The short story The Alchemist written by H. P. Lovecraft was written in 1908 when Lovecraft was a teenager and published a few years later. This is often thought to be the first, or at least one of the first, short stories that Lovecraft wrote.
My review of The Alchemist contains a LOT of spoilers, so I highly recommend you read the short story first:
https://hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/a.aspx
Here’s my thoughts in video version:
To summarize in text version:
First, it’s certainly a nice work for a first short story. The ‘twist ending’ is quite telegraphed, but heck, Lovecraft is a teen. There are good uses of descriptions and setting the scene. I’m a bit iffy on the super-good main character vs the dastardly-evil two villains, but it’s also fair that we only learn about the villains’ traits from the family members of the cursed family. We’re not getting objective views.
That being said, it’s suspect that the only redeeming trait of young son sorcerer Charles is that he adores his father with “a more than filial affection.” Hmmm. That would seem to be fairly questionable to me.
Also, Count Antoine has lived alone in this chateau for his entire life – 32 years. He’s barely had a man-servant to be around. Sure, Antoine spends some time reading – but he also explores the chateau and surrounding wood. How in the world is there possibly entire SECTIONS of the building that he’s never gone into? Maybe if he’d only been there a month or two – but he’s been there decades. All alone. Nothing else to do but read. Surely he has gone into every cupboard, every closet, every single spot to poke around. I wish it had been written more like a storm hit and a section tumbled down, revealing a passage into an area which had previously been blocked by rubble.
Our hero Count Antoine of C— (i.e. fictional county in France) is 90 when he tells his story, which is in (to round off a bit) 1900. That means Count Antoine was born in 1810. We know this curse by Charles was set in the mid-1200s when Charles killed the first Count Henri. Let’s say 1250 for another round number. If we assume each boy grew up to be 25 before having a first son, which would be fairly young for a Count, then we end up with 22 generations. So if that only thing happening was Henri having one son Godfrey, Godfrey growing up to age 32 and having one son along the way (Robert), then Robert growing up to age 32, having just one son along the way, then our Charles murders 22 men before we get to Antoine.
But human biology doesn’t create one and only one son like magic for 22 generations straight. Sometimes there will be girl-children! Sometimes multiple children! And the curse states:
“May ne’er a noble of thy murd’rous line
Survive to reach a greater age than thine!”
It doesn’t say FIRST BORN BOY. It says any noble. Girl children of a count are nobles, too. They aren’t peasants. I won’t even get into Salic law here. Let’s assume this family is in the part of France where girls aren’t allowed to inherit land and therefore can’t inherit the title. Only the boys can. But still, there can be multiple boys. So the first one is living his life in county C—- while the second goes off to marry a countess in Burgundy. When the eldest son is murdered at age 32, it might take the younger son (now the Count of C—-) a few years to get his Burgundy affairs in order to return home to take over the family seat. Then he’ll be over 32! The curse will have failed.
And how about all the girl-children who are noble and who have been married off to counts or earls in Bordeaux or Champagne? The will need to be tracked down and killed. But somehow the story seems to dismiss any girl-children. Heck, the only two women mentioned are the wife of the sorcerer (brutally sacrificed to the Devil, or so claim the curse-laden family) and the mother of our main character (tragically sacrificed in the birthing of her child, a la Tyrion).
Speaking of which, all of the fathers are being slaughtered at the age of 32, which if we say they start to take on adult duties at sixteen, gives them a full sixteen years of ‘active administrating’ before they die. Yet somehow they are all incapable of running their household in an effective manner. Which is bad enough, but how about the wives? Noble wives are trained from birth TO run a household effective. History gives us countless examples of noble households very efficiently run by a woman well into her later years. Heck, when Veuve Cliquot’s husband died at age 30, in 1805, she turned the winery into a world-famous one.
Yes, the Counts of C—– could not engage in farming. That was explicitly against French law. But they had a county full of workers! Counts make money by having their farmers and blacksmiths and so on prosper. That’s the role of a Count – to oversee their county, to maintain the defenses of the keep / chateau to protect the King’s realm, and to ride off at the King’s side in time of war. There’s no way a King would let one of his important land areas sit so run-down that any random neighbor country could trample in and take over a section of his country. Never mind not have ANY soldiers ready for summoning. The King would have long since sent in advisors to get the area in shape or, heck, assigned a new Count. The entire reason you have a Count is to administer a County. If the current Count is abjectly negligent in his duties, a new one would be brought in.
A minor note – Count is a TITLE like Duke or Earl. It’s not a last name. A person is given Count rights by the King to rule County C. His son inherits those rights. But the Count can be ‘kicked out’ by the King, too.
And I suppose while we’re on that topic, there was this French Revolution in 1799! The French revolutionaries abolished all nobility! How how is this curse even still active if it’s only about descendants with noble titles? There aren’t any nobles any more.
At the end, Count Antoine has lived a nice, long life plus he had a pile of gold to fix his home up with. He chose not to have any kids – maybe he wasn’t wholly sure the curse was actually done with the family. Maybe he just wanted to spend his remaining days fixing up his castle, get a few dogs, learn how to oil paint, and enjoy some fine wines.
Let me know your thoughts on this story!