“Dagon” by Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Do you love horror, thrillers? Don’t like long stories? Do you like an unusual story and a talented writer’s style that can tell a whole story for a movie on 5 pages? Then this 5-page horror story is for you. I will briefly tell you about the author and a little about the plot. I will also share new words that you need to learn to read a book without a dictionary. Let’s start!

Howard is an American writer and journalist who has worked in the horror, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction genres, combining them in an original style. His work is so unique that the works of Lovecraft stand out in a separate subgenre — the so-called Lovecraft horror. The core of Lovecraft’s work is Cthulhu myths — works united by a kind of common mythology.

During Lovecraft’s lifetime, his works were not very popular and were published in cheap tabloid magazines, but after his death, they had a huge impact not only on the formation of modern horror literature, but also on world popular culture as a whole.

“Dagon” is one of the stories of the writer’s early work. For the first time, it shows the main motive of Lovecraft’s work — the main character’s awareness of the insignificance of humanity in a world dominated by hidden forces.

The whole story is a suicide note of a man who saw Dagon — an ancient sea deity, the God of fish. If I retell the whole story, you will not be interested in reading it. So, I will just say my impressions.

This work made a huge impression on me. I will definitely read other works by this author. In my opinion, the meaning of this story is not only that man is powerless against higher forces, but also that a war is bad. The story shows that someone will definitely come and destroy humanity if something terrible happens on the planet — in this case, war. Man must remember that he was created not to be evil and insignificant, but for good deeds.

Everyone will have their own impressions after this story. But no doubt it will make you think. Read it!

Oh, new words!

• mental strain — душевное напряжение
• slavery — зависимость
• fairness — обходительность
• whilst — во время
• nauseating (fear) — тошнотворный (страх), поднимающийся к горлу страх
• ere — прежде чем, до, перед
• to edure — выдерживать
• phantasm — фантом
• the realm of darkness — царство тьмы
• the glow of the moon — сияние луны