H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmic horror: “The Colour Out of Space”

Summary of the short story

As is typical of Lovecraft’s work, the story is told by an unnamed narrator (likely male, given the time period) who recounts a tale of mysterious events. The narrator is on a business trip. A reservoir is set to be built, and the area needs to be surveyed and measured. During his work, he encounters a sinister dead patch of land within the future reservoir site, shrouded in rumors. To learn more, he visits Ammi, an old man who witnessed the events tied to this dead patch decades earlier. Ammi then shares his story.

About 50 years earlier, a meteorite crashed in what is now the reservoir area. The meteorite was analyzed in a lab and seemed to obey foreign natural laws, glowing in an indescribable color. A few days later, lightning struck the stone, and it vanished without a trace. But soon after, strange changes started to affect the area around the impact site. At first, plants grew vigorously, then became diseased and inedible, and animals began to mutate in unnatural ways. One by one, everything in the area died, leaving behind a gray, lifeless patch: the cursed heath.

But that wasn’t all. The meteorite had effects on people, too. The family of Nahum Gardner, on whose land the meteorite had fallen, went insane, and Nahum’s two sons disappeared without a trace. Ammi made one last visit to the Gardners’ farm, a visit that ended in horror. He had to kill Nahum’s wife, who had lost her mind completely and was wasting away in the attic. Ammi then had to release Nahum from his suffering as well; Nahum, on the brink of death, was transforming into something animal-like. Before he died, Nahum warned Ammi about the strange color from space that the meteorite had supposedly brought, blaming it for everything. He also expressed an intense fear of the well on the property. The two sons were still missing.
The next day, Ammi returned to the farm with police and doctors to investigate. In the well, they discovered the bodies of Nahum’s two sons. They spent the entire day examining the well and the farm to find an explanation for what had happened. As evening approached, they noticed an eerie glow emanating from the farm, in the strange color of the meteorite. The men fled in terror as the color suddenly shot up from the well and returned to space, creating a kaleidoscopic spectacle of light and destroying the farm in the process. Only Ammi witnessed a small amount of the color fall back into the well. Since that time, he has avoided the farm and warned others to stay away. The dead patch on the cursed heath is said to continue spreading slowly, driving people and animals nearby to nervousness and madness. The narrator, having heard Ammi’s story, is relieved that the area will soon be submerged, hoping no one else will be harmed. He leaves and never returns to the area.