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Lovecraft Country is a term coined by Keith Herber for the New England setting, combining real and fictitious locations, used by H. P. Lovecraft in many of his weird fiction stories, and later elaborated by other writers working in the Cthulhu Mythos. The term was popularized by Chaosium, the producers of the Lovecraftian role-playing game ''Call of Cthulhu''. Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi refers to the area as the "Miskatonic region", after its fictional river and university,〔''More Annotated H. P. Lovecraft'', S.T. Joshi and Peter Cannon〕 while Lovecraft biographer Lin Carter calls it Miskatonic County,〔''Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos'', Lin Carter〕 though Lovecraft indicates that at least some of his fictional towns were located in the real-life Essex County of Massachusetts.〔See "Shadow Over Innsmouth", "Dreams in the Witch House".〕 In its 1998 supplement ''Dead Reckonings'', Chaosium defined Lovecraft Country as "a land located in the northeast of Massachusetts. The most important portion stretches along the Miskatonic River valley, from Dunwich in the far west to where it enters the Atlantic Ocean between Arkham, Kingsport, and Martin's Beach."〔''Dead Reckonings'', Kevin Ross & Shannon Appel eds.〕 If one were to replace Martin's Beach with another seaside town, Innsmouth, one would have a list of the most significant locations in Lovecraft Country. Sometimes the phrase is used in a more inclusive sense, encompassing not only northeastern Massachusetts but also the southern hills of Vermont (the setting of "The Whisperer in Darkness") as well as Lovecraft's hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, where he set such works as ''The Case of Charles Dexter Ward''. ==Lovecraft's fiction== Lovecraft first used a New England setting for the 1920 short story "The Terrible Old Man", set in Kingsport. In the story that first mentions both Arkham and the Miskatonic Valley, "The Picture in the House" (written later in 1920), Lovecraft wrote that "the true epicure of the terrible, to whom a new thrill of unutterable ghastliness is the chief end and justification of existence, esteem most of all the ancient, lonely farmhouses of backwoods New England; for there the dark elements of strength, solitude, grotesqueness, and ignorance combine to form the perfection of the hideous." In a 1930 letter to Robert E. Howard, Lovecraft attempted to explain his fascination with New England as a setting for weird fiction: "It is the night-black Massachusetts legendary which packs the really macabre 'kick'. Here is material for a really profound study in group neuroticism; for certainly, none can deny the existence of a profoundly morbid streak in the Puritan imagination." 〔''The Annotated Lovecraft'', Joshi and Cannon, p. 2〕 Lovecraft first mentioned Arkham's Miskatonic University in ''Herbert West–Reanimator'', written in 1921-1922. He added Dunwich to his imaginary landscape in 1928's "The Dunwich Horror",〔(''The Dunwich Horror,'' by H. P. Lovecraft. ) Lovecraft's original story featuring Dunwich.〕 and expanded it to include Innsmouth in 1931's "The Shadow over Innsmouth".〔(''The Shadow over Innsmouth,'' by H. P. Lovecraft. ) Lovecraft's original story featuring Innsmouth.〕 Other Lovecraft stories that make use of Lovecraft Country settings include "The Festival", "The Colour out of Space", "The Strange High House in the Mist", "The Dreams in the Witch House", and "The Thing on the Doorstep". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lovecraft Country」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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