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El terrible anciano
Cuento "El terrible anciano" (The Terrible Old Man).
ebook
First published July 1, 1921
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
7,044 books19.9k followersHoward Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.
Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
— Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 307 reviews
March 15, 2016
“The Terrible Old Man” (1920)—first published in an amateur magazine—is not “terribly” good. It is the first Lovecraft story set in New England, making it a landmark of sorts, and it has one detail—the disturbing description of the bottles with which the Old Man converses—which shows the distinctive Lovecraftian touch. Otherwise, it is a brief, conventional tale about three ignorant robbers who mess with the wrong senior citizen.
Oh, one other distinctive Lovecraftian characteristic (though I hesitate to call it a “touch”): as soon as I read the opening sentence—“It was the design of Angelo Ricci and Joe Czanek and Manuel Silva to call on the Terrible Old Man.”—I knew the three guys aforementioned must be robbers. Gathered here are members of three of xenophobic H.P.'s most dreaded non-Aryan peoples! One of them might be a sailor intent upon selling a small malevolent idol, but three members of three separate inferior races in collusion? Their objective must be robbery. Or worse.
June 10, 2019
Three man plan to rob an old fragile man who went to sea as a young man and who lives as a recluse. Is he really that defenceless as it seems? Rumour is he talks to bottles he has given a name to. One of the robbers wonders why his two colleagues need so much time... a very interesting and eerie story about a mysterious and somehow terrible old man. Highly recommended!
June 14, 2015
'It was the design of Angelo Ricci and Joe Czanek and Manuel Silva to call on the Terrible Old Man.'To call on might be a bit of an understatement since these three, not being from Kingsport and lacking the knowledge of the old man strangeness (he was seen speaking to his bottles), have decided to rob the man.
Ricci and Silva go in. They leave Czanek to wait for them by the car. They don't come out.
The first time I've read about the Terrible Old Man was in The Strange High House in the Mist where he has a more benign role.
February 25, 2020
Don't try to rob creepy people who talk to mysterious bottles named after people.
February 17, 2018
Pretty average, but with that mysterious touch typical of Lovecraf
March 5, 2018
Oh my, this Lovecraft story was super creepy and very descriptive.
July 1, 2020
Can a story be too descriptive? Yes, it can be and this is that descriptive story. The story is okay, but I would have liked it more if it was toned down with the words.
April 22, 2019
Espeluznante
January 13, 2022
That special Lovecraftian stamp isn't found in 'The Terrible Old Man' which makes it even more special? I would like to know more about this terrible old man.
February 29, 2020
There's an extremely obvious element of xenophobia and racism in The Terrible Old Man. H. P. Lovecraft has been the object of much criticism and discussion due to his more or less evident 'prejudices' regarding race and ethnicity. I for one try to separate the author's personal life from his works.
As for the tale itself, I absolutely loved its subtle creepiness. Lovecraft gets a lot of heat for his expository writing and lack of skill for dialogue, but his haters should read tales such as this one and Pickman's Model.
As for the tale itself, I absolutely loved its subtle creepiness. Lovecraft gets a lot of heat for his expository writing and lack of skill for dialogue, but his haters should read tales such as this one and Pickman's Model.
September 14, 2025
Can't really say a lot of what's it about without spoilers so I will just write: It's about a house robbery which turns unsettling on the last page.
I don't have , so it didn't hit me. Was also too short to truly enjoy it.
I don't have , so it didn't hit me. Was also too short to truly enjoy it.
January 22, 2016
"The Terrible Old Man" might be the most normal of Lovecraft's stories, the most "normal" one I've read, anyway. Which is not to say that it's not a horror story, but it's not a weird, tentacled monster horror story.
This is going to be all spoilery, by the way, because the short story is quite short, and there's no way to talk about what I want to talk about without giving it away. But you should still read it because 1. it's short, and 2. it's that good.
I'm not saying that Lovecraft invented this type of story, but this is certainly the earliest example that I know I've read of this type, the type where the perpetrators become the victims.
So...
There's an old man, an ex-sea captain, who lives alone and is rumored to have vast stores of treasures. Or something. No one really knows because the old guy keeps to himself and everyone is afraid of him. But, then, three new guys arrive into town, hear about the guy, and decide that they will rob the old man. They'll torture the location of the hidden treasure out of him if they have to.
Except one of the guys, the driver, isn't too keen on the torture part, so he tells his two buddies to go easy on the old guy. And that's the last he sees of them as they head to the house and he waits in the car. Not long after, he hears screams coming from inside the house and assumes it's the old guy... until he finds the old guy staring at him from the gate with a wicked grin on his face.
Seriously, go read it.
Now, one of the things I read about this story is that it's a prime example of Lovecraft's racism... wait! What?
I'm sorry; I just don't see it.
Yes, the men from out of town are "foreigners" in that they are not from the small town where everyone knows about the terrible old man. You have to outsiders come in who don't know any better. I think you have to read awfully deep between the lines to turn this into some kind of warning to outsiders to stay out.
Or maybe I just don't know enough about Lovecraft.
However, not knowing more than I do, I say this is a really great read.
This is going to be all spoilery, by the way, because the short story is quite short, and there's no way to talk about what I want to talk about without giving it away. But you should still read it because 1. it's short, and 2. it's that good.
I'm not saying that Lovecraft invented this type of story, but this is certainly the earliest example that I know I've read of this type, the type where the perpetrators become the victims.
So...
There's an old man, an ex-sea captain, who lives alone and is rumored to have vast stores of treasures. Or something. No one really knows because the old guy keeps to himself and everyone is afraid of him. But, then, three new guys arrive into town, hear about the guy, and decide that they will rob the old man. They'll torture the location of the hidden treasure out of him if they have to.
Except one of the guys, the driver, isn't too keen on the torture part, so he tells his two buddies to go easy on the old guy. And that's the last he sees of them as they head to the house and he waits in the car. Not long after, he hears screams coming from inside the house and assumes it's the old guy... until he finds the old guy staring at him from the gate with a wicked grin on his face.
Seriously, go read it.
Now, one of the things I read about this story is that it's a prime example of Lovecraft's racism... wait! What?
I'm sorry; I just don't see it.
Yes, the men from out of town are "foreigners" in that they are not from the small town where everyone knows about the terrible old man. You have to outsiders come in who don't know any better. I think you have to read awfully deep between the lines to turn this into some kind of warning to outsiders to stay out.
Or maybe I just don't know enough about Lovecraft.
However, not knowing more than I do, I say this is a really great read.
August 24, 2019
A rather short tale about a creepy old man who is as much a mystery to the characters as to the reader. It manages to build an eerie aura about the titular character and his home, despite the story's length.
April 17, 2026
Not a lot to this really. I feel like the only times I’ve ever seen The Terrible Old Man talked about is when people want to give specific examples of Lovecraft’s racism and xenophobia. I don’t really feel like I have much to contribute to that part of the discussion aside from adding my voice to the chorus and agreeing that yes, that stuff is present in the text and it’s not good.
That said, the timing of this story being written is so weird to me. I read this out of a collection that has all of Lovecraft’s stories presented in the order they were written, which means The Terrible Old Man comes directly after The Doom That Came To Sarnath. So Sarnath was still pretty fresh in my brain while reading this one and I couldn’t help thinking about the way these two bounce off each other. The two stories were written about a month apart. Which means in the space of a month Lovecraft went from “people who would oppress the Other amongst them deserve to have their shit wrecked until there’s nothing left of them” to “actually anyone who isn’t a white guy from New England is a criminal deserving of death.” That’s kind of a wild leap to make that quickly, right?
Obviously looking for rationality in bigotry is pointless and a waste of time. Also just as obviously of course Lovecraft, a man who considered himself both a socialist and a lover of the aristocracy, and who thought FDR and Adolf Hitler were both equally cool dudes, had a slew of contradictory ideas bouncing around in his head. Does Lovecraft contradict himself? Then Lovecraft contradicts himself. He’s large, he contains multitudes. It’s just wild that he got there in a month and with seemingly no steps in between, that’s all.
Anyway this was fine. I liked the thing with the bottles, and I liked that the old man went out looking for the last guy instead of waiting for the guy to come to him. Those were both nice touches. Three stars.
That said, the timing of this story being written is so weird to me. I read this out of a collection that has all of Lovecraft’s stories presented in the order they were written, which means The Terrible Old Man comes directly after The Doom That Came To Sarnath. So Sarnath was still pretty fresh in my brain while reading this one and I couldn’t help thinking about the way these two bounce off each other. The two stories were written about a month apart. Which means in the space of a month Lovecraft went from “people who would oppress the Other amongst them deserve to have their shit wrecked until there’s nothing left of them” to “actually anyone who isn’t a white guy from New England is a criminal deserving of death.” That’s kind of a wild leap to make that quickly, right?
Obviously looking for rationality in bigotry is pointless and a waste of time. Also just as obviously of course Lovecraft, a man who considered himself both a socialist and a lover of the aristocracy, and who thought FDR and Adolf Hitler were both equally cool dudes, had a slew of contradictory ideas bouncing around in his head. Does Lovecraft contradict himself? Then Lovecraft contradicts himself. He’s large, he contains multitudes. It’s just wild that he got there in a month and with seemingly no steps in between, that’s all.
Anyway this was fine. I liked the thing with the bottles, and I liked that the old man went out looking for the last guy instead of waiting for the guy to come to him. Those were both nice touches. Three stars.
November 10, 2020
Un gran cuento de Lovecraft, no hay más que decir, salvo que lo lean. 🤷
August 23, 2015
Three burglars make the mistake of judging a seemingly harmless old man that talks to empty bottles in his house alone by his cover. He’s lived a long and mysterious life... that just might end with your corpses sprawled up mangled in the street if you try to break into his home.
A very short but effective story that leaves the horrors of what happens behind the scenes up to the imagination. This story is also the inspiration behind the great 2016 horror film Don't Breath, which I think captures the strange mystery and unknown lurking horrors of the original and dials it up to the extremes in ways that I think made the movie even better than this short story.
A very short but effective story that leaves the horrors of what happens behind the scenes up to the imagination. This story is also the inspiration behind the great 2016 horror film Don't Breath, which I think captures the strange mystery and unknown lurking horrors of the original and dials it up to the extremes in ways that I think made the movie even better than this short story.
October 20, 2022
No country for easy victims.
4 'Picking on the Wrong Guy,' stars.
4 'Picking on the Wrong Guy,' stars.
October 8, 2024
Un viejo que aparentemente es inofensivo y todos le tienen lastima y se burlan de él, pero cuando tres hombres intentan robar su casa, se dan cuenta que el anciano no es lo que aparenta.
November 1, 2020
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
This is a classic tale of 3 robbers underestimating what they perceive to be a frail old man.
Think again.
The frail old man that they plan to attack ends up being a Terrible Old Man. (See what I did there?) The old guy ends up brutally murdering the lot of them, leaving the townspeople to wonder where the bodies came from and who did it.
In my opinion, this story was far too short and focused on all the wrong things. I love Lovecraft but this just wasn't his best work in my opinion. Now, if the story had focused more on the vibrating pendulum bottles the Old Man was talking to that had the names of men, I think that would have been way more interesting. This story left a lot to be desired for me but it was still okay and I'm glad I read it.
This is a classic tale of 3 robbers underestimating what they perceive to be a frail old man.
Think again.
The frail old man that they plan to attack ends up being a Terrible Old Man. (See what I did there?) The old guy ends up brutally murdering the lot of them, leaving the townspeople to wonder where the bodies came from and who did it.
In my opinion, this story was far too short and focused on all the wrong things. I love Lovecraft but this just wasn't his best work in my opinion. Now, if the story had focused more on the vibrating pendulum bottles the Old Man was talking to that had the names of men, I think that would have been way more interesting. This story left a lot to be desired for me but it was still okay and I'm glad I read it.
October 19, 2016
the terrible old man don't play that game honey!
January 14, 2017
Lesson of this short story;
Don't F*ck with old people.
Lesson learned.
Don't F*ck with old people.
Lesson learned.
January 23, 2022
A short and macabre maritime story from the master of 'The Weird'. Concise, creepy, dark, and perfectly strange.
August 30, 2026
Don’t trust old men I guess.
April 13, 2025
Bro named the story after himself.
This one's a real shame, because it's almost so great. It's just ruined from the core out by Lovecraft's hateful, xenophobic fearmongering. The descriptions of place are evocative and creepy, and it feels like Lovecraft is starting to find his least flowery voice a bit. The Old Man whispering to bottles he's named things like 'Scar Face' and 'Long Tom', who respond by moving lead weights attached to string? I mean that's such a weird idea and so unsettling. The image of the Terrible Old Man grinning madly at the end emerging from the mist too is terrifying. The structure is fairly complete here too unlike a lot of his earlier works. Plus we get the first mention of his invented town Kingsport. There's a lot of raw ideas to love in here! Imagine if those ideas had been handled by a writer with love in his heart for his common man as well as for the strangeness of horror. Such a shame that's housed in such a thinly veiled commentary on the Italian, Portuguese, and Polish New England immigrant communities of his time.
3.5 Terrifying Old Grins out of 5
👄👄👄1/2⬛⬛
This one's a real shame, because it's almost so great. It's just ruined from the core out by Lovecraft's hateful, xenophobic fearmongering. The descriptions of place are evocative and creepy, and it feels like Lovecraft is starting to find his least flowery voice a bit. The Old Man whispering to bottles he's named things like 'Scar Face' and 'Long Tom', who respond by moving lead weights attached to string? I mean that's such a weird idea and so unsettling. The image of the Terrible Old Man grinning madly at the end emerging from the mist too is terrifying. The structure is fairly complete here too unlike a lot of his earlier works. Plus we get the first mention of his invented town Kingsport. There's a lot of raw ideas to love in here! Imagine if those ideas had been handled by a writer with love in his heart for his common man as well as for the strangeness of horror. Such a shame that's housed in such a thinly veiled commentary on the Italian, Portuguese, and Polish New England immigrant communities of his time.
3.5 Terrifying Old Grins out of 5
👄👄👄1/2⬛⬛
June 3, 2022
⭐⭐⭐ 1/2
Its been so long since I have logged in a read here. But here I am now, thanks to Spotify, of course.
This is actually my first ever read (or listen to be more precise). Big shoutout to the Spotify Audiobook channel, from the Vault of Lovecraft. It was a 10 minutes listen, and the narration from Mike Bennet was chilling.
I thought the unknown in the story was very scarily presented. Spoiler Alert! We never find out what the old man's deal is in this story. The moment the third robber sees him leaning on his cane and notices his yellow eyes was frankly quite chilling. Was he a demon? The devil? We don't know. And I think that's very scary.
I will be listening to more stories from that podcast. Beats singing up for Audible! *Shrugs*
Its been so long since I have logged in a read here. But here I am now, thanks to Spotify, of course.
I suppose anyone who open Goodreads regularly and is aware of popular culture, knows who HP Lovecraft is. (By the way, what a cool name! Lovecraft! It seems ancient and and strong at the same time) Even if you have never read anything from him, you would know about his horror reputation. The cosmic entities that his works featured.
This is actually my first ever read (or listen to be more precise). Big shoutout to the Spotify Audiobook channel, from the Vault of Lovecraft. It was a 10 minutes listen, and the narration from Mike Bennet was chilling.
How was the story itself? Well, for a 10 minutes long short story (12 pages long) it's pretty good. I found the writing to be quite accessible. It was simple. Akin to the simplicity of Stephen King's writings.
I thought the unknown in the story was very scarily presented. Spoiler Alert! We never find out what the old man's deal is in this story. The moment the third robber sees him leaning on his cane and notices his yellow eyes was frankly quite chilling. Was he a demon? The devil? We don't know. And I think that's very scary.
I will be listening to more stories from that podcast. Beats singing up for Audible! *Shrugs*
September 13, 2017
The Terrible Old Man (1920): Well, look-it there. Lovecraft has a sense of humor. I really liked this one. But I'm a sucker for . I'm wondering if Charlie Daniels has read any Lovecraft. "The Legend of Wooley Swamp" came immediately to mind after reading the first couple paragraphs, New England setting notwithstanding. (I guess I should note that the thugs have ethnic names, but , so I'm not sure I would call this racism.)
(Moving 2015 review to separate work to make room under collection for review, September 2017. It's only taken me two years of mulling over Lovecraft's garbage, but I finally put my finger on the actual racism at work here. I'll talk more about that under The Horror at Red Hook. Kind of embarrassed I didn't see it immediately in this story, as it's so obvious in that one.)
(Moving 2015 review to separate work to make room under collection for review, September 2017. It's only taken me two years of mulling over Lovecraft's garbage, but I finally put my finger on the actual racism at work here. I'll talk more about that under The Horror at Red Hook. Kind of embarrassed I didn't see it immediately in this story, as it's so obvious in that one.)
March 8, 2024
Average rural Florida man
March 20, 2015
Lovecraft's xenophobia is a powerful force in his work. His pathological race-induced fears are transfigured into the horrors so adroitly described in his stories. While his racist views emerge in his stories, marring and staining them, we can sometimes still appreciate the rest of the work because of that powerful, agoraphobic sense of horror and fear that he managed to convey. While we despise his views, we still admire his tremendously powerful depictions of ancient horrors, powered by the deep anxieties and fears rooted on his views.
In the case of The terrible Old Man, the author fails to deliver, and all that is left are the xenophobic rants and a thin plot. Let's just say this is not one of his best short stories.
In the case of The terrible Old Man, the author fails to deliver, and all that is left are the xenophobic rants and a thin plot. Let's just say this is not one of his best short stories.
April 27, 2020
I'm not super familiar with HP Lovecraft's writings, so I started with this short gothic horror story he wrote. Set against a New England seaside town, Lovecraft creates the atmosphere. A little cliché, but yeah, New England seaside towns are little creepy and make the perfect place for some kind of local spook. This old terrible man is so old that no one remembers him ever being young, which is relatable. He does this weird thing where he looks and speaks to glass bottles and they vibrate as if they're answering him. So that's cool, I guess.
I guess for me I found the premise interesting, but not really scary. Interesting to say the least. But I didn't enjoy any of it.
I guess for me I found the premise interesting, but not really scary. Interesting to say the least. But I didn't enjoy any of it.
December 31, 2020
A short story just as they’re supposed to be in IMO. The narrator tells of 3 men who plan to rob a rich feeble old man. Where do the 200 year old gold coins come from? Why does he talk to bottles? Who cares... he’s old.
But is he really that feeble? There is a reason the story isn’t called the feeble old man.
Very well crafted. Unlike this review it there are no unnecessary words.
But is he really that feeble? There is a reason the story isn’t called the feeble old man.
Very well crafted. Unlike this review it there are no unnecessary words.
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