”The Thing On The Doorstep”
Author: H.P. Lovecraft
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”The Thing On The Doorstep” is a short horror story written by H.P. Lovecraft and was first published in 1937 in an issue of ”Weird Tales”. It is part of the Cthulhu Mythos. This represents one of about 59 short stories written by Mr. Lovecraft and deals with the topic of body possession through soul transfer.

The story is narrated by the character of Daniel Upton and begins with his confession to the reader that he killed his good friend Edward Derby. He then moves on to the explanation of everything that happened.

He describes his friend Edward as younger than himself and very talented, intelligent and shy. His parents were over-protective of him for reasons described as ”organic weaknesses” and would not let him go to Harvard like Daniel, or do anything remotely dangerous. So he went to a local university called Miskatonic University and delved into all kinds of books, even the occult. Edward meets a girl named Asenath Waite and marries her.

As the story develops we learn that Asenath and her father (Ephraim) practice some kind of black magic and Edward becomes the victim of a strange type of soul transfer. Edward seems to suffer from bouts of what we would call today ”multiple personality disorder”. The real Edward seems helpless and terrified. Daniel listens to him and even believes what Edward tells him and what he sees even though it is beyond the fantastic. So by murdering the body of Edward, Daniel exacted revenge on Ephraim and Asenath for having stolen his body.

In the story, Asenath (whose name means ”belonging to the father” in biblical texts) was from a fishing town named Innsmouth and the residents of that town had a dubious reputation around New England for witchcraft and unholy bargainings with demons. Although Asenath was only 23 and Edward was 38years old when they met, edward was in over his head. His curiousity of the occult pulled him into a bad situation with a bad woman.

Mr. Lovecraft does a brilliant job of giving the story a very eerie feeling. The narrator´s interaction with Edward and the descriptions of Asenath are so creepy and Edward´s tale is so convincing. At the same time Mr. Lovecraft makes the unraveling mystery of Edward so captivating. This story is strange and captivating.

It is worth reading especially for those who love horror. You´ll enjoy it.

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