Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Unavailable
The Rats in the Walls
Unavailable
The Rats in the Walls
Unavailable
The Rats in the Walls
Audiobook33 minutes

The Rats in the Walls

Written by H. P. Lovecraft

Narrated by Michael Troy

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

"The Rats in the Walls" is a short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in August–September 1923, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924.

Plot summary:

Set in 1923, "The Rats in the Walls" is narrated by the scion of the de la Poer family, who has moved from Massachusetts to his ancestral estate in England, the ruined Exham Priory. To the dismay of nearby residents, he restores the Priory, plainly revealing his ignorance of the horrific history of the place. After moving in, the protagonist and his cats frequently hear rats scurrying behind the walls. Upon investigating further (and as revealed in recurring dreams), he learns that his family maintained an underground city for centuries where they raised generations of "human cattle" (some regressed to a quadrupedal state) to supply their taste for human flesh. Maddened by the revelations of his family's past and driven by a hereditary cruelty, the narrator attacks one of his friends in the dark of the cavernous city and begins eating him. He is subsequently subdued and placed in a mental institution. At least one other investigator, Thornton, has gone insane as well. Soon after, Exham Priory is destroyed. The narrator maintains his innocence, proclaiming that it was "the rats, the rats in the walls," who ate the man. He continues to be plagued by the sound of rats in the walls of his cell.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 5, 2017
ISBN9783990750025
Unavailable
The Rats in the Walls
Author

H. P. Lovecraft

Renowned as one of the great horror-writers of all time, H.P. Lovecraft was born in 1890 and lived most of his life in Providence, Rhode Island. Among his many classic horror stories, many of which were published in book form only after his death in 1937, are ‘At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels of Terror’ (1964), ‘Dagon and Other Macabre Tales’ (1965), and ‘The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions’ (1970).

More audiobooks from H. P. Lovecraft

Related to The Rats in the Walls

Related audiobooks

Horror Fiction For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for The Rats in the Walls

Rating: 4.333333333333333 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

3 ratings1 review

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I may never visit an old ruin again after reading this. lol
    So well written. So well read.

    Thank you.