y al amanecer me di cuenta de lo estúpido que había sido dejar que la sombra de un mito me perturbara"
No miento al decir que este libro es de los mejores que he leído en mi vida. Cuando lo compré ayer , ávida de la prosa lovecraftiana, sabía que sería increíblemente hermoso, llamarlo intuición lectora, yo que sé.
Lovecraft escribe demasiado bien, es un hecho. Escribe de una manera que hace que el lector sea el protagonista y que vayas mucho más allá de lo que él escribe. Libera tu imaginación pero a la vez sabe como no dejar que se formen lagunas cuando lees la obra. ESO no sabe hacerlo una persona cualquiera, y desde luego este hombre no era cualquier persona.
(Sabe el-de-arriba-o-quien-sea que no.)
"Si aquello de veras sucedió, el ser humano debe prepararse para afrontar ideas sobre el cosmos y el lugar que ocupa en el bullente vórtice del tiempo cuya mera mención resulta paralizadora".
Me ha gustado la manera en la que ha mezclado la ciencia ficción y el terror. Te presenta como toca a la Gran Raza y a la vez le da ese toque oscuro, tétrico que embruja todos tus sentidos.
La trama cuando compré el libro, no me parecía muy atractiva, de hecho si no hubiese sabido quien era el autor no lo habría comprado, las cosas como son. Pero la forma en la que lo ha llevado Lovecraft ha sido como una carrera: hasta que no llegas a la meta , no paras de correr. Tiene un ritmo ágil y adictivo, hace que lector no se aburra y a la vez crea la necesidad de saber el destino del protagonista.
" Y siempre la sombra de un temor sin nombre pendía sobre las trampillas selladas y aquellas antigua torres, oscuras y desprovistas de ventanas"
También trata temas filosóficos y científicos. Utilizó una de las teorías de Freud; el mecanismo de defensa psicológica en el que una persona cuando se enfrenta a algo demasiado horrible o traumático, rechaza dicho pensamiento. Me pareció realmente interesante esa parte debido a que el curso pasado estudié a Freud en la asignatura de Psicología y bueno, sé de lo que habla.
Y casi se me olvida, también hay infinidad de menciones a obras de sus amigos escritores y escritores que le influenciaron y de sus propias obras, como el Necronomicón , entre otras, claro.
Si ya apreciaba a L. como persona - vamos a ser sinceros y a decir me importa un rábano que sea un xenófobo, un antisocial y un inadaptado - ahora lo aprecio todavía más y comprendo el por qué de la fama que sea labrado.
Daughter of the stars fuera.
January 7, 2015
'I shiver at the mysteries the past may conceal, and trembled at the menaces the future may bring forth.'Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee is perfectly normal, ordinary, albeit very smart man who works at Miskatonic University. His origins are normal and he tries hard to get that fact through. It is important because something horrible has happened to him. For five years Nathaniel's mind has seemed to be gone and something else was there. The Nathaniel of those five years acted strange, knew foreign and dead languages, travelled to weirdest places, researched the strangest things and talked to various cult leaders. Until one day the real man came back.
Then the nightmares started. They seem to be memories of the things he couldn't possibly know.
The professor had a misfortune to encounter the Great Race - beings that mastered mind-projection in order to study and learn about other races and worlds to learn everything they can about them, their past and their future. It is very important to note the difference between captive minds and exiled ones.
The Great Race isn't exactly aggressive in a usual sense (they don't go klling people), but the fact is they possess whomever they judge knowledgeable enough for their own goals. Whatever they do, they do it to be able to run when their own horrors awaken.
The Shadow Out of Place is Nathaniel Peaslee's written testimony of what happened to him, or rather an account of a series of events that he left to his son to judge whether he was dreaming or it was all real.
You can read it here
December 3, 2018
A professor suffers an unexplained collapse, followed by strange changes in personality. After another episode five years later, Peaslee is left with no memory of the intervening years. No memory of his recorded life, that is -- he does have fragmentary, dream-like memories of another life in an alien place...
November 1, 2020
3.75
The audiobook I choose was terrible in quality and kinda ruined my experience.
But there's still something about Lovecraft's writing that evokes a terror in your mind and makes you hope that the things he describes don't exist.
The audiobook I choose was terrible in quality and kinda ruined my experience.
But there's still something about Lovecraft's writing that evokes a terror in your mind and makes you hope that the things he describes don't exist.
November 2, 2015
The Shadow Out of Time is one of Lovecraft's last stories, written between 1934 and 1935, and published in 1936 - just a year before his death. Lovecraft thought so little of it that he mailed the original, handwritten manuscript to his friend without keeping a copy for himself - he seemed to be very dissatisfied with most of the stories he wrote, and made little effort to get them published.
The Shadow Out of Time, like many other Lovecraft stories, is narrated in the form of a confession by Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, a professor of political economy at Arkham's Miskatonic University. Contrary to other Lovecraft protagonists that I have encountered in his fiction, Peaslee is not a loner - he is married and has three children, and is leading a satisfying and calm life of an academic. Peaslee has no reason to consider himself unhappy - and has no interest in either the occult or abnormal psychology, until he is struck with what he describes as "queer amnesia".
While giving a lecture to his student, Peaslee is struck with a strange vision - he sees strange shapes in the lecture hall, and begins to feel disconnected the world around him. He collapses, and when he comes to after many hours he doesn't remember anything about himself; he doesn't remember how to walk and move about, and is distrustful and withdrawn from those around him. There is something alien about Peaslee; his wife and children cannot stand him anymore. Claiming that he is possessed, they leave him and he will never see them again, even after his "return to normality" five years later.
During these five years, the not-Peaslee is possessed - by a new interest in the occult; he raids libraries for strange, old books, and travels around the world, visiting the weirdest places. He learns about this from others afterwards, as he tries to pick up the pieces from the period of his life that he knows nothing about - and discovers a truth stranger than anything he might have suspected.
The Shadow Out of Time explores Lovecraft's theme of humanity's vast insignificance in the general scheme of cosmic events - particularly when Nathaniel discovers what he claims to be the truth about a great alien race, which has inhabited our world long before we did. Peaslee becomes a literal pawn in this game; like humanity, he ultimately cannot control his fate and visibly disintegrates before our eyes. The story is notable for being one of the few stories which take place outside Lovecraft's familiar New England surrounding (at one point Peaslee travels to a desert in remote Western Australia - though the setting is differentiated largely, if not only, by name alone), and one where the protagonist doubts the actuality of the horrors that he witnessed. Was he truly possessed by an ancient creature, or was it a delirium? Peaslee writes the account for his son, hoping that he might understand from it the truth of his experience - and use it as a warning for others if it's true, and as a way to convince himself that it is not, because the possibility of truth is too terrible to consider.
The Shadow Out of Time apparently shared the fate of most of Lovecraft's fiction, and became more appreciated after his death; some of the critics consider it to be one of his major stories, even his greatest achievement. I would advise you to decide for yourself - like always, you can freely and legally read it online or download a copy for your eReader.
The Shadow Out of Time, like many other Lovecraft stories, is narrated in the form of a confession by Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, a professor of political economy at Arkham's Miskatonic University. Contrary to other Lovecraft protagonists that I have encountered in his fiction, Peaslee is not a loner - he is married and has three children, and is leading a satisfying and calm life of an academic. Peaslee has no reason to consider himself unhappy - and has no interest in either the occult or abnormal psychology, until he is struck with what he describes as "queer amnesia".
While giving a lecture to his student, Peaslee is struck with a strange vision - he sees strange shapes in the lecture hall, and begins to feel disconnected the world around him. He collapses, and when he comes to after many hours he doesn't remember anything about himself; he doesn't remember how to walk and move about, and is distrustful and withdrawn from those around him. There is something alien about Peaslee; his wife and children cannot stand him anymore. Claiming that he is possessed, they leave him and he will never see them again, even after his "return to normality" five years later.
During these five years, the not-Peaslee is possessed - by a new interest in the occult; he raids libraries for strange, old books, and travels around the world, visiting the weirdest places. He learns about this from others afterwards, as he tries to pick up the pieces from the period of his life that he knows nothing about - and discovers a truth stranger than anything he might have suspected.
The Shadow Out of Time explores Lovecraft's theme of humanity's vast insignificance in the general scheme of cosmic events - particularly when Nathaniel discovers what he claims to be the truth about a great alien race, which has inhabited our world long before we did. Peaslee becomes a literal pawn in this game; like humanity, he ultimately cannot control his fate and visibly disintegrates before our eyes. The story is notable for being one of the few stories which take place outside Lovecraft's familiar New England surrounding (at one point Peaslee travels to a desert in remote Western Australia - though the setting is differentiated largely, if not only, by name alone), and one where the protagonist doubts the actuality of the horrors that he witnessed. Was he truly possessed by an ancient creature, or was it a delirium? Peaslee writes the account for his son, hoping that he might understand from it the truth of his experience - and use it as a warning for others if it's true, and as a way to convince himself that it is not, because the possibility of truth is too terrible to consider.
The Shadow Out of Time apparently shared the fate of most of Lovecraft's fiction, and became more appreciated after his death; some of the critics consider it to be one of his major stories, even his greatest achievement. I would advise you to decide for yourself - like always, you can freely and legally read it online or download a copy for your eReader.
July 18, 2012
I have read and enjoyed a number of Lovecraft stories, but this one was a disappointment. It would have made an interesting premise for a science fiction story, but he kept trying to fit it into a horror template. This involved having the narrator constantly repeat how horrified he was at everything, which didn't work because the aliens in question weren't particularly horrifying or even that evil. Read "Shadow over Innsmouth" or "Dunwich Horror" instead.
August 22, 2017
-Uno de los trabajos importantes dentro de la cosmología fantástica creada por el de Providence y conocida como los Mitos.-
Género. Novela corta.
Lo que nos cuenta. En el libro El abismo en el tiempo (publicación original: The Shadow Out of Time, 1936) conocemos a Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, que ha tenido una extraña experiencia en el oeste de Australia y no está seguro de si ha sido algo real o una alucinación de su mente. Y es que Nathaniel, estudiante de la Universidad de Miskatonic en su juventud, tuvo hace unos años episodios de visiones y amnesia con estados alterados de conciencia que le empujaron a investigar sobre conocimientos ocultos de los que se suele hablar sólo en susurros y en estrechos círculos. Trabajo también conocido como En la noche de los tiempos, La sombra más allá del tiempo, La sombra de otro tiempo, La sombra fuera del tiempo y como En el abismo del tiempo.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Novela corta.
Lo que nos cuenta. En el libro El abismo en el tiempo (publicación original: The Shadow Out of Time, 1936) conocemos a Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, que ha tenido una extraña experiencia en el oeste de Australia y no está seguro de si ha sido algo real o una alucinación de su mente. Y es que Nathaniel, estudiante de la Universidad de Miskatonic en su juventud, tuvo hace unos años episodios de visiones y amnesia con estados alterados de conciencia que le empujaron a investigar sobre conocimientos ocultos de los que se suele hablar sólo en susurros y en estrechos círculos. Trabajo también conocido como En la noche de los tiempos, La sombra más allá del tiempo, La sombra de otro tiempo, La sombra fuera del tiempo y como En el abismo del tiempo.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
September 14, 2025
The Yithians are an interesting alien species who allows themselves to collect experiences and knowledge of other species in an unsettling way which Professor Peaslee experiences after a long coma.
It seems like the Deep Ones and Color out of Space will stay as my favourite alien species after I read now the second to last short story of H.P. Lovecraft. The Yithians are near the top still as I liked how much fear and dread they can cause in a human. The emotions of the protagonists and his thoughts made the reading experience so impactful and made the Yithians appear more dangerous than some other alien species. While the Elder Ones for instance are scary for possessing so many powers and being able to control almost everything, the Yithians are scary for changing the life of one single human being so much. It makes me wonder if it's worse for all humanity to suffer or if only a single one suffers, completely alone without anyone around to understand what they are going through.
It seems like the Deep Ones and Color out of Space will stay as my favourite alien species after I read now the second to last short story of H.P. Lovecraft. The Yithians are near the top still as I liked how much fear and dread they can cause in a human. The emotions of the protagonists and his thoughts made the reading experience so impactful and made the Yithians appear more dangerous than some other alien species. While the Elder Ones for instance are scary for possessing so many powers and being able to control almost everything, the Yithians are scary for changing the life of one single human being so much. It makes me wonder if it's worse for all humanity to suffer or if only a single one suffers, completely alone without anyone around to understand what they are going through.
April 24, 2024
3.5 Stars for The Shadow out of Time (audiobook) by H. P. Lovecraft read by Gary Appleton.
This story gives an interesting glimpse into a mysterious and ancient extraterrestrial species. It must have been mind blowing to read this in 1936 when it first came out.
This story gives an interesting glimpse into a mysterious and ancient extraterrestrial species. It must have been mind blowing to read this in 1936 when it first came out.
February 8, 2016
Το 2014 ήρθα ουσιαστικά πρώτη φορά σε επαφή με το έργο του Λάκβραφτ, αρχικά με το καταπληκτικό "Η περίπτωση του Τσαρλς Ντέξτερ Γουόρντ" και στην συνέχεια με το απαιτητικό αλλά σίγουρα μαγευτικό "Στα βουνά της τρέλας". Πέρυσι διάβασα και την ανθολογία των εκδόσεων Jemma Press με τον τίτλο "Σκιές πάνω από το Ίννσμουθ", που με την σειρά της μου έκανε πάρα πολύ καλή εντύπωση.
Τώρα, όσον αφορά την νουβέλα που μόλις τελείωσα, οφείλω να παραδεχτώ ότι με κούρασε λιγάκι σε κάποια σημεία και, ας πούμε, δεν μου φάνηκε το ίδιο ψυχαγωγική με τις υπόλοιπες ιστορίες του Λάβκραφτ. Όχι ότι δεν μου άρεσε ή ότι δεν είχε ψωμί η υπόθεση. Αλίμονο, η ιδέα μου φάνηκε εξαιρετικά ενδιαφέρουσα και ιντριγκαδόρικη και οι περισσότερες περιγραφές κατάφεραν να δημιουργήσουν κάποιες μοναδικές εικόνες. Απλά, δεν ξέρω, μου φάνηκε ότι είχε αρκετό μπλα μπλα και μπόλικες πομπώδεις εκφράσεις για το μέγεθος της ιστορίας. Και δεν ένιωσα ιδιαίτερες ανατριχίλες όπως στις προηγούμενες φορές.
Ίσως να φταίει που δεν είχα και την κατάλληλη διάθεση, ποιος ξέρει. Πάντως οφείλω να παραδεχτώ ότι πέρασα "καλά", απόλαυσα ιδέες, ατμόσφαιρα και εικόνες. Απλά σαν ιστορία θέλει υπομονή και την κατάλληλη διάθεση εκ μέρους του αναγνώστη. Πιστεύω ότι αξίζει και μια και δυο αναγνώσεις (όπως κάθε ιστορία του συγγραφέα, φυσικά).
Τώρα, όσον αφορά την νουβέλα που μόλις τελείωσα, οφείλω να παραδεχτώ ότι με κούρασε λιγάκι σε κάποια σημεία και, ας πούμε, δεν μου φάνηκε το ίδιο ψυχαγωγική με τις υπόλοιπες ιστορίες του Λάβκραφτ. Όχι ότι δεν μου άρεσε ή ότι δεν είχε ψωμί η υπόθεση. Αλίμονο, η ιδέα μου φάνηκε εξαιρετικά ενδιαφέρουσα και ιντριγκαδόρικη και οι περισσότερες περιγραφές κατάφεραν να δημιουργήσουν κάποιες μοναδικές εικόνες. Απλά, δεν ξέρω, μου φάνηκε ότι είχε αρκετό μπλα μπλα και μπόλικες πομπώδεις εκφράσεις για το μέγεθος της ιστορίας. Και δεν ένιωσα ιδιαίτερες ανατριχίλες όπως στις προηγούμενες φορές.
Ίσως να φταίει που δεν είχα και την κατάλληλη διάθεση, ποιος ξέρει. Πάντως οφείλω να παραδεχτώ ότι πέρασα "καλά", απόλαυσα ιδέες, ατμόσφαιρα και εικόνες. Απλά σαν ιστορία θέλει υπομονή και την κατάλληλη διάθεση εκ μέρους του αναγνώστη. Πιστεύω ότι αξίζει και μια και δυο αναγνώσεις (όπως κάθε ιστορία του συγγραφέα, φυσικά).
December 17, 2018
Lo que más ha gustado del libro es la forma en la que trata el viaje en el tiempo. El tipo de viaje que plantea Lovecraft hace te suba un escalofrío por la espalda. Otra cosa a destacar es la mezcla continua entre sueño y realidad. Hablaría de otro punto fuerte de la historia pero creo que si lo hago haría spoiler y prefiero guardármelo :P. No le pongo las cinco estrellas porque en ocasiones sentía que el texto repetía cosas que ya me había dicho o mostrado. No es que eso moleste en exceso pero ralentiza el ritmo de forma injustificada.
July 12, 2018
Lovecraft apparently wasn’t satisfied with this novella – one of his final works - but I, as many others before me, think it’s brilliant.
Several interesting concepts are present: from a different perception of time to dreams as a learning experience and/or a portal to a different world and/or forgotten memories. Above all, I found amusing how for him, horror is external (an alien civilization, a different body, etc) and not internal (your own mind tricking you), which instead I deem simply terrifying.
Several interesting concepts are present: from a different perception of time to dreams as a learning experience and/or a portal to a different world and/or forgotten memories. Above all, I found amusing how for him, horror is external (an alien civilization, a different body, etc) and not internal (your own mind tricking you), which instead I deem simply terrifying.
November 12, 2021
This is the final tale written by Lovecraft. It follows the tale of a professor of political economics that is thrown into a mind-shattering journey through time and space while his body is held hostage by an alien mind. Horrified and panic-stricken by the implications of his experiences, he hopes against all reason and evidence that he has merely lost his mind.
It reads like an advanced dream quest tale, the most intricate and mature of its kind. It's not the best of Lovecraft's tales, but it's definitely among them. At least the original master of horror went out with a bang.
***
If you're looking for some dark ambient music for reading horror, dark fantasy and other books like this one, then be sure to check out my YouTube Channel called Nightmarish Compositions: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs...
It reads like an advanced dream quest tale, the most intricate and mature of its kind. It's not the best of Lovecraft's tales, but it's definitely among them. At least the original master of horror went out with a bang.
***
If you're looking for some dark ambient music for reading horror, dark fantasy and other books like this one, then be sure to check out my YouTube Channel called Nightmarish Compositions: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs...
December 31, 2020
Finally! Nice to get some time where after weeks of the things that life insists we need to do l got to read this in one sitting.
Lovecrafts great appeal for many is apart from the incredible cosmic horror is the travelogues. Evil moons and cool breezes with a shifting sands hiding cyclopean structures it's all here with from the original manuscript with no changes.
Worth every minute of time... and space.
December 2020... Love this story and just had to read it again.
Lovecrafts great appeal for many is apart from the incredible cosmic horror is the travelogues. Evil moons and cool breezes with a shifting sands hiding cyclopean structures it's all here with from the original manuscript with no changes.
Worth every minute of time... and space.
December 2020... Love this story and just had to read it again.
September 24, 2016
This story was a re-read. And it just as good as the first time I read it years ago.
May 3, 2016
Can't express how much I enjoyed reading this. I actually picked up this expecting an Horror novella, but it's actually one of the few works of Lovecraft that has a very strong Sci-Fi vibe and actually no disturbing or terror aspect, at least comparing to some of his other works.
The premise is amazing: a professor of economics is giving his usual lecture when he starts having visions and collapses. He returns to "normal" 5 years later without any memories, but "he" was actually traveling the globe in search of obscure libraries, books and hidden cults.
Suddenly, speaking in the middle of nowhere, the professor continues his economical lecture that he was giving his class 5 years ago.
And then he starts having dreams about alien beings, worlds and buildings, each time becoming more and more real.
Turns out he was possessed by one of the Yith, an extraterrestrial species with the ability to travel through space and time. And not only to the past, but to the future as well. They possess someone, and this someone is sent back (or forward) in time to the body of the Yith.
This allowed this race to create a library of all the knowledge available in the universe, both from the past and the future. The person who is now inhabiting the body of one of the Yith can talk with other Yith or possessed aliens from other worlds or time periods and even access the library of the Yith.
Sometimes this gets disastrous results when the host returns to his world, be it the future or the past, with their forbidden knowledge.
But this is not the only use of this ability. For example, the Yith all migrated to another planet by switching minds with another race when their home planet was about to be destroyed. So they moved to live, and the other race was left to die in their original bodies.
Imagine you are going about your daily routine and the next moment you are in an alien body, staring up at the sky and see a freaking meteor or the sun approaching, no possibility of salvation. You are gonna die, and you are not even allowed to be yourself at that moment. Disturbingly awesome.
Even more disturbing is that the Yith will transfer their minds to Earth at some point to save themselves again. But not with us humans, but with the race that will inherit the planet after we are gone. It's subtle, but we can only guess what terrible calamity will happen to us that the planet will still be inhabitable, but we are no longer here.
The psychic time travel would be considered today a great "magic system" and Lovecraft naturally imbues this race with it.
Just look at some passages:
Speaking of the races (and places) described, I'm not sure if even Lovecraft himself understood what he was describing. Probably intentional.
Mostly, new races in Fantasy that I have read assume humanoid or animal-humanoid shapes. No such thing here remotely resembling anything familiar. Things are truly... alien.
This also has a nice ending. It may be a bit slow on some parts, but the set up is definitely worth it. It's also pretty short (around 70 pages).
So totally recommended.
The premise is amazing: a professor of economics is giving his usual lecture when he starts having visions and collapses. He returns to "normal" 5 years later without any memories, but "he" was actually traveling the globe in search of obscure libraries, books and hidden cults.
Suddenly, speaking in the middle of nowhere, the professor continues his economical lecture that he was giving his class 5 years ago.
And then he starts having dreams about alien beings, worlds and buildings, each time becoming more and more real.
Turns out he was possessed by one of the Yith, an extraterrestrial species with the ability to travel through space and time. And not only to the past, but to the future as well. They possess someone, and this someone is sent back (or forward) in time to the body of the Yith.
This allowed this race to create a library of all the knowledge available in the universe, both from the past and the future. The person who is now inhabiting the body of one of the Yith can talk with other Yith or possessed aliens from other worlds or time periods and even access the library of the Yith.
Sometimes this gets disastrous results when the host returns to his world, be it the future or the past, with their forbidden knowledge.
But this is not the only use of this ability. For example, the Yith all migrated to another planet by switching minds with another race when their home planet was about to be destroyed. So they moved to live, and the other race was left to die in their original bodies.
Imagine you are going about your daily routine and the next moment you are in an alien body, staring up at the sky and see a freaking meteor or the sun approaching, no possibility of salvation. You are gonna die, and you are not even allowed to be yourself at that moment. Disturbingly awesome.
Even more disturbing is that the Yith will transfer their minds to Earth at some point to save themselves again. But not with us humans, but with the race that will inherit the planet after we are gone. It's subtle, but we can only guess what terrible calamity will happen to us that the planet will still be inhabitable, but we are no longer here.
The psychic time travel would be considered today a great "magic system" and Lovecraft naturally imbues this race with it.
Just look at some passages:
Speaking of the races (and places) described, I'm not sure if even Lovecraft himself understood what he was describing. Probably intentional.
Mostly, new races in Fantasy that I have read assume humanoid or animal-humanoid shapes. No such thing here remotely resembling anything familiar. Things are truly... alien.
This also has a nice ending. It may be a bit slow on some parts, but the set up is definitely worth it. It's also pretty short (around 70 pages).
So totally recommended.
October 20, 2012
The shadow our of time is basically a prequel to a prequel, since it gives the reader the backstory to "At The Mountains of Madness", and that story gives the backstory to"The Call of Cthulhu". As such, this story is best suited for the true Lovecraft devotee. It's also told as an extended flashback, which lessens the dramatic impact. However, the story still has plenty of payoffs. It's full of "oh, that's what that was" moments for those who are familiar with the Mythos, and it develops the idea if The Great Race of Yith, which is *completely insane*. This story is a must-read for the true Lovecraft fan.
October 29, 2023
Another level of cold dark science fiction
woo -- (10)°35 * o -- ow
woo -- (10)°35 * o -- ow
November 19, 2024
Mouais... finalement on ne sait pas vraiment à la fin, c'est un peu décevant.
September 22, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5)
The Shadow Out of Time is one of Lovecraft’s brainier tales—less monsters, more cosmic “what ifs.” The whole mind-swap-with-aliens premise is creepy and fascinating, and the final descent into ruins is genuinely unsettling.
That said, it drags in the middle with heavy info-dumps and Peaslee is more lecture than character. Still, the imagination and eerie atmosphere make it a solid read—ambitious, unsettling, and very “classic Lovecraft.”
The Shadow Out of Time is one of Lovecraft’s brainier tales—less monsters, more cosmic “what ifs.” The whole mind-swap-with-aliens premise is creepy and fascinating, and the final descent into ruins is genuinely unsettling.
That said, it drags in the middle with heavy info-dumps and Peaslee is more lecture than character. Still, the imagination and eerie atmosphere make it a solid read—ambitious, unsettling, and very “classic Lovecraft.”
October 16, 2024
Amazing imagery and just the right length! This is definitely one of Lovecraft’s bests! 🍿
June 13, 2020
Το συνεργατικό διήγημα ήταν απίστευτα βαρετό και σκέτο άρλεκιν, κατά τη γνώμη μου. Το μικρουλάκι στην παραλία Μάρτιν χαριτωμένο, ίσως εκτός των συνηθισμένων του HPL, λόγω της δράσης, αλλά και μάλλον λιγότερο δουλεμένο από άλλα του κείμενα. Τα δύο μεγαλύτερα...
Γουέλ. Τα δύο μεγαλύτερα έχουν την κλασσική λαβκραφτιανή φόρμα: ξεκινούν με υπόνοιες τρόμου, συνεχίζουν με μεγάλα κατεβατά ιστορικών λεπτομερειών (σχετικών με την ιστορία του συγκεκριμένου σπιτιού και του συγκεκριμένου ατόμου) κι εκεί που λες εντάξει, όπου να 'ναι το λήγει, ανακαλύπτεις ότι ακόμα έχεις πολλές σελίδες για το τέλος κι αναρωτιέσαι τι πρόκειται να πει. Και το λέει όπως πρέπει.
Παρόμοια φόρμα συνειδητοποίησα πως έχει και ο Ίσκιος πάνω από το Ίνσμουθ.
Γι' αυτό πρέπει να διαβάζουμε τους αγαπημένους μας δύο φορές, μία όταν τους ανακαλύπτουμε και μία μετά από χρόνια, όταν έχουμε ωριμάσει ως αναγνώστες. Για να ανακαλύπτουμε νέες πτυχές του λογοτεχνικού τους ταλέντου.
Γιατί μείον ένα αστεράκι: γιατί η επιμέλεια είναι απάλευτη. Λέξεις που λείπουν, λάθη ορθογραφικά. Ειδικά εκεί που λέει ότι το Λιθανθρακοφόρο είναι πριν από 30 εκατομμύρια χρόνια (350 έπρεπε να λέει), μάτωσα λιγάκι, ως πτυχιούχος γεωλόγος. Κι ας με είχε κάνει να πέσω στα πατώματα νωρίτερα ο ίδιος ο συγγραφέας, βάζοντας τη δράση στην Πιλμπάρα της Αυστραλίας, όπου απαντώνται μερικά από τα αρχαιότερα πετρώματα στη γη (2,7 δις χρόνια, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilbara... ). Καρδούλες, από κάθε γεωλόγο, για τον θείο Χάουαρντ.
Γουέλ. Τα δύο μεγαλύτερα έχουν την κλασσική λαβκραφτιανή φόρμα: ξεκινούν με υπόνοιες τρόμου, συνεχίζουν με μεγάλα κατεβατά ιστορικών λεπτομερειών (σχετικών με την ιστορία του συγκεκριμένου σπιτιού και του συγκεκριμένου ατόμου) κι εκεί που λες εντάξει, όπου να 'ναι το λήγει, ανακαλύπτεις ότι ακόμα έχεις πολλές σελίδες για το τέλος κι αναρωτιέσαι τι πρόκειται να πει. Και το λέει όπως πρέπει.
Παρόμοια φόρμα συνειδητοποίησα πως έχει και ο Ίσκιος πάνω από το Ίνσμουθ.
Γι' αυτό πρέπει να διαβάζουμε τους αγαπημένους μας δύο φορές, μία όταν τους ανακαλύπτουμε και μία μετά από χρόνια, όταν έχουμε ωριμάσει ως αναγνώστες. Για να ανακαλύπτουμε νέες πτυχές του λογοτεχνικού τους ταλέντου.
Γιατί μείον ένα αστεράκι: γιατί η επιμέλεια είναι απάλευτη. Λέξεις που λείπουν, λάθη ορθογραφικά. Ειδικά εκεί που λέει ότι το Λιθανθρακοφόρο είναι πριν από 30 εκατομμύρια χρόνια (350 έπρεπε να λέει), μάτωσα λιγάκι, ως πτυχιούχος γεωλόγος. Κι ας με είχε κάνει να πέσω στα πατώματα νωρίτερα ο ίδιος ο συγγραφέας, βάζοντας τη δράση στην Πιλμπάρα της Αυστραλίας, όπου απαντώνται μερικά από τα αρχαιότερα πετρώματα στη γη (2,7 δις χρόνια, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilbara... ). Καρδούλες, από κάθε γεωλόγο, για τον θείο Χάουαρντ.
January 1, 2013
Part of the
Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft
, which can be found formatted for Nook and Kindle on CthulhuChick.com.
Synopsis: A young professor from the fictional Miskatonic University learns that aliens, the Yith, are possessing the bodies of humans to learn about the history and culture of the Earth. He soon becomes convinced that he is also possessed, but those around him fear he is simply insane..
My Thoughts: Ultimately, this novella affected me more strongly than any of them in the omnibus. The sense of deja vu that the narrator experiences through most of the story resounded strongly with me, due to my own experiences of repeating dreams, long periods of deja vu, and strange knowledge I have that I should not know. So, to be frank, this story really freaked me out. Beautiful!
Synopsis: A young professor from the fictional Miskatonic University learns that aliens, the Yith, are possessing the bodies of humans to learn about the history and culture of the Earth. He soon becomes convinced that he is also possessed, but those around him fear he is simply insane..
My Thoughts: Ultimately, this novella affected me more strongly than any of them in the omnibus. The sense of deja vu that the narrator experiences through most of the story resounded strongly with me, due to my own experiences of repeating dreams, long periods of deja vu, and strange knowledge I have that I should not know. So, to be frank, this story really freaked me out. Beautiful!
June 19, 2016
One of the first remarkable sf novels,written at the end of the life of Lovecraft and framed in the Lovecrafts miytology.
Is a mix of oniric,fantasy,terror and sf novel,a tale of cosmic sf and horror,with beings of other universes,beings able of sending minds and abducing minds trough time,entityes that mastered projecting minds in time, future and past.
Beings that build a civlization in the Permic age but that was also tormented by a more ancient semimaterial beings.
A novel told in first person by a human abducted mind,describing the world of the ancient alien strange civilization ,a world of amazing colossal partial underground costructions that persisted buried for eons.
As many works of Lovecraft the frontier between sanity and madness is thin and the question if the tale is real or fruit of a tormented mind is open.
A original sf novel that not aged at all,a entertaining read with the inconfundible taste of Lovecraft
Is a mix of oniric,fantasy,terror and sf novel,a tale of cosmic sf and horror,with beings of other universes,beings able of sending minds and abducing minds trough time,entityes that mastered projecting minds in time, future and past.
Beings that build a civlization in the Permic age but that was also tormented by a more ancient semimaterial beings.
A novel told in first person by a human abducted mind,describing the world of the ancient alien strange civilization ,a world of amazing colossal partial underground costructions that persisted buried for eons.
As many works of Lovecraft the frontier between sanity and madness is thin and the question if the tale is real or fruit of a tormented mind is open.
A original sf novel that not aged at all,a entertaining read with the inconfundible taste of Lovecraft
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