The Alchemist

Title: The Alchemist
Author: H. P. Lovecraft
Narrator: Jonathan Dunne
Original Publication: 1908
Public Domain: Yes
Series Placement: Number 36 in the Timeless Terrors series
Description:
The Alchemist by H. P. Lovecraft is a tale of vengeance, decay, and the relentless hand of destiny. In a crumbling French château, generations of an ancient noble family are doomed to die before reaching their thirty-second year — victims, it seems, of a centuries-old curse. As the last heir wanders through the ruins of his lineage, he uncovers the truth behind the curse — and the grim figure who has carried it through time.
Written when Lovecraft was just seventeen, The Alchemist reveals the early foundations of his fascination with ancestral guilt and cosmic inevitability. The story’s gothic atmosphere, shadowed corridors, and sense of doomed inheritance foreshadow the cosmic horror that would later define his work.
Narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance captures Lovecraft’s blend of decay and dread — the echo of old oaths, the dust of forgotten laboratories, and the whisper of a fate that will not be denied. While the text itself is in the public domain, this narration is an original performance and copyright © 2025 Jonathan Dunne.
Part of Timeless Terrors, a series devoted to resurrecting the masters of the macabre, The Alchemist endures as a reminder that even youth’s first nightmares can echo through eternity — and that some legacies are written not in ink, but in blood and time.