"The Revenge of Azathoth" is a horror comedy short story set in the Cthulhu Mythos. It is the second installment of Peter Cannon's six-part novella Forever Azathoth, which serves as a humourous sequel to H. P. Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep".
"The Revenge of Azathoth" was originally published in the 1995 anthology The Azathoth Cycle along with the previous installment, "Azathoth in Arkham". The entire series would later appear in Cannon's collections Forever Azathoth and Other Horrors (1999) and Forever Azathoth: Parodies and Pastiches (2011).
Synopsis[]
(Continued from "Azathoth in Arkham"...)
The second part of the saga is narrated by Vartan Bagdasarian, a fervent admirer of Edward Derby's work who moves to Arkham to study at Miskatonic University with the explicit purpose of learning as much as possible about his literary hero. Bagdasarian was one of the founding members of the Dead Edward Derby Society and became close to Edward Upton, in part due to the fact that Edward controlled the Derby literary estate. Eventually, he got Edward's permission to examine a cupboard in Derby's old study where he found piles of unpublished material.
After the group's nocturnal visit to Derby's grave, however, Bagdasarian notes that Edward's behaviour has changed drastically. Originally meek and gentlemanly, he suddenly became rude, crude, and boisterous, and started to engage in vicious arguments with the Society's newest member, the Innsmouth girl Wendy Babson, who actually resents the late Derby due to the fact that he forced his wife Asenath to fire her Innsmouth servants, including Wendy's older sister Eunice. The verbal fights between Edward and Wendy reach bizarre levels, in which the two antagonise each other by exchanging quips about shoggoths and quotes from the Necronomicon, alienating the rest of the Society. Bagdasarian, who doesn't know that Edward is now possessed by the mind of the wizard Ephraim Waite, speculates that the recent death of Edward's parents might have contributed to the change. Soon, the entire group cuts ties with Edward, except for Bagdasarian himself, who is still studying the manuscripts, and, ironically, Wendy, who ceases the hostilities and starts flirting with Edward instead.
Edward marries Wendy, albeit only to avoid being drafted. Unfortunately for him, as World War Two escalates, he ends up being drafted anyway. Edward collapses, apparently loses his mind, and is committed to an asylum, where he is found and strangled by his former butler, Soames. While being arrested, the butler is heard to repeat the word "Azathoth". Wendy confides to Bagdasarian that she is pregnant with Edward's child, who is to be named Ephraim.
(...The story continues in "The House of Azathoth".)
Connections[]
- Some of Edward Derby's stories were published in the pulp magazine Whispers. (HPL: "The Unnamable")
Behind the Mythos[]
According to Cannon's introduction to Forever Azathoth: Parodies and Pastiches, the character Vartan Bagdasarian with his deep academic interest in Edward Derby was inspired by S. T. Joshi's similarly profound interest in the life and career of H. P. Lovecraft.