The Outsider (Fantasy and Horror Classics) ; With a Dedication by George Henry Weiss

<p><strong>I know not what I am only that I am not of this world.</strong></p><p>Trapped since birth within the crumbling lightless stone walls of an endless castle the narrator knows nothing of the outside world of nature or of other people. His entire existence is a solitary gothic nightmare spent amongst decaying volumes and the silence of his ancestral tomb. He knows himself only as an <strong>Outsider--</strong>a being profoundly different and utterly alone.</p><p>Driven by a desperate agonizing curiosity to see the sun and know the truth of life he undertakes a terrifying ascent through the castle's highest impossible tower. He breaches the final ceiling crawling out onto the surface of the world and finds himself standing in a vibrant moonlit graveyard.</p><p>Drawn by lights and sounds of festivity the Outsider makes his way toward a great house filled with revelers. But when he enters the brightly lit hall his sudden appearance is met not with curiosity but with a universal echoing terror. People scream faint and flee in a panicked stampede leaving him alone to face the source of the dread.</p><p>He searches for the unseen monster only to find himself standing before a glistening polished mirror. What he sees there is the horrifying unnameable truth of his own face and form--a revelation that forces him to acknowledge his true nature and retreat forever into the comfortable darkness of the abyss.</p><p><strong>H. P. Lovecraft's</strong> most celebrated short story is a profound and intensely moving fable of isolation self-discovery and existential horror. <em>The Outsider</em> is a gothic masterpiece that asks: <strong>What if the monster is you?</strong></p>