Wow. I had enjoyed Ex Oblivione so much. And then with the very next story we come to Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family. It is a real descent from a stunning high to a fairly grimy low. Still, we are reading these in order. Let’s take a look.
This story is told ‘after the fact’ where we already know that Arthur Jermyn has killed himself in distress. And the narrator really doesn’t seem to care much about the family. I don’t know why Lovecraft feels a need to do this. He already ‘ruins’ the suspense for me and distances us from what is going on. I would find this so much more interesting if we were reading along with each generation, curious what was going to happen.
Here’s the gist of this genealogical situation.
We have Sir Wade Jermyn back in the 1700s who loves going to Africa. After a trip he comes back with a secret wife and a son. They’re always sons of course. The wife is kept completely hidden, locked away, and nobody thinks this is strange. Sure, lock up your wife. The son gets to come out.
But the son, Philip, is coarse, stupid, violent, and ugly. Just what you’d expect from Africa, apparently. The only place for him, even though he’s a Sir Jermyn son, is the navy. Philip has sex with the gypsy gamekeeper’s daughter, who of course is fine with violent stupid ugly men, and they have a son. Then Philip runs off to Africa and is never seen again.
The child, Robert, is handsome enough in an exotic European way. He studies ethnology. He’s civilized enough to lure in a 7th Viscount’s daughter with his land and titles. They have three kids – but two of them are deformed and mentally ill. The third, Nevil, is repellent and surly. He runs off with a vulgar dancer and they have, of course, a son.
While that son is still tiny, the grandfather, Philip, discovers something truly atrocious in his research of the family history in Africa. Philip then MURDERS all three of his adult children. Nevil manages to protect the infant son from harm. Philip then tries repeatedly to kill himself and dies.
But of course, surely nothing bad could be related to this African connection.
So the little tyke Alfred grows up and joins the circus. He hooks up with a vulgar singer. But he abandons her and his tiny son (always a son) because he has an obsession with a gorilla. The two of them connect at a powerful level … until the gorilla kills Alfred. Which only leaves the son.
Arthur now grows up, knowing his family is full of gorilla-lovers and mentally ill people who try to kill all their children. Arthur is a sensitive poet. The family house is falling apart around him. He also delves into the family situation in Africa. And what he learns causes him to burn himself to death, thus finally ending the family line.
What he discovers is that the hidden wife Sir Wade Jermyn brought back from Africa all those years ago was an ape. All their physical, emotional, and mental problems were caused by that tainted bloodline.
Yes, tainted bloodlines. African bloodlines which cause mental deficiencies, ugliness, violence, and so on.
No wonder friends and readers of Lovecraft often took strong issue with what he wrote.
I had in fact done my video review of this book a while ago but then never posted it because I just felt unhappy with it. Then recently I couldn’t find that video and went through yet another video review round. So I’ve had to review this book twice. Hopefully it is now set!
So Lovecraft never mentions the women by names. They are just vulgar dancers and singers and lowly gypsies. The men only have men-children except the one man who creates broken ones. We have an uncaring narrator just listing out facts. We know right at the beginning what the end result is going to be. And we have rampant racism.
I read this (many times) as part of my project to read all Lovecraft works in order, but this is definitely not one I’d care to come back to.
Read Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family for yourself:
https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/faj.aspx
My video review –
