What do you think?
Rate this book
In the Vault
"In the Vault", first published in 1925 on press journal Tryout, is a short story by the master of horror fiction H.P.Lovecraft about an undertaker imprisoned in a village vault where he was removing winter coffins for spring burial, and his escape by enlarging a transom reached by the piling up of the coffins.
32 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1925
11 people are currently reading
527 people want to read
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
6,109 books19.3k 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
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 156 reviews
May 26, 2017
A spooky BR with Craig, to let Lovecraft play with our minds a bit :)
What a nice shortie, a quite interesting atmosphere, a quite creepily funny accident. Quite spectacular revenges and a great moral to watch where you put your feet and know that everything comes with a price! :)
P.S. I expected a monster, but found none, ah well :S
What a nice shortie, a quite interesting atmosphere, a quite creepily funny accident. Quite spectacular revenges and a great moral to watch where you put your feet and know that everything comes with a price! :)
P.S. I expected a monster, but found none, ah well :S
October 12, 2019
I'm not much of a fan of the horror genre (it tends to freak me out a little) but I am a fan of short stories, so I decided to give this 1925 H.P. Lovecraft shortie a read. I'm also no real fan or connoisseur of Lovecraft, but this one isn't a typical Lovecraft story, though it's definitely in the horror genre. It's a little more down to earth and has a distinctly morbid sense of humor.
George Birch is the phlegmatic, practical undertaker and gravedigger in a small village, with little sense of imagination and less sense of morals. He's given to sloppiness and cutting corners in his work as an undertaker - things like cheaply-made coffins and mixing up who's supposed to be buried where.
One winter day he accidentally locks himself in a vault with several caskets of long-dead people awaiting burial in the spring, and no tools to help him escape. He calls for help, but is too far away from anyone who will hear him. But over the tomb's door is a small opening that might be enlarged ... if he can just reach it. What's a practical-minded guy to do?
Maybe - just maybe - he should have had a little more respect for the dead.
This is a darkly humorous kind of story that saves the real jolt for the end. An enjoyably creepy read, not as strange and eldritch as his tales of Cthulhu and the elder gods.
There are lots of free copies of this online; I found mine here.
George Birch is the phlegmatic, practical undertaker and gravedigger in a small village, with little sense of imagination and less sense of morals. He's given to sloppiness and cutting corners in his work as an undertaker - things like cheaply-made coffins and mixing up who's supposed to be buried where.
One winter day he accidentally locks himself in a vault with several caskets of long-dead people awaiting burial in the spring, and no tools to help him escape. He calls for help, but is too far away from anyone who will hear him. But over the tomb's door is a small opening that might be enlarged ... if he can just reach it. What's a practical-minded guy to do?
Maybe - just maybe - he should have had a little more respect for the dead.
This is a darkly humorous kind of story that saves the real jolt for the end. An enjoyably creepy read, not as strange and eldritch as his tales of Cthulhu and the elder gods.
There are lots of free copies of this online; I found mine here.
July 12, 2019
An undertaker is trapped within a vault and builds a 'Tower of Bable' with the coffins to leave his confinement. When he tries to get out he is held back by something that claws into his tendons. Will he survive the situation unharmed and alive? Even though there is a great characterization of Birch, the smalltown and the people he buried I personally didn't like that story as much as others by Lovecraft. It is well plotted and well told but for me there was no spark. Others might find it more interesting.
April 7, 2019
C.H. Smith, editor of the amateur mag Tryout, suggested the idea for this conventional tale of horror: what if a New England undertaker, trapped in the churchyard’s receiving vault (the place where they store the coffins each winter until the ground thaws enough so they can dig the graves), attempted to escape through an upper window using a pile of his customer’s coffins for a step-stool? Lovecraft took the challenge, and turned the idea into a coldly amusing tale of sharp New England business practices punished by a grisly poetic justice whose reach extends beyond the grave.
This story is not a favorite with the critics, but I must admit I liked it quite a bit. Lovecraft dials back his hyperbolic vocabulary, adjusting it to what is after all a simple, around-the-campfire tale of horror. Besides, the gruesome details here have a disturbing physicality about them, disturbing enough that the story was rejected not only by Weird Tales (in 1925) but by the even more despised pulp publication Ghost Stories (in 1926).
September 24, 2015
A re-read (I've read this one more than once before).
An undertaker accidentally locks himself inside a tomb full of coffins awaiting burial. Although he's an unimaginative, workman-like sort - not one to be bothered by the proximity of corpses - after what transpires that night, he'll never be the same.
Objectively, this is an exceedingly well-crafted piece, but the 'big reveal' just doesn't bother me as much as it's clearly supposed to. It's predicated on an assumption of a religious belief in
An undertaker accidentally locks himself inside a tomb full of coffins awaiting burial. Although he's an unimaginative, workman-like sort - not one to be bothered by the proximity of corpses - after what transpires that night, he'll never be the same.
Objectively, this is an exceedingly well-crafted piece, but the 'big reveal' just doesn't bother me as much as it's clearly supposed to. It's predicated on an assumption of a religious belief in
March 11, 2022
This story was written in 1925 and was published in the National Amateur Press Association's journal titled Tryout. That was probably because the editor of the journal, Charles W. Smith, gave Lovecraft the suggestion that formed the basis for the story's plot. Lovecraft first submitted the story to Weird Tales, who by this time was willing to print pretty much anything Lovecraft submitted to them. But the editor, Farnsworth Wright, rejected Lovecraft's story due to fear that "its extreme gruesomeness would not pass the Indiana censorship".
I believe it. I found the story absolutely horrifying. This is the first Lovecraft story I've read that actually frightened me. I'll bet Wright came to regret his decision to reject Lovecraft's story. It's the earliest written Lovecraft story I have read that I consider to be a flawless masterpiece. There is little of the usual world-building background to the story, no writing of long paragraphs to establish atmosphere. Instead, we are immediately introduced to the protagonist, and very early on told of his situation:
What an exciting story and riveting read!
I believe it. I found the story absolutely horrifying. This is the first Lovecraft story I've read that actually frightened me. I'll bet Wright came to regret his decision to reject Lovecraft's story. It's the earliest written Lovecraft story I have read that I consider to be a flawless masterpiece. There is little of the usual world-building background to the story, no writing of long paragraphs to establish atmosphere. Instead, we are immediately introduced to the protagonist, and very early on told of his situation:
What an exciting story and riveting read!
February 7, 2015
After a horrible winter that caused the earth to freeze so the people from Peck Valley, New England, couldn’t bury anyone, a lazy undertaker George Birch has to prepare the stored coffins for normal funeral. He gets stuck for nine hours in a tomb thanks to a tomb door he should have fixed ages ago.
He doesn't expect anything more than an inconvenient and physically exhausting afternoon and possibly night.
Even though Lovecraft may have not intended this to be funny, he acknowledges its comedic side.
He doesn't expect anything more than an inconvenient and physically exhausting afternoon and possibly night.
Even though Lovecraft may have not intended this to be funny, he acknowledges its comedic side.
'Mention a bucolic Yankee setting, a bungling and thick-fibred village undertaker,and a careless mishap in a tomb, and no average reader can be brought to expect more than a hearty albeit grotesque phase of comedy.'The story is a combination of humour and dread.
December 15, 2025
Give H.P. Lovecraft a challenge: write a story of horror about a cemetery receiving vault where people who died during Winter were stored; a Friday 13th during the Spring thaw which finally permits the bodies of people who died during the Winter to be buried in the frozen ground; the vault door lock breaks in the closed position; nine unburied coffins which can be used to build a stepladder to a transom over the locked vault door; and a drunken lazy undertaker named George Birch who gets trapped in the vault after deciding it was time to bury those bodies properly despite the crappy job he had made of making the coffins which were all crooked, too small and poorly nailed together.
Abracadabra! Lovecraft writes the short story, ‘In the Vault’ using all of the challenge elements! The real horror begins when it seems one of the coffins breaks under Birch’s weight…
Abracadabra! Lovecraft writes the short story, ‘In the Vault’ using all of the challenge elements! The real horror begins when it seems one of the coffins breaks under Birch’s weight…
May 4, 2021
Creepy! Also, karma's a bitch.
December 16, 2019
I have to admit a weakness for horror. Not the type of weakness that induces one to read loads and loads of horror; more the type that can't stomach it.
Ad yet, I absolutely loved the kick to the story. I scanned it, but gathered the gist of it quite easily, and my goodness - it was vicious! Love it!
I read it here.
Ad yet, I absolutely loved the kick to the story. I scanned it, but gathered the gist of it quite easily, and my goodness - it was vicious! Love it!
I read it here.
April 23, 2025
Brilliant, spooky Lovecraft. Love the imagery in this story. That Last line revelation! Just wow.
September 14, 2025
Another short story where karma was served. Still have more sympathy for Birch though. The events unfolding to the ultimate fate of Birch were for sure unsettling. I also was once locked in without anyone around, so I get the despair and creativity of trying to escape in the weirdest way possible. You have my sympathy Birch.
May 14, 2013
Ah this short story was fantastic. Lovecraft starts out as usual with the clearly forecast bad ending for a character that will be explained with the subsequent story, this one about a lazy undertaker whose indolent ways end up biting him in the butt when he accidentally locks himself in a vault full of caskets he has put off burying. It is also pitch black. He must hope to break his way out, and that those bodies don't hold any grudges for his laziness! I really felt the atmosphere of that dark vault filled with corpses in unrest. Great ending, Lovecraft always ends with a bang that elevates the entire story. Darkly comical and karma-cal. Hah.
September 13, 2012
I'm certain this short story about a man who gets trapped in a vault isn't really meant to be funny, but I laughed my head off at it, especially at the overly sensitive horse that was thrown in repeatedly...
April 5, 2017
This is straight up Tales from the Crypt style. All those great Eerie horror comicbooks that evolved out of all hose great weird pulp fiction serials owe a debt to these wonderful writers. Campy creepy fun.
October 23, 2020
This story is not for claustrophobic people! Haha. I liked it enough. A little hard to follow as well and I’m not sure I caught the twist but it was entertaining and had very descriptive writing and was well paced.
September 13, 2016
A twisted Lovecraftian tale with a moral.
December 28, 2023
Bro really said, "Not my coffin!"
April 6, 2023
не дуже... інтелектуально активна, але від того не погана людина, що опинилася у пастці (яку власноруч збила із дощок), через те, що хотіла зекономити, зхалтурити, а може, й дріб'язково (хоч і навряд свідомо) помститися.
не дуже типова для лавкрафта історія, але точно одна з моїх улюблених у нього (зрештою, саме такі його роботи чомусь і стають моїми фаворитами, гм).
не дуже типова для лавкрафта історія, але точно одна з моїх улюблених у нього (зрештою, саме такі його роботи чомусь і стають моїми фаворитами, гм).
September 4, 2019
A gothic tale, very much in the style and vein of Poe. It has plenty of atmosphere and a simple, yet engaging setting. Worth a read.
July 1, 2017
"Horrible pains, as of savage wounds, shot through his calves; and in his mind was a vortex of fright mixed with an unquenchable materialism that suggested splinters, loose nails, or some other attribute of a breaking wooden box. Perhaps he screamed. At any rate he kicked and squirmed frantically and automatically whilst his consciousness was almost eclipsed in a half-swoon."
Most people only witness human death as its compounded with ‘-bed’ – or perhaps, intermittently, at the ensuing funeral service. Few people, by vocation, regularly observe death as it happens. Others again deal exclusively in the aftermath, be it spiritual matters or that which calls for a rather mundane hands-on approach. “In the Vault”, written in September 1925, is a tale of the maniacally macabre which literally goes ankle-deep in the dead. (*SPOILER* all right, not-totally-dead!) The story was initially rejected by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its “extreme gruesomeness”, which he thought would positively short-circuit the whole censorship apparatus. Yes, gruesome it is … and not just underneath the coffin lids. George Birch, undertaker made protagonist, is a truly heartless lowlife, whose transgressive conduct among the recently deceased and their purposely jerry-built coffins would make even the most phlegmatic prosaists rattle in their graves.
“In the Vault” is not at all Lovecraft’s finest in regards to plot originality, storytelling, or language, but its climax has a sky-high gooseflesh factor, and the ending line (italicized, naturally) shows the full extent of Birch’s taboo-wrecking malpractice in the corpse-handling business, leaving little pity for both his physical injuries and mental woes. Revenge, in truth, has no bounds.
Most people only witness human death as its compounded with ‘-bed’ – or perhaps, intermittently, at the ensuing funeral service. Few people, by vocation, regularly observe death as it happens. Others again deal exclusively in the aftermath, be it spiritual matters or that which calls for a rather mundane hands-on approach. “In the Vault”, written in September 1925, is a tale of the maniacally macabre which literally goes ankle-deep in the dead. (*SPOILER* all right, not-totally-dead!) The story was initially rejected by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its “extreme gruesomeness”, which he thought would positively short-circuit the whole censorship apparatus. Yes, gruesome it is … and not just underneath the coffin lids. George Birch, undertaker made protagonist, is a truly heartless lowlife, whose transgressive conduct among the recently deceased and their purposely jerry-built coffins would make even the most phlegmatic prosaists rattle in their graves.
“In the Vault” is not at all Lovecraft’s finest in regards to plot originality, storytelling, or language, but its climax has a sky-high gooseflesh factor, and the ending line (italicized, naturally) shows the full extent of Birch’s taboo-wrecking malpractice in the corpse-handling business, leaving little pity for both his physical injuries and mental woes. Revenge, in truth, has no bounds.
May 10, 2017
An undertaker with a procrustean solution to his coffin problems learns the hard way that kismet is a bitch on the feet when he gets trapped overnight in the vault. This is an earlier piece of Lovecraft's, apparently, and his prose is not quite as purple as it normally gets. Also, this is a straight up horror story, no weird dreams, no Cthulhu, no insignificance of mankind in the face of the cosmic horrors of the Elder Gods. I enjoyed reading this one.
May 8, 2012
A wonderful, darkly funny story, with characters evoked and painted beautifully.
There's a real see saw of emotions in this tale, with tension and fear counterbalanced with offkilter humour and savage depictions of unworthy men.
I could sort of see where the story was heading, but the ending still packed a punch and brought a wry smile to my face.
There's a real see saw of emotions in this tale, with tension and fear counterbalanced with offkilter humour and savage depictions of unworthy men.
I could sort of see where the story was heading, but the ending still packed a punch and brought a wry smile to my face.
May 30, 2016
More of a straight forward horror yarn by Lovecraft, that I'm pretty sure has been plundered by kids telling each other scary stories. At least I remember something very similar to this from when I was a kid. Humorous and grotesque in just the right balance, with a nice payback scenario.
December 11, 2014
Sort of a very black comedy from Lovecraft. Man, can karma come back and bite you in the ass!
December 19, 2016
If you don't know what karma is. Read this story...
May 10, 2019
This is a classic horror tale with things which are literally going bump in the night. The ending is quite good, even if the story itself is not that grand or what we are used to from Lovecraft.
October 31, 2019
Un relato con una atmósfera ominosamente atrayente y de un estilo algo diferente, más "típico" que a lo que nos tiene acostumbrados, pero dicho en el buen sentido. Le doy un 3,5.
December 16, 2019
This story was alright. It's eery and stuff, but, in the end, I really didn't get too much into it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 156 reviews