![]() As with many of his early stories,Lovecraft wrote “Celephaïs” by using one of his dreams as a writing prompt. “Celephaïs” opens by introducing us to Kuranes, the assumed name of a man who lives in then-contemporary Britain only to visit a fantastical world whenever he falls asleep. Though “Celephaïs” may be ostensibly little more than yet another Dream Cycle story to be shelved alongside works such as “The White Ship” and “Polaris”, it contains a number of semi-autobiographical allusions that invite us to dwell for a while on the motivations behind the creation of the Dream Cycle, but more on that in a bit. On both a formal and an aesthetic level, this is very much an example of Lovecraft returning to his creative comfort zone: We have the motif of the dreamer being snatched away from mundane reality, we have a somewhat melancholic landscape littered with decoratively ruined temples, and we have both additions and returns to the ever-expanding lexicon of Lovecraftian locations including the Plateau of Leng and the first mention of a town named Innsmouth. “Celephaïs” ( full text) was written in November 1920 and first published in May 1922 in a magazine called The Rainbow. ![]() Escapism only works if you’re able to escape. ![]()
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