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"The Outsider" is a short story by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between March and August 1921, it was first published in ''Weird Tales'', April 1926. In this work, a mysterious man who has been living alone in a castle for as long as he can remember decides to break free in search of human contact and light. "The Outsider" is one of Lovecraft's most commonly reprinted works and is also one of the most popular stories ever to be published in ''Weird Tales''. "The Outsider" combines horror, fantasy, and gothic fiction to create a nightmarish story, containing themes of loneliness, the abhuman, and the afterlife. ==Inspiration== In a letter, Lovecraft himself said that, of all his tales, this story most closely resembles the style of his idol Edgar Allan Poe, writing that it "represents my literal though unconscious imitation of Poe at its very height."〔S. T. Joshi, explanatory notes to "The Outsider", ''The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories''.〕 The opening paragraphs echo those of Poe's "Berenice", while the horror at the party recalls the unmasking scene in "The Masque of the Red Death".〔S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, ''An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia'', p. 199.〕 The story may also have been inspired in part by Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Fragments from the Journal of a Solitary Man", in which a man dreams that he is walking down Broadway in a burial shroud, only understanding the shocked reaction of passersby when he sees his reflection in a shop window.〔Joshi and Schultz, p. 198.〕 Another suggested literary model is Mary Shelley's novel ''Frankenstein'' (1818), in which the creature causes a shock when he enters a cottage: "I had hardly placed my foot within the door before the children shrieked, and one of the women fainted." The monster later looks in a pool of water and sees his reflection for the first time.〔Cited in Joshi and Schultz, p. 198.〕 Colin Wilson, in ''The Strength to Dream'' (1961), points to Oscar Wilde's short story "The Birthday of the Infanta", in which a misshapen dwarf is horrified to see his reflection for the first time.〔 Some critics have suggested that "The Outsider" is autobiographical, and that Lovecraft was talking about his own life when he wrote, "I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century and among those who are still men." ''An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia'' finds this analysis to be exaggerated, but suggests that the story "may possibly be indicative of HPL's own self-image, particularly the image of one who always thought himself ugly and whose mother told at least one individual about her son's 'hideous' face."〔Joshi and Schultz, p. 199.〕 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「The Outsider (short story)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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