The Silver Key

"The Silver Key" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft in 1926, considered part of his Dreamlands series. It was first published in the January 1929 issue of "Weird Tales". It was followed by a sequel, "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", co-written with E. Hoffmann Price.

The story and its sequel both feature Lovecraft's recurring character of Randolph Carter as the protagonist.

Inspiration

"The Silver Key" is thought to have been inspired in part by Lovecraft's visit to Foster, Rhode Island, where his maternal ancestors lived. The character Benijah Corey from the story seems to combine the names of Emma Corey Phillips, one of Lovecraft's relatives, and Benejah Place, a farmer who lived across the street from the home where Lovecraft stayed. [Joshi and Schultz, pp. 244-245.]

Carter's search for meaning through a succession of philosophical and aesthetic approaches may have been inspired by J. K. Huysmans' "A rebours" (1884), whose main character undertakes a similar progression. [Joshi and Schultz, pp. 244.]

Reaction

"Weird Tales" editor Farnsworth Wright rejected "The Silver Key" when Lovecraft submitted it in mid-1927. The next year, however, Wright asked to see the story again and accepted it. He later told Lovecraft that the story was "violently disliked" by readers. [Joshi and Schultz, p. 245.]

ynopsis

Randolph Carter discovers that he has "lost the key to the gate of dreams." Randolph believes life is made up of nothing but pictures in your memory, whether they be from real life or dreams, he highly prefers the dreams. As he ages he finds that it is harder to relive the dreams and longs for the dreams that he had while young. He sets out to rediscover the key, passing through several unsatisfying philosophical stances in the process. He eventually discovers a silver key in his attic and takes it with him on a visit to his boyhood home, where he enters a mysterious cave that he used to play in. The key somehow enables him to return to his childhood as a nine-year-old boy.

Connections

"The Silver Key" alludes to other Lovecraft stories that feature Randolph Carter, allowing the reader to place these stories in chronological order: first "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", then "The Statement of Randolph Carter", followed by "The Unnamable". "The Silver Key" and "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" are set at the end of this sequence. [Joshi and Schultz, p. 245.]

"An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia" compares "The Silver Key" to Lovecraft's early story "The Tomb", whose narrator, Jervas Dudley, also "discovers in his attic a physical key that allows him to unlock the secrets of the past." [Joshi and Schultz, p. 245.]

In popular culture

"The Silver Key" is a song by the symphonic metal band Dark Moor.

"The Silver Key" is an experimental breakcore LP album by the Xanopticon http://www.discogs.com/release/1129944

References

*S. T. Joshi and David Schultz, "An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia".

Notes

External links