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Review of The Nameless City
All reviews are spoiler free unless otherwise noted.
Written early in his life and published in 1921 when he was just early in his writing career, this introduces the Arabian city in the title, as well as it’s antediluvian inhabitants and the mad Arab Abdul Alhazrad as well as the couplet that returns in the next story The Hound as well as Call, which begins here.
By the by, in his book, Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos by Lin Carter, he assigns 12 stories and one poem of Lovecraft’s to the Mythos, and this is the first one. Of course, Carter only believes those stories that add something to the Mythos are a part of the Mythos, so he doesn’t include stories like The Colour out of Space or The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, both of which are in the Mythos proper but not mentioned by Carter.
This story is written well and it lacks some of the embellishment of language that Lovecraft will use later, such as the adjective “cyclopean” or “non-Euclidian.” It suits this story a little better and I think does it well as it breathes on it’s own.
Because it introduces Abdul, it also sort of introduces the Mythos writ large in the Lovecraftian story.
I give it 3 stars out of 5. It’s short but good.
Next, let’s do The Hound.
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