The Shadow Out of Time

by H. P. Lovecraft

Release: June 1936
Format: Short Story
Genres: Science Fiction, Horror
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

During an economics lecture, Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee’s body and mind are taken over by a being who can travel to any time and place of his choice, and during the next five years the being studies us, all of which Peaslee pieces together after his return.

Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi says that Lovecraft saw the movie Berkeley Square four times in 1933, and “its portrayal of a man of the 20th century who somehow merges his personality with that of his 18th-century ancestor” served as Lovecraft’s inspiration for this story.

The projected mind, in the body of the organism of the future, would then pose as a member of the race whose outward form it wore, learning as quickly as possible all that could be learned of the chosen age and its massed information and techniques.

DEBUT

“The Shadow Out of Time,” Astounding, June 1936.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

DERIVATIVE WORKS

The Shadow Out of Time written and directed by Richard Svensson and Daniel Lenneér, (Youtube: Bluworm Channel, 30 March 2012).

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Groupings

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY: We haven’t yet mapped out the time travel itinerary.