The Statement of Randolph Carter
Encyclopedia
"The Statement of Randolph Carter" is a short story
by H. P. Lovecraft
. Written December 1919
, it was first published in The Vagrant, May 1920
. It tells of a traumatic event in the life of Randolph Carter
, a student of the occult loosely representing Lovecraft himself.
It is the first story in which Carter appears and is part of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle
.
An account of the actual dream Lovecraft had can be found in one of his letters to August Derleth
.
.
Warren has come into the possession of a book written in an unknown language that he forbids Carter from seeing. Carter mentions that Warren has other "strange, rare books on forbidden subjects", several of which are in Arabic.
From his mysterious book, Warren apparently deduces that doors or stairways exist between the surface world and the underworld through which demons may travel. He encourages Carter to travel with him to the location of one such portal, an ancient graveyard near Big Cypress Swamp. Upon arriving, Warren locates a particular tomb and opens it to reveal a staircase that descends into the earth. Taking a lantern, he leaves Carter on the surface and follows the stairs into the darkness, communicating with his companion by a telephone wire.
After several minutes of silence, Warren suddenly begins to make vague, panicked outbursts that culminate in a desperate plea for Carter to flee. Finally, after Warren is silent for several minutes, Carter calls to him down the line, only to hear an alien voice telling him that Warren is dead.
places the events of the story after those of The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and before "The Unnamable
" or "The Silver Key".
In the dream upon which the story was based, Lovecraft himself had the role played by Carter in the story.
Carter describes Warren as having a "vast collection of strange, rare books on forbidden subjects," many of them apparently in Arabic, with one "fiend-inspired book...written in characters whose like I never saw elsewhere."
In the dream that inspired the story, the Warren character was actually Lovecraft's friend Samuel Loveman. Loveman also figured in the dream that became the prose poem "Nyarlathotep
".
Warren is referred to in other Lovecraft stories. In "The Silver Key
", he is alluded to as "a man in the south, who was shunned and feared for the blaspemous things he read in prehistoric books and clay tablets smuggled from India and Arabia." In "Through the Gates of the Silver Key
", he is revealed to have come from South Carolina
, and to have been an expert linguist of the primal Naacal
language of the Himalayas
.
Warren is also mentioned in Brian Lumley
's Titus Crow
series, as a member of a Bostonian group of psychics.
Several actors in cinematic renditions of "The Statement of Randolph Carter" have portrayed Harley Warren, the most notable of them being John Rhys-Davies
.
This theme is most famously stated in "The Call of Cthulhu
": "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
. Written December 1919
1919 in literature
The year 1919 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain return to Somerville College, Oxford, to complete their education following war service.*Two paintings by E. E...
, it was first published in The Vagrant, May 1920
1920 in literature
The year 1920 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Agatha Christie publishes her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introducing the long-running character detective, Hercule Poirot....
. It tells of a traumatic event in the life of Randolph Carter
Randolph Carter
Randolph Carter is a recurring protagonist in H. P. Lovecraft'sfiction and a thinly disguised alter ego of Lovecraft himself. The first tale in which Carter appears--"The Statement of Randolph Carter" --is based on one of Lovecraft's dreams....
, a student of the occult loosely representing Lovecraft himself.
It is the first story in which Carter appears and is part of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle
Dream Cycle
The Dream Cycle refers to a series of stories by author H. P. Lovecraft. These stories concern themselves with "The Dreamlands": a vast, alternate dimension that can be entered via dreams.-Geography:The Dreamlands is apparently divided into four regions:...
.
Inspiration
Lovecraft based the story on a dream that he transcribed, adding only a preamble to make it more fluid as a narrative, and wrote it in the form of a testimony given to the police.An account of the actual dream Lovecraft had can be found in one of his letters to August Derleth
August Derleth
August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...
.
Synopsis
"The Statement of Randolph Carter" is the first person, apparently verbatim, testimony of the titular character, who has been found wandering through swampland in an amnesiac shock. In his statement, Carter attempts to explain the disappearance of his companion, the occultist Harley WarrenHarley Warren
Harley Warren is a mysterious occultist who appears in H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Statement of Randolph Carter" as a friend of Carter . He apparently perishes while exploring an underground crypt in Big Cypress Swamp, leaving Carter above, unharmed but mentally shaken...
.
Warren has come into the possession of a book written in an unknown language that he forbids Carter from seeing. Carter mentions that Warren has other "strange, rare books on forbidden subjects", several of which are in Arabic.
From his mysterious book, Warren apparently deduces that doors or stairways exist between the surface world and the underworld through which demons may travel. He encourages Carter to travel with him to the location of one such portal, an ancient graveyard near Big Cypress Swamp. Upon arriving, Warren locates a particular tomb and opens it to reveal a staircase that descends into the earth. Taking a lantern, he leaves Carter on the surface and follows the stairs into the darkness, communicating with his companion by a telephone wire.
After several minutes of silence, Warren suddenly begins to make vague, panicked outbursts that culminate in a desperate plea for Carter to flee. Finally, after Warren is silent for several minutes, Carter calls to him down the line, only to hear an alien voice telling him that Warren is dead.
Randolph Carter
Randolph Carter is one of Lovecraft's most commonly recurring characters. An H. P. Lovecraft EncyclopediaAn H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia
An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia is a reference work written by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. It covers the life and work of American horror fiction writer H. P...
places the events of the story after those of The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and before "The Unnamable
The Unnamable (short story)
"The Unnamable" is a short story by science fiction and horror author H. P. Lovecraft. It was written in September of 1923 and was first published in the July 1925 issue of Weird Tales.-Plot summary:...
" or "The Silver Key".
In the dream upon which the story was based, Lovecraft himself had the role played by Carter in the story.
Harley Warren
Harley Warren is a mysterious occultist who apparently perishes while exploring an underground crypt in Big Cypress Swamp. After his disappearance, Randolph Carter tells police that "I have for five years been his closest friend, and a partial sharer of his terrible researches into the unknown." Warren, he says, "always dominated me, and sometimes I feared him." He mentions a facial expression of Warren's that caused him to shudder. Warren himself suggests that he sees himself as someone with "ironclad sensibilities".Carter describes Warren as having a "vast collection of strange, rare books on forbidden subjects," many of them apparently in Arabic, with one "fiend-inspired book...written in characters whose like I never saw elsewhere."
In the dream that inspired the story, the Warren character was actually Lovecraft's friend Samuel Loveman. Loveman also figured in the dream that became the prose poem "Nyarlathotep
Nyarlathotep (short story)
"Nyarlathotep" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft written in 1920, and first published in the November 1920 issue of The United Amateur. It is the first mention in fiction of the Cthulhu Mythos entity Nyarlathotep.-Synopsis:...
".
Warren is referred to in other Lovecraft stories. In "The Silver Key
The Silver Key
"The Silver Key" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft in 1926, considered part of his Dreamlands series. It was first published in the January 1929 issue of Weird Tales. It was followed by a sequel, "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", co-written with E...
", he is alluded to as "a man in the south, who was shunned and feared for the blaspemous things he read in prehistoric books and clay tablets smuggled from India and Arabia." In "Through the Gates of the Silver Key
Through the Gates of the Silver Key
"Through the Gates of the Silver Key" is a short story co-written by H. P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffmann Price between October 1932 and April 1933. A sequel to Lovecraft's "The Silver Key", and part of a sequence of stories focusing on Randolph Carter, it was first published in the July 1934 issue of...
", he is revealed to have come from South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, and to have been an expert linguist of the primal Naacal
Naacal
Naacal is the name of an ancient people and civilization claimed to have existed by first Augustus Le Plongeon and later James Churchward. Though there is no scientific or archaeological evidence for the existence of the Naacals, various later fictional works have made use of them.-Augustus Le...
language of the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
.
Warren is also mentioned in Brian Lumley
Brian Lumley
Brian Lumley is an English horror fiction writer.Born in County Durham, he joined the British Army's Royal Military Police and wrote stories in his spare time before retiring with the rank of Warrant Officer Class 1 in 1980 and becoming a professional writer.He added to H. P...
's Titus Crow
Titus Crow
Titus Crow is the main character in the eponymous series of horror fiction books by Brian Lumley. The books are based on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.-Description:...
series, as a member of a Bostonian group of psychics.
Several actors in cinematic renditions of "The Statement of Randolph Carter" have portrayed Harley Warren, the most notable of them being John Rhys-Davies
John Rhys-Davies
John Rhys-Davies is a Welsh actor and voice actor. He is perhaps best known for playing the charismatic Arab excavator Sallah in the Indiana Jones films and the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy...
.
Connections
The story contains an early statement of a common theme of Lovecraft's—the terrible price of knowledge:- As to the nature of our studies--must I say again that I no longer retain full comprehension? It seems to me rather merciful that I do not, for they were terrible studies, which I pursued more through reluctant fascination than through actual inclination.
This theme is most famously stated in "The Call of Cthulhu
The Call of Cthulhu
The Call of Cthulhu is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in the summer of 1926, it was first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales, in February 1928.-Inspiration:...
": "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
Film
The novel has inspired several films;- Kammaren (2007)
- 13:de mars, 1941 (2004)
- The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph CarterThe Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph CarterThe Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter is a 1993 horror film. It incorporates elements from the short story "The Statement of Randolph Carter" by H.P...
(1993) - The Testimony of Randolph Carter
Other media
- "The Case Of Randolph Carter" http://www.hypergrafia.com/carter/ is an interactive fiction version of the story with alternate endings http://grandtextauto.gatech.edu/2007/02/08/dead-if-lies-dreaming/