Saucer Full of Stories: Revisiting H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Terrible Old Man”

Short Story Book Club Recap by Alfie Mildburg

Our latest meeting of Saucer Full of Stories: The Short Story Book Club took a turn toward the eerie maritime world of H.P. Lovecraft with his short piece, “The Terrible Old Man.” One of the author’s early works, it prompted a lively discussion, with members exploring its unsettling atmosphere, elusive themes, and enduring influence on the genre. Here are the highlights for those who couldn’t join us.

A Brief Introduction to the Story

First published in 1921, “The Terrible Old Man” is a brief, haunting tale of three would-be robbers who target a frail old man rumored to possess hidden wealth. In just a few pages, Lovecraft sketches a scene of quiet dread and the uneasy sense that something is off. As the criminals force their way into the old man’s home, it becomes clear that their victim is not helpless.

I’ve always liked this very short story of his because of the atmosphere and vagueness of it (clear in its implications but not stated explicitly). In some ways, this is the closest HPL ever gets to “Magical Realism” in the South and Central American sense of that term. And I can see why Borges was a huge HPL fan, especially, when I read this story.

LOTHAR

Atmosphere and Vague Hints

Our member Lothar praised the story’s “atmosphere and vagueness” and noted its subtle yet powerful way of implying horrors without explaining them. “I’ve always liked this very short story of his because of the atmosphere and vagueness of it,” Lothar said. This understated approach invites the reader to fill in the blanks, a hallmark of Lovecraft’s “weird fiction” style.

Another member, Mark, appreciated how Lovecraft’s “less is more” storytelling crafted a beginning, middle, and end in just a few pages. This brevity intensifies the tension. As Mark put it: “He shows us how you can write a story with less is more…and do it well.”

How Lovecraft handles an ambiguous ending is one of his strong points as a writer, but also being a wordsmith, shows a master of the short story form.

MARK

A Reversal of the Exotic

While Lovecraft’s reputation for xenophobia and fear of the “other” often shadows his works, Lothar proposed that “The Terrible Old Man” upends this dynamic. Instead of portraying distant lands or foreign cultures as strange and dangerous, the eerie atmosphere emerges right at home in coastal Massachusetts. The intruders—city criminals with foreign-sounding names—become the outsiders invading an “exotic” small town.

“The three criminals are the ignorant city folk entering Deepest Darkest Massachusetts,” Lothar observed, suggesting Lovecraft flips the colonial trope. Kingsport and its uncanny old resident are the true mysteries.

The Allure of Ambiguity

Lovecraft seldom provides neat answers. Instead, he relies on suggestion and implication. Mark admired this technique: “How Lovecraft handles an ambiguous ending is one of his strong points as a writer,” he said, noting that it’s a “master of the short story form” move to leave readers unsettled and curious. Chauncey echoed this sentiment, calling the story “not really a story as much as… a story about the possibilities of another story that maybe no one really knows.”

This sense of possibility—the idea that events have broader, unknown dimensions—was a major draw for many readers.

Literary Influences and Legacy

Members noted how Lovecraft’s early work here predates the more cosmic style he’s famous for. Instead, the influence of Edgar Allan Poe and Lord Dunsany is still evident. As Lothar pointed out, this period of Lovecraft’s career leaned more on subtle dread than overt cosmic horror. That “dream-like, otherworldly feeling” stood out, resembling what some call “magical realism”—though, as the group discussed, that term has a distinct literary definition more aligned with authors like Gabriel García Márquez or Jorge Luis Borges.

Still, the story’s qualities have influenced later writers. “I’m pretty sure it influenced Barker as well as King,” Mark said. Others saw the “reclusive, seemingly infirm characters” favored by Clive Barker mirrored in Lovecraft’s titular old man. The group also mentioned Rod Serling’s admiration for the story, pointing to the deep roots it has put down in horror and weird fiction over time.

What … saddened me was the “finiteness of cosmic horror” from the Lovecraftian perspective (a term that made me laugh). So much of Lovecraft’s stories revolve around forgotten truths scattered across the globe—a globe that, in terms of information, is shrinking, leaving fewer and fewer hidden corners for such forgotten truths to reside. Each time we uncover a new area, it is accompanied by a culture that understandably does not wish to serve as the fictional stand-in for the keepers of some ancient evil. I found it interesting that 1) the beauty of Lovecraft’s cosmic horror was tied to a finite period and 2) to recapture some of that essence, cosmic horror will inevitably shift toward the actual cosmos, exploring themes of space travel and science fiction.

CHAUNCEY

Timeless and Thought-Provoking

For a one-and-a-half-page piece, “The Terrible Old Man” sparks big ideas—about storytelling form, narrative ambiguity, cultural perspective, and the legacy of early 20th-century weird fiction. Its careful use of language and setting still resonates, reminding us that high-concept horror doesn’t always need sprawling length or explicit detail.

As Chauncey reflected, “It’s not really a story as much as it is a story about possibilities.” That open-ended quality and the communal excitement of discovering hidden depths is exactly what we strive for at Saucer Full of Stories. Even in our rapidly changing literary world, tales like this remain worthy subjects for discussion. They remind us that sometimes, the monsters lurking in old seaside towns, and the questions those monsters raise, are more compelling than any clear resolution.

Next up for our club: “A Strange Christmas Game” by J. H. Riddell. We hope you’ll join us for our next meeting as we continue to explore the hidden corners of short fiction.