The colour out of space
by H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937)
- Free to read
- 50 min read
- Reading level: 7th grade
"The colour out of space" by H. P. Lovecraft is a science fiction/horror short story written in March 1927. A surveyor investigates a cursed area called the "blasted heath" near Arkham, Massachusetts, uncovering the tale of a mysterious meteorite that crashed decades earlier. The impact unleashed something alien and incomprehensible that poisoned the land, corrupted all living things, and drove a farming family to madness and death. Something unnatural still lingers in the contaminated soil.
- Science fiction
- Horror tales
- Extraterrestrial beings
- Human-alien encounters
- Farmers
- Families
- Meteorites
Read the opening
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Amazing Stories September 1927.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
_Here is a totally different story that we can
highly recommend to you. We could wax rhapsodical
in our praise, as the story is one of the finest
pieces of literature it has been our good fortune to
read. The theme is original, and yet fantastic
enough to make it rise head and shoulders above
many contemporary scientifiction stories. You will
not regret having read this marvellous tale._
West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight. On the gentler slopes there are farms, ancient and rocky, with squat, moss-coated cottages brooding eternally over old New England secrets in the lee of great ledges; but these are all vacant now, the wide chimneys crumbling and the shingled sides bulging perilously beneath low gambrel roofs.
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About this edition
This free edition of The colour out of space by H. P. Lovecraft comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #68236, released 2022-06-04. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Short Stories, Science-Fiction & Fantasy.
Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).
