for some period of greater leisure, a sort of dynastic chronicle in fictional
form, dealing with the hereditary mysteries and destinies of generations of an
ancient New England family, tainted and cursed down the diminishing generations
with some grewsome variant of lycanthropy. It was to be his magnum
opus, embodying the results of his profound researches in the occult
legends of that grim and secret country which he knew so well, but apparently
the outline was just beginning to crystallize in his mind, and I doubt if
he left even a rough draft of his plan."
Edkins, Ernest A. "Idiosyncracies of H. P. L." In LOVECRAFT REMEMBERED. Ed. Peter Cannon. (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1998). Pages 94-95.
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Biss, Gerald. THE DOOR OF THE UNREAL. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1920First U.S. edition. Werewolf novel, first published in Britain by Eveleigh Nash in 1919, praised by H. P. Lovecraft in his Supernatural Horror in Literature (1945).
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The Door of the Unreal was inspired by Dracula. It features the same plot structure, a group of brave men trying to save a beautiful woman from the clutches of evil monsters.
H. P. Lovecraft wrote of it in "The Superntural Horror in Literature" : "Dracula evoked many similar novels of supernatural horror, among which the best are perhaps The Beetle, by Richard Marsh, Brood of the Witch-Queen, by "Sax Rohmer" (Arthur Sarsfield Ward), and The Door of the Unreal, by Gerald Biss.
2 comments:
It's a pity he died so soon. I'm sure would wrote more amazing stories. Does lycanthropy appears in any of his works?
Lycanthropy (in HP Lovecraft_ plays a small part in The Shunned House available free at dagonbytes
Excerpt: Later I heard that a similar notion entered into some of the wild ancient tales of the common folk - a notion likewise alluding to ghoulish, wolfish shapes taken by smoke from the great chimney, and queer contours assumed by certain of the sinuous tree-roots that thrust their way into the cellar through the loose foundation-stones.
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