today’s classic Lovecraft passage

From “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”:

“…there were rumors of Curwen’s presence in places which, though not actually near graveyards, were yet so situated in relation to graveyards that thoughtful people wondered just how thorough the old merchant’s change of habits really was.”

Brilliant.

The effect of the passage can easily be damaged by giving the more literal and expected version:

“…there were rumors of Curwen’s presence in places near graveyards.”

Not terrible. Graveyards are legitimately scary enough in the horror story context that I think we’d let him have that one, and it might even work in establishing a certain mood.

But what he does instead is absolutely fresh, as far as I know. The concept of “places not actually near graveyards, but situated with respect to graveyards in suspicious fashion” is magnificent. No ready answer comes to mind as to what this might mean, yet the people of Providence and Pawtuxet seem to know what it means, and thus we give it more than the benefit of the doubt, we give it our actual credence.

I don’t recall even Poe ever using that particular trick, though he always lingered in the stylistic vicinity of it.