“The sand of the desert of Yondo is not as the sand of other deserts; for Yondo lies nearest of all to the world's rim;… ”
^Across the Time-Stream^ [The Eternal World] (Synopsis)
“A man invents a mechanism, utilizing a force which can project him laterally in universal time, thus achieving instantaneous space-transit. The force projects him beyond… ”
“A survior from the lost continents of Mu or Atlantis, appearing on our modern streets, would have seemed no stranger, no more different from others,… ”
“A planet in a far system has been colonized from Earth. After many aeons, the last of the colonists, who have preserved the original human… ”
The Arm from the Fig-Tree (Synopsis)
“An ectoplasmic arm (put forth by a medium) which comes in through a farm-house window and strangles a man who has eloped with the medium's… ”
Ascharia (Synopsis and Fragment)
“Told by Hespire, Lemurian space-voyager, to his grandchildren. Hespire hints at strange adventures on various planets. Speaks of Ascharia, the lost planet, which had disappeared… ”
The Atmospheric Entity (Synopsis)
“An entity without form or substance, clinging like an atmosphere to a certain place or territory, and perhaps manifesting itself malignly by inexplicable variations of… ”
“I, a poor scrivener and the humblest monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Perigon, have been asked by our abbot Theophile to write down this… ”
The Beast of Averoigne (Abridged)
“Old age, like a moth in some fading arras, will gnaw my memories oversoon, as it gnaws the memories of all men. Therefore I, Luc… ”
The Beast of Averoigne (Long Synopsis)
“The depredations of a fearsome beast, beginning near a ^Cistercian^ [Nestorian] monastery in the hills of Averoigne during a year of comets, meteors, and {.… ”
The Beast of Averoigne (Short Synopsis)
“A terrible, semi-human thing—the progeny of a sorceress and a demon-—which terrorizes the wood of Averoign. Then a long synopsis… ”
“A scientist who finds a way of penetrating the Fourth Dimension. His mechanism fails midway, however, and leaves him with his body still in the… ”
Beyond the Rose-Arbor (Synopsis)
“A staid middle-aged bachelor, waiting for his fiancée in her rose-arbor, accidentally discovers that a small, never-before-used exit from the arbor leads into a strange,… ”
“Zobal the archer and Cushara the pikebearer had poured many a libation to their friendship in the sanguine liquors of Yoros and the blood of… ”
A Bottle On the ^Orinoco^ [Amazon] (Synopsis)
“A whisky-bottle floating in the ^Orinoco^ [Amazon] is picked up near the river's mouth, and is found to contain a ms. which details the adventures… ”
“Authorship confirmed as not being by Clark Ashton SmithSee the forum thread The Brahmin's Wisdom for more information.When the sun has sunk… ”
“It was a small bronze image of the God Ganesha, the elephant-headed, who is the [Hindu] deity of wisdom, and it stood on my writing… ”
The ^Burial-Place^ [Interment] of the Unknown (Synopsis)
“A lonely place in the mountains, where the trees and vegetation, within a small radius, have assumed monstrous, unearthly forms. In the midst is a… ”
“The teller of the tale presses so close to the strange vessel, in irresistible attraction, that he is drawn into some sort of trans-dimensional vortex… ”
“It is indeed strange that John Milwarp and his writings should have fallen so speedily into semi-oblivion. His books, treating of Oriental life in a… ”
“"Mordiggian is the god of Zul-Bha-Sair," said the innkeeper with unctuous solemnity. "He has been the god from years that are lost to man's memory… ”
“"I'm afraid he has found your letters to me, Leonard.""He? Who is he?""My husband, of course, stupid!""The devil! That's awkward, if true. What makes you… ”
“On planet two, a dozen members of the dominant race, self-termed the Tzaksas, had annexed themselves to a mobile feasting-table. By a convenient dispensation of… ”
“When Giles Angarth disappeared, nearly two years ago, we had been friends for a decade or more, and I knew him as well as anyone… ”
“The thrice-infamous nathaire, alchemist, astrologer and necromancer, with his ten devil-given pupils, had departed very suddenIy and under circumstances of strict secrecy from the town… ”
“Rendered from the Old French manuscript of Gaspard du Nord.Evagh the warlock, dwelling beside the boreal sea, was aware of many strange and untimely portents… ”
The Coming of the White Worm (Abridged)
“Evagh the warlock, dwelling beside the boreal sea, was aware of many strange and untimely portents in midsummer. Chilly burned the sun above Mhu Thulan… ”
The Conquest of Mercury (Synopsis)
“When the sun begins to cool, there is a war for the possession of Mercury, between the people of Venus and the earth.… ”
“Andrew McGregor and his nephew, John Malcolm, were precisely alike, except for one particular. Both were unmistakably Scottish, to an extent that was almost caricatural;… ”
“The ultra-mundane reverberation or extension of earthly events, with unimaginable forms and significance. A man stimulates a dormant, unused sense, so that he is able… ”
The Crabs of Iribos (Synopsis)
“Manthar, neophyte of the sorcerer Mior Lumivix, tells the tale of his master's feud with Sarcand, a formidable wizard, son of a necromancer from Naat… ”
^The Cypress^ [The Baobab] (Synopsis)
“A Voodoo witch-doctor who slays a rival and buries him at the foot of a ^cypress^ [baobab]. Returning years later, he conceives the idea that… ”
“The laboratory was like a citadel. It stood on a steep eminence, overtopped only by the loftier mountains, and looked out across numberless fir-thick valleys… ”
“On Zothique, the last continent on Earth, the sun no longer shone with the whiteness of its prime, but was dim and tarnished as if… ”
“Jon Montrose and his wife Mildred were passing Belaran, a sun obscured to earth-astronomers by a small dense nebula ^many^ [ten] million miles beyond Alpha… ”
“A man has invented a mechanism which galvanizes and controls dead bodies at a distance. Under its direction, corpses are sent forth to commit various… ”
“According to the custom in old Tasuun, the obsequies of Ilalotha, lady-in-waiting to the self-widowed Queen Xantlicha, had formed an occasion of much merrymaking and… ”
“At the hour of interlunar midnight, when lamps burned rarely and far apart in Susran, and slow-moving autumn clouds had muffled the stars, King Gadeiron… ”
The Demon ^From^ [Of] Alphard (Synopsis)
“A man who remembers his former incarnation in a world of Alphard, and who is pursued by an evil spirit from this world, with whom… ”
“Not as the plants and flowers of Earth, growing peacefully beneath a simple sun, were the blossoms of the planet Lophai. Coiling and uncoiling in… ”
The Destination of Gideon Balcoth (Synopsis)
“A London business-man, on his way to his office in a thick fog, is picked up by two telescopic tentacles and finds himself on a… ”
“The old Larcom house was a mansion of considerable size and dignity, set among oaks and cypresses on the hill behind Auburn's Chinatown, in what… ”
^The Devotee of Evil^ [The Manichaean] (Synopsis)
“A devotee of absolute cosmic evil, who finally evokes {pure} evil in the form of a black radiation that leaves him petrified into a {.… ”
“"Better get that pea-shooter ready," warned Markley through the audiphone, from his seat at the controls of the rocket plane. "At this rate we'll come… ”
“Prior to certain highly deplorable and scandalous events in the year 1550, the vegetable garden of Perigon was situated on the southeast side of the… ”
The Disinterment of Venus (Synopsis)
“A marble Venus, exhumed in a monastery ^garden^ [turnip-field] in Averoigne by some ^monks^ [peasants], which has a baleful influence on all who touch or… ”
Djinn without A Bottle (Fragment)
“"Once upon a time, there was a young man named Harry Clabberhead who, though born in the second decade of the twentieth century, possessed nearly… ”
The Dome in the Ice (Synopsis)
“A station maintained in polar wastes by beings from some outer planet (perhaps Uranus) who are unable to endure the warmer climates of the earth.… ”
“When morghi, the high priest of the goddess Yhoundeh, together with twelve of his most ferocious and efficient underlings, came at morning twilight to seek… ”
“It is for the reader to decide how much importance can be attached to the manuscript left by Bernard Meecham. Doubtless few will consider it… ”
“A man begins to have waking intimations and experiences (co-simultaneous with his daily life) of a very different realm of existence. By slow degrees, this… ”
“MY NAME is Pharpetron, among those who have known me in Poseidonis; but even I, the last and most forward pupil of the wise Avyctes,… ”
“A man sees a monstrous shadow following his own and merging with it gradually, day by day; while coincidentally with this merging, he loses his… ”
“The circumstances which led Clark Ashton Smith to call his short story "The Dweller in the Gulf" "my triply unfortunate tale" 1 are both… ”
The Eggs from Saturn (Fragment)
“"I've seen a pile o' shootin' stars in my time, an' I watched Halley's Comet, too, an' I seed the Aurora Borealis, burnin' like the… ”
The ^Elder^[Other] Manor (Synopsis)
“A house, built on the site of a forgotten manor. One night, between the study and bedroom, the owner finds himself wandering in unfamiliar chambers,… ”
The Embassy to Tiirath (Synopsis)
“Beings from an alien system who land on the earth, but pay no attention to its human inhabitants. Finally it is discovered that they have… ”
“Colonel Manners, though some twenty years my senior, had always been one of my best friends. Therefore, it was quite a shock to me to… ”
“The sun was setting in the Syrian Desert. Already the fiery ball was concealed behind mass of glowing, red clouds, which mantled the distant horizon… ”
The Empire of the Necromancers
“The legend of Mmatmuor and Sodosma shall arise only in the latter cycles of Earth, when the glad legends of the prime have been forgotten.… ”
The Empire of the Necromancers (Long Synopsis)
“A story told by a man centuries dead — the prince of a perished people. He, and all his subjects, are raised up from death… ”
The Empire of the Necromancers (Synopsis)
“Two sorcerers, who raise up an entire people from the dead, in order that they may reign over them. The dead, however, revolt against being… ”
“'Why, you big ninny! I could never marry you,' declared the demoiselle Dorothée, only daughter of the Sieur des Flèches. Her lips pouted at Anselme… ”
“The following narrative was found among the papers of Christophe Morand, a young law-student of Tours, after his unaccountable disappearance during a visit at his… ”
The Entity of the Sands (Synopsis)
“The malignant communal spirit of a ruined city, taking the sand of the desert about it for a vestment, and overwhelming caravans and lonely travellets.… ”
“I find it peculiarly difficult to express the exact nature of the sentiment which Tomeron had always evoked in me. However, I am sure that… ”
“Christopher Chandon went to his laboratory window for a last look at the mountain solitude about him, which, in all likelihood, he would never see… ”
“Mangan had observed the house with sharpening interest as he rode out to the tomato-field that morning on a truck overcrowded with unwashed Mexicans and… ”
^An Excursion in Time^ [The Time-Traveller] (Synopsis)
“The time-traveling machine, which goes into the future · and lands in a foreign world when it stops, because it has stood still in space… ”
“"Tom is terribly in love with you, Dora. He'd stand on his head in a thistle-patch if you told him to. You won't find a… ”
“FakhreddinFakhreddin, Grand Vizier to Abdallah Harun Al-Raschid, seventh Caliph of the race of the Abassids, was a tall, handsome man, well versed in all the… ”
The Feet of Sidaiva (Synopsis)
“Sidaiva, court-dancer of Ummaus, famed throughout Zothique for the grace of her dancing and the beauty of her feet, incurs the jealousy of Princess Lunalia,… ”
“Someone introduced him to her as she stepped from the surf at the bathing beach. She was blonde as a daffodil, and her one-piece suit… ”
“'Athlé,' said Maal Dweb, 'I suffer from the frightful curse of omnipotence. In all Xiccarph, and in the five outer planets of the triple suns,… ”
“Maal Dweb, bored with his omnipotence, goes forth in disguise to visit one of the worlds over which he rules. There he allows himself to… ”
“A spirit from a lost world (of which the asteroids are the remaining fragments) which takes possession of a drug-steeped fiction-writer and uses his brain… ”
“You may set this story down as a case of coincidence. Indeed, you may not believe it at all. But the facts are well authenticated,… ”
The Galley from Atlantis (Synopsis)
“A phantom galley from Atlantis, that roams the seas, still seeking the lost continent.… ”
“It was well known that Adompha, king of the wide orient isle of Sotar, possessed amid his far-stretching palace grounds a garden secret from all… ”
[The Gargoyle of Vyones] (Synopsis)
“[A gargoyle on the new-built cathedral of Vyones, which comes to life at night, and terrorizes the town with eerie and prankish depredations.]… ”
“'It is a very strange place,' said Amberville, 'but I scarcely know how to convey the impression it made upon me. It will all sound… ”
“"I'll wager a hundred rupees that you won't stay there over-night," said Nicholson.It was late in the afternoon, and we were seated on the veranda… ”
“Duringthe reign of the Caliph Vathek, a young man of good repute and family, named Noureddin Hassan, was hauled before the Cadi Alimed ben Becar… ”
^The Ghoul from Mercury^ the Corposant] (Synopsis)
“An entity like a gigantic fire-ball, from some alien planet, which devours the corpses in graveyards and morgues, and even breaks into the mummy-cases in… ”
A Gift from the Beloved (Synopsis)
“A woman dies, willing her skull to her sweetheart on condition that he should keep it always with him. He is gradually transformed into a… ”
The God of the Asteroid (Synopsis)
“A space-ship manned by three terrestrial explorers is wrecked on an asteroid. One of the three survives, and is worshipped as a god by the… ”
“Jonas Turple and Caleb Udley, joint owners of the sole undertaking establishment in ^Ramsville^ [Johnsville], were continuing an immemorial dispute."You couldn't embalm a salted herring,"… ”
^A Good Embalmer^ [The Undertakers] (Synopsis)
“Two undertakers, one of whom has a poor opinion of his partner's abilities, particularly as an embalmer. He tells him, "If I die before you… ”
“I have no reason to expect that anyone will believe my story. If it were another's tale, probably I should not feel inclined to give… ”
“This is not a moral story; for which deplorable fact the Auburn gossip-mongers are at least partly to blame. Indeed, it is only fair to… ”
“(Class-room lecture given by the Most Honorable Erru Saggus, Professor of Hamurriquanean Archaeology at the World-University of Toshtush, on the 365th day of the year… ”
The Guardian of the Temple (Fragment)
“Panjore is a little native state in India, not big enough to be of any political consequence, but still large enough to have a walled… ”
“Several years ago, I shall not give the exact date, I received an invitation from a second cousin of mine, one Charles Burleigh, to visit… ”
“Among the many queer shops in San Francisco's Chinatown is that of a Japanese dealer in antiques—Takamoto Satsuma. Satsuma himself is a puzzle, but his… ”
“An unknown sect of moon-worshippers, who practice witchcraft and various baleful rites, and who are presided over by an intelligence from the dark side of… ”
“'By the Ram with a Thousand Ewes! By the Tail of Dagon and the Horns of Derceto!' said Azédarac, as he fingered the tiny, pot-bellied… ”
The House of Haon-Dor (Fragment)
“Roger Farway had not declined his uncle's hospitality through mere independence, nor a desire to avoid imposing himself too onerously on a busy fiction-writer. The… ”
“I have seldom been able to resist the allurement of a bookstore, particularly one that is well supplied with rare and exotic items. Therefore I… ”
The Hyperborean City (Synopsis)
“A lost explorer who is freezing to death in the Arctic falls, into a dream, in which he lives through a long drama that takes… ”
“A young couple, Elinor and ^Gilbert^ [Robert] Hinton, and their child Donald, have taken an old, gambrelled house in the town of Arkham, renowned for… ”
“Quanga the huntsman, with Hoom Feethos and Eibur Tsanth, two of the most enterprising jewelers of Iqqua, had crossed the borders of a region into… ”
“I do not mean to boast when I say that cowardice has never been among my failings. It would be needless to boast, in view… ”
“Cliff Howard's first sensation, as he came back to consciousness, was one of well-nigh insufferable heat. It seemed to beat upon him from all sides… ”
The Immortals of Mercury (Synopsis)
“An explorer caught by the aboriginals of Mercury, who is tied to the back of a salamander-like monster that carries him away into the sun-ward… ”
^In A Hashish-Dream^ [A Tale of Hashish-Land] (Fragment)
“The first effects of hashish, like those of opium, are often disappointing to the Occidental: mere drowsiness, or trivial dreams, and slight half-conscious hallucinations are… ”
“{These paragraphs precede the beginning of the published version of "The Last Hieroglyph"; April 7, 1934}It was said of Vergama, in the lattermost ages, that… ”
“From a somewhat prolonged acquaintance with Oliver Woadley, I can avow my belief that the story he told me, in explanation of the dire embarrassment… ”
“A man who remembers his incarnations in the future, and becomes convinced that his own chain of lives is moving backward in time — fleeing… ”
“"Confound you," said Langley in a hoarse whisper that came with effort through swollen lips, blue-black with thirst. "You've gulped about twice your share of… ”
The Invisible City (Long Synopsis)
“Two explorers, wandering in the Gobi desert, lost, and searching for water, come to a series of strange, regular-shapen pits in the desert floor. Examining… ”
“An invisible barrier, like a city wall, is encountered by explorers in the Gobi desert. Groping, they find a gate in this wall—and are trapped… ”
The Invisible Devourer (Synopsis)
“A man sees a companion devoured piecemeal by some invisible entity.… ”
The Invisible Satellite (Synopsis)
“A dirigible world, rendered invisible by a ray which its inhabitants employ, approaches earth, and its presence is detected by perturbations in the movements of… ”
“Between the sun's departure and return, the Silver Death had fallen upon Yoros. Its advent, however, had been foretold in many prophecies, both immemorial and… ”
“Nikhal Singh, Rajah of Anapur, was acquiring the obese complacency of middle age; and his memories were blurred and befogged by a liberal use of… ”
“With one backward look at the bowery suburbs of Damascus, and the street that was peopled only by the long, faint shadows of a crescent… ”
“Nushain the astrologer had studied the circling orbs of night from many far-separated regions, and had cast, with such skill as he was able to… ”
“Malygris the magician sat in the topmost room of his tower that was builded on a conicall hill above the heart of Susran, capital of… ”
“Some who read this narrative will no doubt remember the disappearance of the eccentric millionaire Domitian Malgraff and his Chinese servant Li Wong, which provided… ”
“It will be said, by nearly all who peruse this narrative, that I must have been mad from the beginning; that even the first of… ”
“Pharazyn the prophet abode in a tall house of granite built on the cliffy heights above a small fishing-village on the northernmost coasts of Zabdamar,… ”
“I come of a hard-headed, long-lived race — a puritan family, conspicuous for strength of constitution and sanity of mind. Though not unimaginative, I have… ”
“A great brain in the center of the moon, formed of an unknown life-substance allied both to protoplasm and the radio-active minerals. It is growing… ”
“A man who finds a strange, unknown path at the full moon, and follows it into an ultramundane valley of ethereal loveliness. Here he finds… ”
“Arthur Merton, British resident at Jizapur, and his cousin, John Hawley, an Agra newspaper editor, who had run down into Central India for a few… ”
The ^Maker^ [Carver] of Gargoyles (Synopsis)
“Two gargoyles, wrought by the same carver, on the new-built cathedral of Vyones, one of which is expressive of malignant hatred, and the other of… ”
“Among the many gargoyles that frowned or leered from the roof of the new-built cathedral of Vyones, two were pre-eminent above the rest by virtue… ”
“One Professor ^Robert^ Camelie, biologist, and soi-disant graduate of the Sorbonne, has been creating animal prodigies in his secluded laboratory and selling them at huge… ”
“"Sahib," said Hir Mohammed, "this weapon has not its equal in all Delhi. From far Singapore it came—from the land of the Malays, and its… ”
“"Sahib," said the sword-dealer, "this blade, which came from far Singapore, has not its equal for sharpness in all Delhi."He handed me the blade for… ”
“To Mandor, son of Famorgh, and sixtieth king of Tasuun, there came in the latter days of his tyranny the consort he had neither desired… ”
“Gilies Grenier the sorcerer and his wife Sabine, coming into lower Averoigne from parts unknown or at least unverified, had selected the location of their… ”
“"I'm going to put you fellows off on the first world of the first planetary system we come to."
The icy deliberation of Captain Volmar's tones… ”
The Master of Destruction (Synopsis and Fragment)
“A party of scientists, exploring the asteroids, finds some ancient, fragmentary ruins on Eros, as well as on certain of the others, arguing, by their… ”
“Man's conquest of the interplanetary gulfs has been fraught with many tragedies. Vessel after vessel, like venturous motes, disappeared in the infinite — and had… ”
“I remember that I grumbled a little when Mior Lumivix awakened me. The past evening had been a tedious one with its unpleasant familiar vigil,… ”
“By the light of the four small waning moons of Xiccarph, Tiglari had crossed that bottomless swamp wherein no reptile dwelt and no dragon descended;… ”
“With no other light than that of the four diminutive moons of Xiccarph, each in a different phase but all decrescent, Tiglari had crossed the… ”
The Mechanical Murder (Synopsis)
“A murder, or series of murders, committed by a Robot no bigger than a child, under the direction of its inventor.… ”
Men of the Macrocosm (Synopsis)
“Beings who appear in our world, dwindling down from some major universe on an unknown scientific quest. Feared and pursued by men (though without hostile… ”
The Menace of the Dust (Synopsis)
“A process of universal crumbling, which begins and spreads in a circle, turning the world into fine dust.… ”
“In the year 2197, the first intimation of a strange peril of world-wide scope and gravity came and passed unrecognized for what it really was… ”
The Minotaur's Brother (Synopsis)
“Millicent Page has married the scientist, Geoffrey Gorbel, noted for his research in biology. She is puzzled, on their wedding night, by the mixture of… ”
A Misadventure of Don Juan (Synopsis)
“Don Juan meets a real vampire and spends a night with her. Pretending to be asleep, he feels the wound that she makes in his… ”
“1"I must warn you that the drug is not wholly reliable," said the drum-chested, mummy-lean keeper of the dive. His voice boomed like the… ”
“A dismal, fog-dank afternoon was turning into a murky twilight when Theophilus Alvor paused on Brooklyn Bridge to peer down at the dim river with… ”
“The change occurred before he could divest himself of more than his coat and scarf. He had only to step out of the shoes, to… ”
“A tiny elf-like apparition, seen only by moonlight, by a man who is sorrowing for his dead sweetheart. Years later, in another woman whom he… ”
“A barren, boulder-strewn moraine, which has a secret aspect of mysterious and perhaps futuristic life, inhabitation and activity.… ”
“In Umbri, City of the Delta, the lights blazed with a garish brilliance after the setting of that sun which was now a coal-red decadent… ”
“"Why must you always hurry away, my little one?"The voice of Mere Antoinette, the witch, was an amorous croaking. She ogled Pierre, the apothecary's young… ”
“"Why must you always hurry away, my little one?" The voice of Mere Antoinette, the witch, was an amorous croaking. She ogled Pierre, the apothecary's… ”
The Mummy-Case of Hammen-Tha (Synopsis)
“An Egyptologist disappears. Amid his property is a supposedly empty mummy-case, which had once contained the body of the high-priest, Hammen-Tha. This case is found… ”
Murder in the Fourth Dimension
“The following pages are from a note-book that was discovered lying at the foot of an oak tree beside the Lincoln Highway, between Bowman and… ”
The Music of Death (Synopsis and Fragment)
“{Ms.} left by Adrian Thomas, young piano-tuner of Pine Valley. Thomas is returning homeward after several visits to rural houses, and is passing the unkempt… ”
The Mysterious Poison (Synopsis)
“Rattlesnake venom used by radio to effect a series of unaccountable murders.… ”
“In a sense, it is fortunate that the story I must now relate should be so largely a thing of undetermined shadows, of halfshaped hints… ”
The Nameless Offspring (Synopsis)
“A woman, supposedly dead, but possibly in a cataleptic state, is left in an open coffin in the family vaults, on the chance that she… ”
“Yadar, prince of a nomad people in the half-desert region known as Zyra, had followed throughout many kingdoms a clue that was often more elusive… ”
“In one sense, it is a mere truism to speak of the evocative power of words. The olden efficacy of subtly woven spells, of magic… ”
“The authentic talent of Francis La Porte, fiction-writer, was allied with an industry no less than prodigious. Unfortunately, he was self-critical to an excessive degree.… ”
“A wanderer in the desert, who finds an oasis inhabited only by a beautiful girl, named Neria. He loves her, and is content to dwell… ”
“My sojourn in the city of Malnéant occurred during a period of my life no less dim and dubious than that city itself and the… ”
“It was beneath the immaculate blue of a morning in April that I set out to keep my appointment with Guenevere. We had agreed to… ”
The Ocean-World of Alioth (Synopsis and Fragment)
“The Alcyone is compelled to land for repairs on a world of Alioth; but this world is almost entirely covered with water. A small isle… ”
“"I believe," announced Morley, "that the roofless temples of Mu were not all devoted to solar worship, but that many of them were consecrated to… ”
Offspring of the Grave (Synopsis)
“Allen Finlay and his bride Margaret lease an old country mansion that had reputedly belonged to a sorcerer and sorceress, now dead and buried in… ”
The Opal of Delhi [I] (Fragment)
“Whence it came originally no one knows, although there are many tales current about it. One legend says that the stone came from Persia about… ”
The Opal of Delhi [II] (Fragment)
“Back in the old days, before India ever heard of the Feringhees, when the great Akbar sat on is throne in Delhi, and ruled Hindustan… ”
Oriental Tales: The Yogi's Ring (Fragment)
“Cairo was for several years my abiding place. During that time I met with a number of queer adventures. The queerest of which is the… ”
“A man who discovers that his earthly personality is a mere organ or appendage of some greater self, functioning in another world.… ”
“The pawnshop was so crowded with unredeemed articles, that neither electricity nor sunlight could dissipate fully the murk of its doubtful corners. The windows were… ”
“Once there was an idealist who sought for the Perfect Woman. In the course of his search, which lasted many years, and was thorough and… ”
“It was late summer, and the Georgetown road was deep with dust, which had settled like a dun pall on the bordering chaparral and pines.… ”
“Rodis and Hilar had climbed from their natal caverns to the top chamber of the high observatory tower. Pressed close together, for warmth as well… ”
The Pilgrim of Eternity (Synopsis)
“A young scientist, who is trying to invent a practical space-ship, receives a visit one evening from a strange man whose age he cannot determine.… ”
“By profession, Francis Melchior was a dealer in antiques; by avocation he was an astronomer. Thus he contrived to placate, if not to satisfy, two… ”
The Planet of the Dead (Synopsis)
“An amateur astronomer is studying a certain remote, obscure star, which fascinates him greatly, when he falls into a cataleptic condition. In this state, which… ”
“They were sitting a fairly proper distance apart, on their favorite moss-grown boulder, at the end of the leaf-strewn autumn trail they had taken so… ”
“'It is remarkable.' said Dr. Manners, 'how the scope of our pharmacopoeia has been widened by interplanetary exploration. In the past thirty years, hundreds of… ”
The Point of the Jest (Fragment)
“Have I ever "seen a ghost?" Have I had reason, at any time, to suspect the presence or existence of the supernatural? Have I, as… ”
“A man picked up on a piece of wreckage in mid-Atlantic, who tells a strange tale of how his ship was haunted by a sea-god… ”
“In these after-days, when all things are touched with insoluble doubt, I am not sure of the purpose that had taken us into that little-visited… ”
Prince Alcorez and the Magician
“The following is translated from an old manuscript of the time of Limour the Lame. The author's identity is unknown.Takoob Khan, the Sultan of Balkh,… ”
Prince Alcouz and the Magician
“Alcouz Khan was the only son of Yakoob Ullah, Sultan of Balkh. Unruly and vicious by nature, he was anything but improved by the luxury… ”
Prisoners of the Black Dimension (Synopsis)
“Several people disappear bodily, and are reintegrated in the Black Dimension by means of a force employed by the savants of that sphere.… ”
“A race on some alien planet, who have the faculty of attracting atomic material to themselves at will, and taking any physical form desired, even… ”
Queen of the Sabbat (Synopsis)
“^Jacques Dindonneau^ [Guillaume le Morve], charcoal-burner and poacher, hunting a stag by night in the forest of Averoigne, stumbles inadvertently upon a Shabbat held by… ”
“When Clark Ashton Smith penned the fifth tale of Zothique, "The Voyage of King Euvoran", in early 1933 and offered it for publication, it was,… ”
“There was more than one reason why Bently did not view his appointment as British Resident at Shaitanabad with enthusiasm. The climate was reported to… ”
“A corpse has been dismembered, and its parts buried in different places by the murderer. He develops the hallucination that the pieces are trying to… ”
The Rebirth of the Flame (Synopsis)
“Angarth and Hastane return to the ruins of Ydmos, and find that the stricken Flame has begun to spring again in its chasm. They feel… ”
“Gerard de l'Automne was meditating the rimes of a new ballade in honor of Fleurette, as he followed the leaf-arrased pathway toward Vyones through the… ”
The Resurrection of the Rattlesnake
“"No, as I've told you fellows before, I haven't a red cent's worth of faith in the supernatural."The speaker was Arthur Avilton, whose tales of… ”
“I had been out of work for several months, and my savings were perilously near the vanishing point. Therefore I was naturally elated when I… ”
The Return of the Sorcerer (Adaption by Richard Corben)
“Ten pages (will take a while to load)… ”
The Return of the Sorcerer (Variant Conclusion)
“I seemed to know with a loathly prescience the sight that awaited me beyond the sill. But the reality would have put to shame the… ”
The Return of the Sorceror (TV)
“"Two sorcerers, twin brothers. One kills the other, and furiously seeks a translator for the key to a mysterious Arabic text ("fifteenth century, school of… ”
The River of Mystery (Synopsis)
“An explorer follows a little-known river in Africa which suddenly plunges into an ^alien^ [unknown] world or dimension. In this world, the river turns to… ”
“A circus had arrived in Auburn. The siding at the station was crowded with long lines of cars from which issued a medley of exotic… ”
“Listen, for this is the tale that was told to a fair lamia by the demon Charnadis as they sat together on the top of… ”
“Raoul, Comte de la Frenaie, was by nature the most unsuspicious of husbands. His lack of suspicion, perhaps, was partly lack of imagination; and, for… ”
The Satyr (Variant Conclusion)
“They were lying coupled on a bed of golden moss, where the sunrays fell through a cleft in the high foliage, when Raoul fond them.… ”
“A scarab of lapis lazuli, looted from an old tomb by an Egyptologist, which gives the appearance of being haunted or animated by some unknown… ”
“In the private laboratory which his practice as a psychiatrist had enabled him to build, equip and maintain, Dr. Carlos Moreno had completed certain preparations… ”
“"Well," said Guy Magbane, "I notice that you're still alive." His curtain-shadowed lips, as they shaped the words, took on a thin, ambiguous curve that… ”
“\"Yes, I found the place,\" said Falmer. \"It\'s a queer sort of place, pretty much as the legends describe it.\" He spat quickly into the… ”
“It was in the fall of 1947, three days prior to the annual football game between Stanford and the University of California, that the strange… ”
“The Lord Ralibar Vooz, high magistrate of Commoriom and third cousin to King Homquat, had gone forth with six-and-twenty of his most valorous retainers in… ”
“The Shah sealed the letter and summoned a servant from another room. The servant entered, and salaamed till his long beard touched the floor."Ahmet," said… ”
“I, who record these future memories, have passed through the portals of a myriad incarnations and death. My lives are part of all earthly history:… ”
^Slaves of the Black Pillar^ [The Drug from Algol] (Synopsis and Fragment)
“A strange drug from a world of Algol, which causes an astral projection of the users into this world, leaving their bodies on earth in… ”
A Sojourn in Mercury (Synopsis)
“The terrestrial explorer, landing in the twilight zone of the dark frozen side of Mercury, who is driven forth by the inhabitants toward the burning… ”
“"Tell me something new," she moaned, twisting in his arms on the sofa. "Say or do something original—and I'll love you. Anything but the wheezy… ”
The Sorceress of Averoigne | The Tower of Istarelle (Synopsis)
“Istarelle, the sorceress of Averoigne, reputed to be the daughter of Satan himself, is seated in her tower before a magic mirror. She sees in… ”
^The Spectral Tarn^ [The Lake] (Synopsis)
“A young man, engaged and soon to be married, is visiting a male friend in the country. In one of his rambles, he comes upon… ”
“It is told of the necromancer Avalzaunt that he succumbed at length to the inexorable termination of his earthly existence in the Year of the… ”
“It was on Spanish Mountain, where he had climbed from Donner to escape the society of his fellow-campers, that Lemuel Sarkis first et the people… ”
“A man taken to an alien world, who suffers from the strange impressions to which he is subjected, and undergoes for relief an operation at… ”
Strange Shadows | I Am Your Shadow
“We present three versions of this story—Version I being a first draft of the tale, Version II a second draft, and Version III an unfinished… ”
“It is not remorse that maddens me, that drives me to the penning of this more than indiscreet narrative, in the hope of finding a… ”
The Supernumerary Corpse (Synopsis)
“A man dies, and leaves two corpses, in two different places.… ”
“It was in Benares, in the year of 1897, that I met Rama Kalindra Das. I had been sent up from Calcutta on business, in… ”
“I do not remember where or with whom the evening had begun. Nor can I recall what vintages, brews and distillations I had mingled by… ”
“Gnydron, a continent of the far future, in the South Atlantic, which is more subject to incursions of "outsideness" than any former terrene realm; and… ”
“I, Satampra Zeiros of Uzuldaroum, shall write with my left hand, since I have no longer any other, the tale of everything that befell Tirouv… ”
The Tale of Sir John Maundeville
“This tale was suggested by the reading of "The Voyages and Travels of Sir John Maundeville", in which the fantastic realm of Abchaz and the… ”
“It has become needful for me, who am no wielder of the stylus of bronze or the pen of calamus, and whose only proper tool… ”
The Testament of Athammaus (Synopsis)
“Athammaus, the public executioner of Commoriom, beheads the outlaw, Nicautal ^Zhaun^ [Zan], and afterwards oversees his entombment. The next day, Nicautal Zhaun reappears on the… ”
The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles
“Let it be said as a foreword to this tale that I have robbed no man who was not in some way a robber of… ”
The Thing from the Antarctic (Synopsis)
“A malignant entity, or cosmic spirit from the southern pole, which pursues a party of explorers and kills them one by one, leaving on each,… ”
“My Father, lord, can scarcely be unknown to you, inasmuch as the Caliph Motassem had entrusted to his care the fertile province of Masre. Nor… ”
“"I have been faithful to thee, Cynara, in my fashion."John Alvington tried to raise himself on the pillow as he murmured in his thoughts the… ”
“Out of the fiery furnace of the desert sunset, he came to meet our caravan. He and his camel were a single silhouette of shadow-like… ”
“Evening had come from the desert into Faraad, bringing the last stragglers of caravans. In a wine-shop near the northern gate, many traveling merchants from… ”
The Transformation of Athanor (Synopsis)
“A man who has fled through many years and lands from the persecution of some obscure, inimical and demonian entity. At last he thinks he… ”
“It was-after interminable debate and argument with himself, after many attempts-to. exorcise the dim, bodiless legion of his fears, that John Sebastian returned to the… ”
“A man passes through an old Druidic trilithon of evil repute among the peasants of the district where it is located, and finds himself subject… ”
“Paul Tregardis found the milky crystal in a litter of oddments from many lands and eras. He had entered the shop of the curio-dealer through… ”
“A man, who, in trance, goes back in earthly time to the very beginning, when Ubbo-Sathla, the primal one, out of whom all terrestrial life… ”
“I do not know how long I had been drifting in the boat. There are several days and nights that I remember only as alternate… ”
“Sir John Longacre, formerly of the law-firm of Longacre, Windish and Windish, had started out a little before sunset for a pleasant, if not to… ”
“I then dismissed the matter from my mind, having several important cases on hand.My subordinate, Lal Singh, a Sikh, reported the following morning."Sirdar," he said,… ”
The Vapor from the Void (Synopsis)
“An organized, intelligent vapor, utterly different in its properties from mundane forms of gas or mist, which invades the earth from interstellar space. It has… ”
“"The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" and "The City of the Singing Flame" are the two works for which Clark Ashton Smith is most famous. But ironically,… ”
The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis (Abridged)
“If the doctors are correct in their prognostication, I have only a few Martian hours of life remaining to me. In those hours I shall… ”
The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis (Adaption by Richard Corben)
“Ten pages (will take a while to load)… ”
The Vaults of ^Yoh-Vombis^ [Abomi] (Synopsis)
“Some human explorers ^in a deserted ancient city on Mars^ [on a dying world] who are driven to take shelter in subterranean vaults by a… ”
“The statuette was not more than twelve inches in height, and represented a female figure that somehow reminded me of the Medicean Venus, despite many… ”
The Vestibule of the Past (Synopsis)
“An archaeologist in ^a ruined city^ [an old city of the Khmers], who finds an ancient writing, in English in his own script. Afterwards he… ”
“I thank you, friend, but I am no drinker of wine, not even if it be the rarest Canary or the oldest Amontillado. Wine is… ”
A ^Vintage^ [Jar] from Atlantis (Synopsis)
“A crew of pirates have landed on a desert West Indian isle to bury their loot, and find a strange antique jar that has been… ”
Vizaphmal in Ophiuchus (Synopsis)
“Tsandai, a savant of Zothique, a world of one of the suns of Ophiuchus, has fallen foul of the local scientific fraternity in general; and… ”
“The crown of the kings of Ustaim was fashioned only from the rarest materials that could be procured anywhere. The magically graven gold of its… ”
“There are many marvellous tales, untold, unwritten, never to be recorded or remembered, lost beyond all divining and all imagining, that sleep in the double… ”
“To a cursory observer, it might have seemed that Bob Haines and Paul Septimus Chanler had little enough in common, other than the predicament of… ”
^Vulthoom^ [Beach Combers of Mars] (Synopsis)
“Two earthmen, stranded on Mars, and without funds, are approached by a great Martian, who offers them lucrative employment of an un-specified nature. Accepting the… ”
“The instructions of Famorgh, fifty-ninth king of Tasuun, were minutely circumstantial and explicit, and, moreover, were not to be disobeyed without the incurring of penalties… ”
The Weird of ^Avoosal^ [Oosal] [Oothal] [Zoon] Wuthoqquan (Synopsis)
“^Ootal^ [Zoon] Wuthoqquan, rich usurer of Uzuldaroum, denies an alms to aged beggar on the street. Thereupon the beggar proceeds to utter a cryptically disagreeable… ”
The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan
“"Give, give, O magnanimous and liberal lord of the poor," cried the beggar.Avoosl Wuthoqquan, the richest and most avaricious money-lender in all Commoriom, and, by… ”
^The Werewolf of Averoigne^ [THE LOUP-GAROU] (Synopsis)
“An anchorite, suspected of sorcery, in the forest of Averoigne, who keeps a pack of savage dogs, of which he is inordinately fond. Several of… ”
When the Earth Trembled (Fragment)
“Bernice and I, Harry Travis, have followed our trade, or what was our trade, many lands and with varying success. When we came to San… ”
“Tortha, the poet, with strange austral songs in his heart, and the umber of high and heavy suns on his face, had come back to… ”
“The picture was more than five hundred years old; and time had not changed its colors, unless to touch them with the mellow softness of… ”
“Apart from the study of ethnology and mythology, Shaemus Mc-Gilder's main interest is the frequentation of barrooms. This third interest, however, is concomitant and subsidiary… ”
“Sabmon the anchorite was famed no less for his piety than for his prophetic wisdom and knowledge of the dark art of sorcery. He had… ”
“An artificial planetoid, constructed by a rich scientist, and hurled into space to a distance at which it will become a new satellite of the… ”
“Long had the wasting summer pastured its suns, like fiery red stallions, on the dun hills that crouched before the Mykrasian Mountains in wild easternmost… ”
The Youngest Vampire (Synopsis)
“A man buys a deserted farm on which are four graves. One evening, by moonlight, he meets a girl of ten or twelve in the… ”