Doom of the House of Duryea
To listen to Ian Gordon read [Doom of the House Duryea] (https://youtu.be/ylsua-hhlaE) on Horror babble
5 Matching Annotations
- Nov 2019
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jloan.github.io jloan.github.io
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“But in Heaven’s name, Father, I’ve outgrown those things as I have outgrown my clothes. I’m a man now; do you understand that? A man, with a man’s sense of logic.”
After the depression many families lost everything they had, and blamed the banks and politicians for mismanaging the stock market and the country. Sons blamed their fathers for the state of the country, and for the low quality of life. This is played out here as Doctor Duryea is the representation of the stock market as he lives off the life fore of others. Arthur is the son of a vampire/stock market and has to cope with knowing what his father/stock market is responsible for horrible things that are going on in the country. Much of the vibe in the story and in the country at the time, was that the sons are being punished for the sins of the father.
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“I have suffered, more than I can ever describe. But seeing you again, and the prospect of spending the rest of my life with you, has more than compensated for my sorrows. Even during the twenty years we were apart I found an ironic joy in learning of your progress in college, and in your American game of football.”
Many vampire stories have been told over the years and the evolution of the vampire has taken many drastic turns. Most have lumped these vampires into two categories the “old” and the “new” vampire. As you read “Doom of the House of Duryea” you will quickly understand that it does not fit into either, this is much more than a vampire horror story. This is more about a father and son meeting for the first time, and despite his son being raised to believe his father is a monster, he is willing to overlook what he has been taught and try and get to know his father. The vampire takes the back seat in the story, the author dives deep into character development and details about their past
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Almost immediately he emptied both barrels of the shotgun into his head.
This totally blew my mind the first time reading the end of this story, I could not believe the rollercoaster that this short story took me on. First, I thought It was a vampire story then it was and father son story with vampire elements in the background, and finally it turns into a suicide over finding out the truth about his family. Keep in mind that this story is from the 1930’s right after the great depression, and most sons of doctors became doctors, Arthur felt, as many young men in the 1930's felt that they were not in control of their own destiny. Rather than go down the same path of his father Arthur decides that he will take his own life, and not perpetuate the cycle any further.
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Earl Peirce JR
Earl Peirce, Jr. (1917-1983) Earl Monroe Peirce, Jr. Aka Earl Pierce; Earl Pierce, Jr.; Earl Peirce Born February 28, 1917 Died June 1983
- Earl Peirce, Junior's Stories in Weird Fiction Magazines
- "Doom of the House of Duryea" in Weird Tales (Oct. 1936)
- "The Last Archer" in Weird Tales (Mar. 1937; reprinted in Startling Mystery Stories, Summer 1968)
- "The Death Mask" in Weird Tales (Apr. 1937)
- "The Homicidal Diary" in Weird Tales (Oct. 1937)
- "The White Rat," with Bruce Bryan, in Weird Tales (Sept. 1938)
- "Satan Fills the Morgue" in Strange Detective Mysteries (Nov./Dec. 1938)
- "The Stroke of Twelve" in Weird Tales (June/July 1939)
- "Portrait of a Bride" in Weird Tales (Jan. 1940)
- "Legacy of the Dead" in Terror Tales (July 1940)
- "The Shadow of Nirvana" in Strange Stories (Feb. 1941)
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