The Shadow in the Attic

"The Shadow in the Attic" is a short story by August Derleth, presented as one of his "posthumous collaborations" with H. P. Lovecraft. Though most such "collaborations" involve Derleth writing a story based on an unused story idea from Lovecraft's Commonplace Book, in this case no such plot germ has been identified. The story first appeared in the Arkham House collection Over the Edge in 1964.
==Synopsis==
The plot involves the narrator, Adam Duncan, inheriting a 200-year-old house in Arkham from his great-uncle Uriah Garrison, a malignant sorcerer, under the condition that Duncan live in the house for three months. Though Garrison's lawyer, Saltonstall, insists that no one else has access to the house, Duncan discovers that his uncle's housekeeper is still in residence. She turns out to be a sort of succubus--referred to at one point as Lilith--summoned by Garrison as a servant and companion. Garrison's spirit plots to take over Duncan's body from beyond the grave--a scheme foiled when Duncan's fiancee, Rhoda Prentiss, sets fire to the house.
==Behind the Mythos==
While set in Lovecraft's Arkham (in June 1928), the magic-related texts discovered in Garrison's home are traditional, non-Mythos works, chiefly related to witchhunting, including the Malleus Maleficarum, Anania’s De Natura Daemonum, De Vignate’s Quaestio de Lamiis and Stampa’s Fuga Satanae. He also has "very old books" by Olaus Magnus, Eunapius and de Rochas.
Though featuring a typically Derlethian inheritance plot, the story is unusual in that it features a strong, appealing female character in Rhoda Prentiss--something rare in stories by Lovecraft or his circle--and also in its PG-13 sexuality.Derleth Country #7, "The Shadow in the Attic", Bret Kramer
==References==
Category:August Derleth works
Category:Lovecraft Circle Works