The Devotee of Evil

by Clark Ashton Smith

The old Larcom house was a mansion of considerable size and dignity, set among oaks and cypresses on the hill behind Auburn's Chinatown, in what had once been the aristocratic section of the village. At the time of which I write, it had been unoccupied for several years and had begun to present the signs of desolation and dilapidation which untenanted houses so soon display. The place had a tragic history and was believed to be haunted.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Weird Fiction

17 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 25, 2014

About the author

Clark Ashton Smith was a poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. It is for these stories, and his literary friendship with H. P. Lovecraft from 1922 until Lovecraft's death in 1937, that he is mainly remembered today. With Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, also a friend and correspondent, Smith remains one of the most famous contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales.

His writings are posted at his official website.

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This remarkable story confirms me in my growing admiration of Clark Ashton Smith at his best. The evocation of the fascination of evil owes a great deal to a long literary tradition going back through Baudelaire to the frozen wastes of Satan's Hell in Dante.

It might be classed as a very very late symbolist work but it is worth reading for taking conventional tropes of horror derived from Edgar Allan Poe and then transforming them, albeit in a theatrical way, into a serious exploration of the iciness and mental collapse of pure evil.

The simple means by which the horror emerges - much as the baleful pond in 'Genius Loci' is a single object around which the horror is built - is a machine. Science rather than magic evokes the darkness using cosmic vibration but it is the same sense of existential evil in ancient and moderns.

As with 'Genius Loci', the 'pleasure' (if that is what it is) lies in writing that manages (perhaps only just) to avoid the Lovecraftian excesses of 'The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis' and so gets beyond mere weird adventure to express something of the spirit of humanity faced with supernatural malice.

[Robin Leanga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read. Amazing descriptive
prose, it reads like a poem. The story is creepy, weird, and makes you think about what evil is and you start to imagine what the things that he was seeing were...

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mysterious stranger is obsessed with evil. When moving into an old house he sets up some mechanism to capture the evil vibes. Will he survive his obsession? Turn evil or to something else. Strange and eerie tale in the classic weird tales tradition. Really recommended!

[Blake Tourville · Rating 4 out of 5]

All I could think of while reading this short was filming a silent short film with Dafoe and Pattinson as the 2 leads. That's the type of story this is.

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Less colourful in its descriptions than some of my other favourite CAS stories, but it oozes creativity and atmosphere. Definitely one of his best.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 4 out of 5]

No secondary worlds, no hashish Orientalism. Just plain old going-too-far and rending-the-veils. Excellent.

Thanks to Forrest Aguirre for making me aware of it.

[Welther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent little horror story. Through it could have been a full length novel. Telling the story of how a man becomes the evil wizard or villain.

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://archive.org/details/Stirring_...
http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/...