DREAD AND PORTENT: READING H. P. LOVECRAFT‘S NECRONOMICON AS SOCIAL CRITICISM

This dissertation explores the narratives of the twentieth-century American author H. P. Lovecraft, focusing on those tales which feature his creation of a metafictional spellbook titled the Necronomicon. Relying on a close reading of the texts, critical materials, and Lovecraft‘s letters, I demonstrate how the use of the Necronomicon throughout Lovecraft‘s fiction reflects how clearly the author espouses the faddish ideas and prejudicial fears of his era. Use of the spellbook delineates the breadth of moral decline he perceived in the world, from such causes as miscegenation, physical and spiritual decadence, and incest. Additionally, the project provides evidence of how the Necronomicon functions as a tool for chronicling and interpreting scientific facts and discoveries popular in Lovecraft‘s lifetime, particularly advancements in theoretical physics, by scientists like Albert Einstein, and the exploration of the polar regions by adventurers such as Rear Admiral Richard Byrd. In many of these latter narratives where the Necronomicon plays such a role, readers encounter a strange dichotomy: the author‘s genuine love of and appreciation for the various sciences tempered by a fear of humanity‘s terrifying use of the knowledge it has gained. This results in the Lovecraft‘