lected mostly in Fancy Free(1901) and Transit of
the Red Dragon(1903), and his later ones in Pea -
cock House and Other Mystery Stories(1926), sev-
eral of the latter being ghost stories. Phillpotts
tended to write slow-paced, philosophical fantasies
rather than adventure stories, which may explain
his present obscurity, but at his best he was witty
and posed a variety of interesting philosophical
questions using fantasy elements to place them in a
different perspective.
“Pickman’s Model” H. P. Lovecraft(1927)
It is, of course, impossible to describe in detail a
horror so terrible that it would drive a witness in-
sane, because any such description would necessar-
ily put constraints on the reader’s imagination that
would make the situation seem impossibly implau-
sible. Writers rely on suggestion to accomplish the
same thing, assuring us that were we to actually see
what they are describing, our minds would break
under the strain, a literary conceit that readers
generally find acceptable.
H. P. LOVECRAFTillustrated that fact all too
well in this, one of his best stories not set in the
context of the Cthulhu Mythos, which dominated
his work. The narrator is Thurber, a slightly dis-
reputable art connoisseur who is the last personal
confidant of Richard Upton Pickman, an artist
who specializes in what Thurber calls “morbid”
art, paintings of horrible scenes and ghoulish
creatures. One such recent picture, never de-
scribed, is so loathsome that Pickman is no longer
invited to social functions and barely maintains
his membership at his club. Pickman, who is de-
scended from a witch who was executed in Salem,
is particularly forthcoming with Thurber, who re-
fuses to go along with the general ostracism, and
shows him even more ghastly paintings of which
the public is unaware.
Thurber becomes so trusted that Pickman
confides in him that he has a secret studio in the
Back Bay of Boston, an area honeycombed with
ancient underground passageways and streets no
longer recognized by city officials. There Thurber
sees even more grotesque paintings, mostly of
ghoulish creatures, some in their lairs, some emerg-
ing into the upper world to prey on the living. He
is appalled by the subject matter, but even so he
admits to being extraordinarily impressed by Pick-
man’s skill, particularly in the manner in which he
depicts the horrid faces, so realistic that it is almost
as though living creatures were imprisoned in the
canvas and paint.
Even more disturbing is a kind of history of
the ghoulish race that can be discerned by examin-
ing the paintings. The creatures apparently switch
their own young with normal humans, which im-
plies that the ghouls themselves are a devolved,
depraved offspring of humanity. There is also a
clear implication that Pickman himself is one of
these changelings.
While exploring the basement studio, Pick-
man absents himself briefly to deal with what he
claims to be an infestation of rats, although
Thurber interprets the sounds of the unseen ani-
mals as being those of a much larger creature. He
takes fright, absentmindedly snatches at a scrap of
paper, and places it, unseen, in his pocket. It is
only later that he examines it and discovers that it
contains the image of one of the ghouls, but that it
is not a drawing at all but a photograph, presum-
ably of the model Pickman used to create his art.
All of the horror in the story is by implication.
The ghouls never appear, nor is the protagonist
ever in any real danger. Even so, the suggestion that
he descended unwittingly into the lair of such ob-
scene creatures is designed to leave the reader with
a lingering sense of horror. The story became an
episode of the television series The Night Gallery.The Picture of Dorian GrayOscar Wilde
(1891)
The concept of the scapegoat has been with us for
a long time and is found in a multitude of cultures.
Oscar Wilde conceived of a new form of the scape-
goat with this short novel. The title character is a
handsome but spoiled man who is having his por-
trait painted one day when a chance visitor es-
pouses a cynical attitude about life and suggests
that hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure, should be
our central preoccupation and would be if it were
not for the unfortunate side effects of a life of vice
and corruption. Gray immediately gives voice to
the wish that the bad effects of a dissipated lifeThe Picture of Dorian Gray 273