The Graveyard RatsHenry KuttnerOmniClassics · Literature
The Graveyard Rats
Henry KuttnerA graveyard caretaker follows his rivals for the dead into their burrows.
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About the book
Masson, caretaker of a neglected Salem cemetery, regards its unusually large rats as an enemy. They undermine more than the dignity of the graves: their removal of bodies interferes with his own secret trade in valuables and corpses. Local stories suggest that the tunnels connect with something older and more terrible beneath the town, but practical greed weighs more heavily with him than such warnings. When he pursues the rats underground, that calculation brings him into an increasingly confined and uncertain environment. Kuttner ties the horror closely to physical sensations of darkness, pressure, movement, and the loss of room to retreat. The protagonist's occupation and dishonesty make his descent an extension of habits already established above ground.
- Greed and desecration
- Claustrophobia
- Hidden predation
Why read it
Experience a compact underground nightmare whose suspense depends on space, sensation, and a compromised protagonist.
English story from Weird Tales, March 1936