The Shadow over Innsmouth is a horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in November–December 1931. It forms part of the Cthulhu Mythos, using its motif of a malign undersea civilization, and references several shared elements of the Mythos, including place-names, mythical creatures, and invocations. The Shadow over Innsmouth is the only Lovecraft story that was published in book form during his lifetime.
The story follows the narrator, a student conducting an antiquarian tour of New England, as he travels through the nearby decrepit seaport of Innsmouth. Here he interacts with strange people, witnesses disturbing events, and uncovers a conspiracy that leads to horrifying and personal revelations that challenge his own sanity.
Plot The narrator explains how he instigated a secret investigation of the decrepit town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, a former seaport isolated from other nearby towns by vast salt marshes, by the U.S. government after fleeing it on July 16, 1927. The investigation ultimately concluded with the arrest and detention of many of the town's residents in concentration camps as well as a submarine torpedoing nearby Devil Reef, which the press falsely reported as Prohibition liquor raids. The narrator proceeds to describe in detail the events surrounding his initial interest in the town, which lies along the route of his tour from Ohio across New England, taken when he was a 21-year-old student at Oberlin College.
While waiting for the bus that will take him to Innsmouth, the narrator busies himself in neighboring Newburyport by gathering information on the town's history from the superstitious locals. He learns that Innsmouth was once a profitable port and shipbuilding center that declined after the War of 1812 interrupted shipping. A merchant, Obed Marsh, built a profitable gold refinery, but the town only deteriorated further after riots and after a mysterious epidemic eliminated half of its residents in 1845. Marsh also founded a pagan cult called the Esoteric Order of Dagon, which became the town's primary religion. The townsfolk treat outsiders and government officials with hostility.
The narrator tells the surprised bus driver that he wishes to stop at Innsmouth. He finds Innsmouth to be a mostly deserted fishing town populated by people who walk with a distinctive shambling gait and who have "queer narrow heads with flat noses and bulgy, stary eyes." The town and its residents are saturated with a fishy odor and the narrator feels a persistent uneasiness at various junctures of his exploration. He gathers information from an apparently normal grocery store clerk from neighboring Arkham, including a map of the town and the name of Zadok Allen, an elderly local drunkard who might give him information when plied with alcohol.
After exploring the town to find unusual architecture and fisherman who exhibit advanced symptoms of the Innsmouth degradation, the narrator lures Zadok to the seafront with a bottle of whiskey. Zadok explains what he knows of the town's history. While trading in the Caroline Islands Obed Marsh discovered a Kanak tribe in Pohnpei who offered human sacrifices to a race of immortal fish-like humanoids known as the Deep Ones. The Kanak also bred with Deep Ones, producing hybrid offspring which have the appearance of normal humans in childhood but eventually slowly transform into Deep Ones themselves and leave the surface to live in ancient undersea cities for eternity. When hard times fell on Innsmouth, Marsh's cult performed similar sacrifices to the Deep Ones in exchange for wealth in the form of large fish hauls and unique jewelry. When Marsh and his followers were eventually arrested, the Deep Ones retaliated by attacking the town and killing more than half of its population.
The survivors were left with no other choice than to join the cult and continue Marsh's practices. Male and female inhabitants were forced to breed with the Deep Ones, producing hybrids who upon maturing permanently migrate underwater to live in the city of Y'ha-nthlei, located underneath Devil Reef. The town is dominated by Marsh's grandson Barnabas, who is almost fully transformed into a Deep One. Zadok explains that these ocean-dwellers have designs on the surface world and have been planning the use of shoggoths, semi-intelligent protoplasmic entities, to conquer or transform it. Zadok sees strange waves approaching the dock and tells the narrator that they have been seen, urging him to leave town immediately. The narrator is unnerved, but ultimately dismisses the story.
After being told that the bus is experiencing engine trouble, the narrator has no choice but to spend the night in a musty hotel. While attempting to sleep, he hears noises at his door as if someone is trying to enter. With no means of self-defense, he escapes out a window and through the streets while a town-wide hunt for him occurs, forcing him to imitate the peculiar walk of the Innsmouth locals as he walks past search parties in the darkness. Eventually, the narrator makes his way towards railroad tracks and hears a procession of Deep Ones passing in the road before him. Against his judgment, he opens his eyes to see the creatures. He finds that they have grey-green skin, fish-like heads with unblinking eyes, gills on their necks and webbed hands, and communicate in unintelligible croak-like voices. Horrified, the narrator faints but wakes up at noon the next day alone and unharmed.
After reaching Arkham and alerting government authorities about Innsmouth, the narrator discovers that his grandmother was related to Obed Marsh's family, although the origins of her mother were unclear. The narrator's uncle had previously visited Arkham to research his ancestry before killing himself by gunshot. After returning home to Toledo, the narrator researches his family tree to discovers that he is a descendant of Marsh through his second wife Pth'thya-l'yi. By 1930 he begins gradually transforming into a Deep One. He begins to use odd words and phrases, his previous convictions lessen, and he begins having dreams of his grandmother and Pth'thya-l'yi in Y'ha-nthlei, which was damaged but not destroyed by the submarine attack. They explain that the Deep Ones will remain underwater for the time being but will eventually return to invade the surface world "for the tribute Great Cthulhu craved."
After briefly glimpsing a shoggoth in one of his dreams, the narrator awakens to find that he has fully acquired the "Innsmouth look." He wants to kill himself and purchases an automatic, but cannot go through with it. As the narrator concludes his story, he determines to free his cousin Lawrence, who is even further transformed than he, from a sanatorium in Canton and take him to live in Y'ha-nthlei.
Characters Robert Olmstead Olmstead is the narrator and protagonist of the story. He discovers Innsmouth on a tour of New England while seeking genealogical information, and finds more than he bargained for. The character, who remains unnamed in The Shadow over Innsmouth, is called "Robert Olmstead" in Lovecraft's notes for the story, published in Arkham House's Something About Cats and Other Pieces (1949).S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, "Olmstead, Robert", An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, p. 194. An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia points out that Olmstead's travel habits parallel Lovecraft's own—Lovecraft too would "seek the cheapest route", and Olmstead's dinner of "vegetable soup with crackers" is typical of Lovecraft's low-budget diet.S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, "The Shadow over Innsmouth", An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, pp. 239–240. Obed Marsh Wealthy sea captain, patriarch of the elite Marsh family, and the founder of the Esoteric Order of Dagon. He was referred to by Zadok Allen as being the man who first summoned the Deep Ones to Innsmouth. In 1846, he was jailed after the towns bordering Innsmouth became suspicious of his crew. He died in 1878. According to Lovecraft's story notes, Marsh's daughter, Alice, is Robert Olmstead's great-grandmother.Joshi and Schultz, "Olmstead, Robert", p. 194. Barnabas Marsh Known as Old Man Marsh, he is the grandson of Obed Marsh and the owner of the Marsh refinery at the time of The Shadow over Innsmouth. Barnabas' father was Onesiphorus Marsh, Obed's son by his fully human wife, though Barnabas' mother, who was never seen in public, was apparently an actual Deep One. Zadok Allen says of him: "Right naow Barnabas is about changed. Can't shet his eyes no more, an' is all aout o' shape. They say he still wears clothes, but he'll take to the water soon." Zadok Allen Born in 1831, one of the few completely human residents of Innsmouth, and an alcoholic. His drunken ramblings allow Lovecraft to convey much of the town's secret backstory to the story's protagonist. An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia notes that Allen resembles—and shares his years of birth and death with—Jonathan E. Hoag, an amateur poet of Lovecraft's acquaintance. A possible literary inspiration is the character of Dr. Humphrey Lathrop in Herbert Gorman's The Place Called Dagon (1927), who, like Allen, is a drinker who knows the secret history of his town.S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, "Allen, Zadok", An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, pp. 3, 239. Grocery store clerk An unnamed youth of about seventeen who is a native resident of Arkham, and therefore completely human. His superiors transferred him to Innsmouth, and both he and his family loathe the idea of him working there, but he cannot afford to quit his job. He is only too happy to encounter the narrator, and describes the sinister goings-on within Innsmouth, but the boy is unaware of what is really happening in the town. He tells the narrator of the bizarre deformities afflicting the native townspeople, and how the older generation are almost never seen outdoors due to their monstrous appearance. He also briefly informs the narrator of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, and what he knows of the town's society. The boy directs him to the drunkard, Zadok Allen, for more information. Crucially, he draws an extensive map of the town for Olmstead, which Olmstead uses later on as a means of escaping Innsmouth.
Robert Olmstead's family tree
This is a family tree of the story's protagonist and narrator, Robert Olmstead, as described in The Shadow over Innsmouth and in Lovecraft's notes.
Color key:
Inspiration
Both of Lovecraft's parents died in a mental hospital, and some critics believe that a concern with having inherited a propensity for physical and mental degeneration is reflected in the plot of The Shadow over Innsmouth. It also shares some themes with his earlier story, "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family".Ronan, Margaret, Foreword to The Shadow over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror, Scholastic Book Services, 1971 Cthulhu, an entity from previous Lovecraft stories, is the overlord of the sea creatures. The mind of the narrator deteriorates when he is afforded a glimpse of what exists outside his perceived reality. This is a central tenet of Cosmicism, which Lovecraft emphasizes in the opening sentence of "The Call of Cthulhu": "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928).
Lovecraft based the town of Innsmouth on his impressions of Newburyport, Massachusetts, which he had visited in 1923 and fall 1931.The Call of Cthulhu and Other Dark Tales, Barnes and Noble, 2009, p. 344 The real Newburyport features as a neighboring town in the narrative. A likely influence on the plot is Lovecraft's horror of miscegenation, which is documented by Lovecraft biographer L. Sprague de Camp and others.