Зов Ктулху / The Call of Chulhu

Говард Филлипс Лавкрафт

Эксклюзивное чтение на английском языке

Говард Филлипс Лавкрафт является одним из самых влиятельных писателей двадцатого века. Его произведения смешивают фантазию и научную фантастику с хоррором, открывая дверь в обширную, тёмную вселенную, полную невообразимых миров и существ. В истории, положившей ей начало, рассказывается о древней сущности, спящей на дне океана; сущности, желающей вырваться, чтобы подчинить себе жизнь на планете.

Тексты произведений сокращены и адаптированы, снабжены грамматическим комментарием и словарем, в который вошли ВСЕ слова, содержащиеся в текстах. Благодаря этому книга подойдет для любого уровня владения английским языком.

Говард Филлипс Лавкрафт / Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Зов Ктулху / The Call of Cthulhu

© Матвеев С. А., адаптация текста, комментарий, 2017

© ООО «Издательство АСТ», 2017

The Call of Cthulhu

I. The Horror in Clay

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant[1 - it was not meant – не предполагалось] that we should voyage far. The sciences have harmed us little; but some day the piecing together[2 - piecing together – соединение] of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying views of reality, that we’ll either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.[3 - dark age – средневековье]

Theosophists[4 - theosophists – теософы, сторонники мистического богопознания] have guessed at the awesome grandeur of the cosmic cycle where our world and human race form transient incidents. Their strange suggestions freeze the blood. Forbidden ages chill me when I think of them and madden me when I dream of them. That glimpse, like all dread glimpses of truth, appeared from an accidental piecing together of separated things: in this case, an old newspaper and the notes of a dead professor. I hope that no one else will make this piecing; certainly, if I live, I shall never add a link in that terrible chain. I think that the professor, too, intended to keep silent, and that he was going to destroy his notes but sudden death stopped him.

My first experience began in the winter of 1926–27 with the death of my great-uncle,[5 - great-uncle – двоюродный дед]George Gammell Angell,[6 - George Gammell Angell – Джордж Гэммел Энджелл]Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages[7 - Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages – заслуженный профессор в отставке, специалист по семитским языкам] in Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.[8 - Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island – Брауновский университет в Провиденсе, Род-Айленд (один из наиболее престижных частных университетов США, основанный в 1764 г.)] Professor Angell was widely known as an authority on ancient inscriptions, and the heads of prominent museums had frequently asked him for help; so his death at the age of ninety-two was talked about. Moreover, interest was intensified by the obscurity of the cause of death. The professor had been stricken while he was returning from the Newport boat.[9 - Newport boat – ньюпортский пароход] He fell suddenly; as witnesses said, after he had been jostled by a nautical-looking negro[10 - nautical-looking negro – негр, похожий на моряка] who had come from one of the queer dark courts on the precipitous hillside which formed a short way from the waterfront to the professor’s home in Williams Street.[11 - Williams Street – Уильямс-стрит] Physicians were unable to find any visible disorder, but concluded after perplexed debate that some obscure lesion of the heart, induced by the brisk ascent of a steep hill by so elderly a man, was responsible for the end. At the time I saw no reason to dissent from this dictum, but latterly I began to doubt.

As my great-uncle’s heir and executor, for he died a childless widower, I had to study his papers; and for that purpose I m