"Celephaïs" () is a
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures.
The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
story by American
horror fiction
Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defin ...
writer
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Born in Provi ...
, written in early November 1920 and first published in the May 1922 issue of the ''Rainbow''. It is part of the body of work which later came to be known as Lovecraft's
Dream Cycle. The title refers to a
fictional city
This is a list of fictional settlements, including fictional towns, villages, and cities, organized by each city's medium. This list should include only well-referenced, notable examples of fictional towns, cities, settlements and villages that a ...
that later appears in other Dream Cycle stories, including Lovecraft's
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...
''
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
''The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath'' is a Horror fiction, horror novella by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Begun probably in the autumn of 1926, the draft was completed on January 22, 1927 in literature, 1927, and it remained unrevised and u ...
'' (1926).
Plot
Celephaïs was created in a dream by Kuranes (which is his name in dreams—his real name is not given) as a child, of the English
landed gentry
The landed gentry, or the gentry (sometimes collectively known as the squirearchy), is a largely historical Irish and British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. It is t ...
. Then as a man in his forties, alone and dispossessed in contemporary London, he dreams it again and, seeking it, slowly slips away to the dream-world. Finally knights guide him through medieval England to his ancestral estate, where he spent his boyhood, and then to Celephaïs. He became the king and chief god of the city, though his body washes up by his ancestors' tower, now owned by a
parvenu
A ''parvenu'' is a person who is a relative newcomer to a high-ranking socioeconomic class. The word is borrowed from the French language; it is the past participle of the verb ''parvenir'' (to reach, to arrive, to manage to do something).
Origin ...
.
In ''The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath'',
Randolph Carter pays a visit to Kuranes, finding that the great dreamer has grown so homesick for his native
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
, he has dreamed parts of Celephaïs to resemble the land of his boyhood. Kuranes advises Carter, on a mission to find his own dream-city, to be careful what he wishes for—he might get it.
Inspiration
Like many of Lovecraft's stories, "Celephaïs" was inspired by a dream, recorded in his
commonplace book
Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into blank books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such book ...
as "Dream of flying over city."
The story resembles a tale by
Lord Dunsany
Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany (; 24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957), commonly known as Lord Dunsany, was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist. He published more than 90 books during his lifetime, and his output consist ...
, ''The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap'' in ''
The Book of Wonder'', in which the title character becomes more and more engrossed in his imaginary kingdom of Larkar until he begins to neglect business and routine tasks of daily living, and ultimately is placed in a madhouse. The imagery of the horses drifting off the cliff may derive from
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the ...
's ''
A Horseman in the Sky'' (1891).
[Joshi & Schultz, p. 36.]
The fictional village of Innsmouth in England is said to be based on the fishing town of
Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census.
Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
which bears an uncanny resemblance to the description of the village in the later ''
Shadow Over Innsmouth'' and its inhabitants.
The city
In the original short story, Celephaïs is described as being situated in the valley of Ooth-Nargai beside the Cerenerian Sea. Its most remarkable feature is that it is unaffected by the passage of time, and takes no decay or wear, so that a person may leave it and return many years later to find that nothing has changed.
Important landmarks in Celephaïs are the
turquoise
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone for millennia due to its hue.
The robi ...
temple of Nath-Horthath and the Street of Pillars. Nearby rises snow-capped Mount Aran, whose lower slopes are replete with
ginkgo
''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants, assigned to the gymnosperms. The scientific name is also used as the English common name. The order to which the genus belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, , and ''Ginkgo'' is n ...
trees.
Galley
A galley is a type of ship optimised for propulsion by oars. Galleys were historically used for naval warfare, warfare, Maritime transport, trade, and piracy mostly in the seas surrounding Europe. It developed in the Mediterranean world during ...
s from the port of Celephaïs go everywhere in the
Dreamlands, but especially to the cloud-kingdom Serannian, reaching its harbor by sailing into the sky where the Cerenerian Sea meets the horizon.
References
Sources
*
* Lovecraft, Howard P.
**
1934">/nowiki>1934/nowiki> Definitive version.
** 1926">/nowiki>1926/nowiki> Definitive version.
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Celephais
1922 short stories
Cthulhu Mythos locations
Fantasy short stories
Short stories about dreams
American short stories
Fictional populated places
Short stories by H. P. Lovecraft
Works originally published in American magazines