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The Horror in the Museum
Locked up for the night, a man will discover the difference between waxen grotesqueries and the real thing.
38 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
44 people want to read
About the author
Hazel Heald
52 books3 followersHazel Heald (1896–1961) was a pulp fiction writer, who lived in Somerville, Massachusetts. She is perhaps best known for collaborating with American horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_H...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_H...
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 16, 2023
It's been a long time, but "The Horror in the Museum" was unnerving. Lovecraft's ability to accurately describe horror did/has and will always send shivers up my spine.
To be perfectly honest this short left me rather shaken.
Slowly paced this takes its time digging deep into your depths and then revealing itself.
You haven't experienced this short and are a fan of the Mythos, I suggest you give it a go.
To be perfectly honest this short left me rather shaken.
Slowly paced this takes its time digging deep into your depths and then revealing itself.
You haven't experienced this short and are a fan of the Mythos, I suggest you give it a go.
September 27, 2016
Anyone who reads this story is in for a treat.
May 5, 2022
Typical Lovecraft short story, I’d give it something between 3-3,5 unknowable voids.
Not bad, but certainly not one of his best. To this reader, the plot and ‘shock’ twists feel rather predictable (in all fairness, it’s because they’ve been aped by a lot of horror films), and the characters are your standard issue Lovecraft types:
- the rational male protagonist who is about to be shocked to his core,
- the erratic male occultist, blinded by desire for power
- an unsettling and rude ‘foreigner’, scarier than any of the actual unfathomable monsters
- a cameo of the infamous and rare Necronomicon (gasp!),
- a gargantuan host of adjectives like ‘cyclopean’ and ‘globular’
And finally:
a bunch of creatures from outer space. As usual, no women were harmed in the making of this story. :’)
This one truly feels like a “cinematic universe” kind of story. The museum has a host of beings that individually surfaced in other tales before, ranging from night-gaunts to Cthulhu himself (apparently he worked as a wax doll in a museum for some time—we all have to fill our CV somehow after all). I’m quite allergic to the self-indulgent liberties of “cinematic universe” stories, and it did not do any favours to this one either. It feels too referential and, given the museum setting, it seems almost like Lovecraft was fanboying over his own mythos. Lovecraft seems to be better when he’s writing focused stories that only have 1-2 kinds of monsters.
Not bad, but certainly not one of his best. To this reader, the plot and ‘shock’ twists feel rather predictable (in all fairness, it’s because they’ve been aped by a lot of horror films), and the characters are your standard issue Lovecraft types:
- the rational male protagonist who is about to be shocked to his core,
- the erratic male occultist, blinded by desire for power
- an unsettling and rude ‘foreigner’, scarier than any of the actual unfathomable monsters
- a cameo of the infamous and rare Necronomicon (gasp!),
- a gargantuan host of adjectives like ‘cyclopean’ and ‘globular’
And finally:
a bunch of creatures from outer space. As usual, no women were harmed in the making of this story. :’)
This one truly feels like a “cinematic universe” kind of story. The museum has a host of beings that individually surfaced in other tales before, ranging from night-gaunts to Cthulhu himself (apparently he worked as a wax doll in a museum for some time—we all have to fill our CV somehow after all). I’m quite allergic to the self-indulgent liberties of “cinematic universe” stories, and it did not do any favours to this one either. It feels too referential and, given the museum setting, it seems almost like Lovecraft was fanboying over his own mythos. Lovecraft seems to be better when he’s writing focused stories that only have 1-2 kinds of monsters.
May 10, 2020
3.5 George Rogers reads forbidden books and has traveled to unknown parts collecting things. He is also a former employee of Madame Tussaud's and is now the proprietor of his own wax museum which makes her museum look pale in comparison. Along comes Stephen Jones whose curiosity is piqued. As this is a Lovecraft story we know that nothing good can come of this. Would you spend the night in a creepy museum that is owned by someone who you think is going mad? Typical Lovecraft. Audible version narrated by Ian Gordon.
May 7, 2022
Lovecraft #84:The Horror in the Museum (with Hazel Heald)
[Rhan-Tegoth by Borja Pindado]
The Horror in the Museum is arguably the 84th oldest extant story by American weird fiction author Howard Philips Lovecraft (1890-1937) and his second in collaboration with Hazel Heald (1896 – 1961). I am in the process of reading all of HPL’s fictional works in chronological order. In a letter to a colleague quoted by Joshi & Schultz (2001), Lovecraft stated that this novelette* was “a piece which I ‘ghost wrote’ for a client from a synopsis so poor that I well-nigh discarded it" (p. 116) and the end result "is virtually my own work” (p. 116). Whoever was the primary author of it, The Horror in the Museum is a great deal of fun. It is essentially a haunted house story told in a Lovecraftian style.
[Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the film The Black Cat (1934)]
Chad Fifer (2011) of the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast made a funny connection in one episode reviewing this story. He pointed out that you can imagine The Horror in the Museum as a film, specifically a 1930s Universal Studios collaboration between the actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Lugosi could have played the mad wax museum curator George Rogers and Karloff the rational skeptic Stephen Jones. I can easily picture this and want to re-read the story with those actors in mind.
Title: “The Horror in the Museum”
Author: H.P. Lovecraft
Dates: October 1932 (written), July 1933 (first published)
Genre: Fiction - Novelette*, horror
Word count: 11,345 words
Date(s) read: 5/1/22-5/2/22
Reading journal entry #139 in 2022
Sources:
Link to the story: https://hplovecraft.com/writings/fict...
First publication citation: Weird Tales vol. 22, no. 1 (July 1933): 49–68.
Joshi, S. T., & Schultz, D. E. (2001). An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press.
Fifer, C., & Lackey, C. (2011, October 20). Episode 94 - The Horror in the Museum. The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast [audio blog]. Retrieved from
https://www.hppodcraft.com/episodes/2...
Links to the images:
https://www.deviantart.com/borjapinda...
http://www.monstermoviehouse.com/2015...
Written on 5/7/22
[Rhan-Tegoth by Borja Pindado]
The Horror in the Museum is arguably the 84th oldest extant story by American weird fiction author Howard Philips Lovecraft (1890-1937) and his second in collaboration with Hazel Heald (1896 – 1961). I am in the process of reading all of HPL’s fictional works in chronological order. In a letter to a colleague quoted by Joshi & Schultz (2001), Lovecraft stated that this novelette* was “a piece which I ‘ghost wrote’ for a client from a synopsis so poor that I well-nigh discarded it" (p. 116) and the end result "is virtually my own work” (p. 116). Whoever was the primary author of it, The Horror in the Museum is a great deal of fun. It is essentially a haunted house story told in a Lovecraftian style.
[Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the film The Black Cat (1934)]
Chad Fifer (2011) of the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast made a funny connection in one episode reviewing this story. He pointed out that you can imagine The Horror in the Museum as a film, specifically a 1930s Universal Studios collaboration between the actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Lugosi could have played the mad wax museum curator George Rogers and Karloff the rational skeptic Stephen Jones. I can easily picture this and want to re-read the story with those actors in mind.
Title: “The Horror in the Museum”
Author: H.P. Lovecraft
Dates: October 1932 (written), July 1933 (first published)
Genre: Fiction - Novelette*, horror
Word count: 11,345 words
Date(s) read: 5/1/22-5/2/22
Reading journal entry #139 in 2022
Sources:
Link to the story: https://hplovecraft.com/writings/fict...
First publication citation: Weird Tales vol. 22, no. 1 (July 1933): 49–68.
Joshi, S. T., & Schultz, D. E. (2001). An H.P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press.
Fifer, C., & Lackey, C. (2011, October 20). Episode 94 - The Horror in the Museum. The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast [audio blog]. Retrieved from
https://www.hppodcraft.com/episodes/2...
Links to the images:
https://www.deviantart.com/borjapinda...
http://www.monstermoviehouse.com/2015...
*The difference between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Diff...
Vignette, prose poem, flash fiction: 53 - 1,000 words
Short Stories: 1,000 - 7,500
Novelettes: 7,500 - 17,000
Novellas: 17,000 - 40,000
Novels: 40,000 + words
Written on 5/7/22
January 22, 2026
4 stars!!!!
Thoughts ~
Wow. My jaw is still dropped bro. That ending was awesome. This was a very good short horror story. My first H. P. Lovecraft and I think he might be my favorite author lol. The writing is peak, the suspense is amazing, the horror and chills you feel throughout the story is stupendous. I expected that ending to happen and it still shocked me.
Rogers ~
Rogers was a verrrrrry interesting character. Very creepy and a whole lot of psycho. Im still wondering tho, was he telling the truth when he said his wax figures are all made out of real stuff, not wax? I get animal hides, but what about the humans? Did he really make the human figures out of real flesh? Gross... This guy has a screw loose... well had a screw loose. I kinda knew that would happen to him at the end, he was trying to sacrifice Jones to the creature so I just knew that he would be the sacrifice instead when Jones escaped.
Jones ~
This is why you don't take up offers to stay a night in a creepy museum. Right when someone asks you that, you scream and run the other way. Bro tried to prove he was tough and he got nightmares as a reward. I felt so bad for him, but this happened because of his own stupidity. Ok why did he turn his flashlight on? He could have stayed in the dark and maybe not have been found my Rogers? Sometimes book/movie characters do stupid stuff and then you have to learn not to waste your breath yelling at the book/TV because they can't hear you, especially in the horror genre.
The dog ~
Sorry, the dog isn't even a focus of the story, I just wanted to pay my respects to this poor poor animal. He died a gruesome death. We'll miss you buddy 🫡
Rhan-Tegoth ~
This thing sounds horrifying. Its a good thing I don't have an imagination or else I would be having nightmares. Just the descriptions of this creature made me pause. Good job for killing Rogers, he deserved it.
Orabona ~
Dude... you may or may not have killed him. I still don't know who killed Rogers. It was either Rhan-Tegoth or Orabona. But dude... you displayed his dead body, no his head, as part of the exhibit. How inhumane can you be? Don't get me wrong, I hate Rogers, but he should have gone to a mental hospital, not a grave. And bro didn't even have the decency to put him in a grave, he put his head on the exhibit.
Final Thoughts ~
I really liked this story and it was a good book to read while in a reading slump. It was quick and terrifying. H. P. Lovecraft is definitely one of my favorite authors, he does such a great job at getting you hooked in the beginning and keeping you there until the horrific events start. Very suspenseful and I loved that ending.
Thoughts ~
Wow. My jaw is still dropped bro. That ending was awesome. This was a very good short horror story. My first H. P. Lovecraft and I think he might be my favorite author lol. The writing is peak, the suspense is amazing, the horror and chills you feel throughout the story is stupendous. I expected that ending to happen and it still shocked me.
Rogers ~
Rogers was a verrrrrry interesting character. Very creepy and a whole lot of psycho. Im still wondering tho, was he telling the truth when he said his wax figures are all made out of real stuff, not wax? I get animal hides, but what about the humans? Did he really make the human figures out of real flesh? Gross... This guy has a screw loose... well had a screw loose. I kinda knew that would happen to him at the end, he was trying to sacrifice Jones to the creature so I just knew that he would be the sacrifice instead when Jones escaped.
Jones ~
This is why you don't take up offers to stay a night in a creepy museum. Right when someone asks you that, you scream and run the other way. Bro tried to prove he was tough and he got nightmares as a reward. I felt so bad for him, but this happened because of his own stupidity. Ok why did he turn his flashlight on? He could have stayed in the dark and maybe not have been found my Rogers? Sometimes book/movie characters do stupid stuff and then you have to learn not to waste your breath yelling at the book/TV because they can't hear you, especially in the horror genre.
The dog ~
Sorry, the dog isn't even a focus of the story, I just wanted to pay my respects to this poor poor animal. He died a gruesome death. We'll miss you buddy 🫡
Rhan-Tegoth ~
This thing sounds horrifying. Its a good thing I don't have an imagination or else I would be having nightmares. Just the descriptions of this creature made me pause. Good job for killing Rogers, he deserved it.
Orabona ~
Dude... you may or may not have killed him. I still don't know who killed Rogers. It was either Rhan-Tegoth or Orabona. But dude... you displayed his dead body, no his head, as part of the exhibit. How inhumane can you be? Don't get me wrong, I hate Rogers, but he should have gone to a mental hospital, not a grave. And bro didn't even have the decency to put him in a grave, he put his head on the exhibit.
Final Thoughts ~
I really liked this story and it was a good book to read while in a reading slump. It was quick and terrifying. H. P. Lovecraft is definitely one of my favorite authors, he does such a great job at getting you hooked in the beginning and keeping you there until the horrific events start. Very suspenseful and I loved that ending.
July 18, 2023
An artist's horrific creations fascinate the protagonist, who discovers that they have a basis in reality. Sound familiar? Yeah, it's the plot of "Pickman's Model". But calling this story a clone would be giving it too much credit. Pickman was just an artist, reluctant to pull back the curtain, and his story was tastefully creepy. Rogers, the artist in this story, is a boor who can hardly wait to give the whole game away by monologuing about what an evil cultist he is. Predictably, the protagonist doesn't believe him, and just as predictably, he really is an evil cultist. Yawn.
December 4, 2024
Eine der besten Stories von Lovecraft, sehr düster
August 2, 2020
Qorxu janrına susayanlar oxusun.
Janrın atalarından olan Qovard Lavkraftın Heyzl Heldlə həmmüəlif olduğu hekayələr kitabındandır. Həyəcan da var, qorxu da, inamsızlıqda, indi çox öyrəşdiyim skrimerlər də.
Janrın atalarından olan Qovard Lavkraftın Heyzl Heldlə həmmüəlif olduğu hekayələr kitabındandır. Həyəcan da var, qorxu da, inamsızlıqda, indi çox öyrəşdiyim skrimerlər də.
November 17, 2023
Very disappointed to learn from YouTube‘s Horror Babble that this was ghost written !!!
I’ve been such a Lovecraft fan, but now I don’t know what to think…
Which of the stories that I adored were actually his, and which were not?
This one’s in the “not” category… good yes, but way too much reliance on creepy adjectives rather than the plot/premise. Found it campy and overwrought in the end, and just got bored with it. Also, the ghost-writer did zero research on idol worship - which has been alive and well for millennia - and instead went for every stereotype in the book. This too in the 1920’s, when Egyptology was in its heydey and new research on pantheons were all the rage.
This could have been great… and it just might have been had Lovecraft himself wrote it.
I’ve been such a Lovecraft fan, but now I don’t know what to think…
Which of the stories that I adored were actually his, and which were not?
This one’s in the “not” category… good yes, but way too much reliance on creepy adjectives rather than the plot/premise. Found it campy and overwrought in the end, and just got bored with it. Also, the ghost-writer did zero research on idol worship - which has been alive and well for millennia - and instead went for every stereotype in the book. This too in the 1920’s, when Egyptology was in its heydey and new research on pantheons were all the rage.
This could have been great… and it just might have been had Lovecraft himself wrote it.
November 12, 2022
Где-то со второй половины полностью понятно куда идёт дело и становится неинтересно.
October 3, 2024
Wow! A great Lovecraftian story. Lots of fun and extremely well written!
November 15, 2024
Overall a really good, spooky story, but my favorite part is when an "unspeakable horror" turns out to be a guy in a Scooby Doo monster costume.
November 24, 2024
If the pitch of "what if HP Lovecraft ghost-wrote a house of wax/mystery of the wax museum?" story doesn't make one want to check this one out I don't know what will!
February 7, 2025
The Horror in the Museum had some great descriptions and a great story. But the twists were a little too predictable, or just not that captivating.
August 17, 2025
Actually pretty cool body horror
October 18, 2025
In a sense very Lovecraftian, but Heald's pinch is very prominent. I should have read this right before Miéville's Kraken, the two fit together nicely.
January 7, 2026
My first time reading Lovecraft.
A really fun introduction to the world.
I quite like his writing style.
Very fun to see a character who's immensely stubborn face the surreal.
A really fun introduction to the world.
I quite like his writing style.
Very fun to see a character who's immensely stubborn face the surreal.
December 16, 2016
Um dos melhores contos que já tive oportunidade de ler de H. P. Lovecraft, The Horror in the Museum é uma viagem aos mais profundos horrores, transformando uma viagem noturna ao museu numa alucinante vertigem de sons e sensações.
Lovecraft escreveu este conto como ghost writer de Hazel Heald, mas é notório no traço arquitetural da escrita que estamos perante uma história do autor norte-americano. Não só o encontramos na linguagem fluente e estética, como nas imensas referências à sua própria mitologia, criaturas que viriam a tornar-se ícones da cultura pop como o mítico Cthulhu, como o terrível livro Necronomicon.
Sem que tal parecesse provável, The Horror in the Museum tornou-se um dos contos mais relevantes da obra de Lovecraft, e não é difícil perceber porquê. Se, em outros contos do autor, critiquei o mistério demasiado preliminar e a parca apreciação do terror in loco, este conto ofereceu-me tudo o que mais podia desejar. Diálogos interessantes, mistérios surpreendentes, um ambiente palpável e uma conclusão muito boa. Que venham mais contos como este.
Lovecraft escreveu este conto como ghost writer de Hazel Heald, mas é notório no traço arquitetural da escrita que estamos perante uma história do autor norte-americano. Não só o encontramos na linguagem fluente e estética, como nas imensas referências à sua própria mitologia, criaturas que viriam a tornar-se ícones da cultura pop como o mítico Cthulhu, como o terrível livro Necronomicon.
Sem que tal parecesse provável, The Horror in the Museum tornou-se um dos contos mais relevantes da obra de Lovecraft, e não é difícil perceber porquê. Se, em outros contos do autor, critiquei o mistério demasiado preliminar e a parca apreciação do terror in loco, este conto ofereceu-me tudo o que mais podia desejar. Diálogos interessantes, mistérios surpreendentes, um ambiente palpável e uma conclusão muito boa. Que venham mais contos como este.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews