Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Rue d'Auseil Street Sign



"I have examined maps of the city with the greatest care, yet have never again found the Rue d’Auseil. These maps have not been modern maps alone, for I know that names change. I have, on the contrary, delved deeply into all the antiquities of the place, and have personally explored every region, of whatever name, which could possibly answer to the street I knew as the Rue d’Auseil. But despite all I have done, it remains an humiliating fact that I cannot find the house, the street, or even the locality, where, during the last months of my impoverished life as a student of metaphysics at the university, I heard the music of Erich Zann."
- H.P. Lovecraft, "The Music of Erich Zann"

Keith Sutton brings us this very cool marker for the Paris street where Erich Zann's unfortunate end played out. It's a wonderfully subtle prop that unobtrusively draws upon a major plot point from the story.

5 comments:

CoastConFan said...

I think the Rue d'Auseil is just down from the Rue Morgue. Lovecraft wisely never said that the city was in Paris; that is part of his craft of insinuation and ambiguity in horror writing.

josefk said...

Neat! I have a special interest in this right now because I'm trying to do an Erich Zann sculpt.

Anonymous said...

In France, impossible to have :

RUE d'AUSEIL

It must be: RUE D'AUSEIL

I am French and born in Paris.

Robert Olmstead said...

Born in Paris too there is no rue d'Auseil or d'Auseuil (not even in the past I have verified - which is a pure invention of Lovecraft.

Possible street name could be the rue d'Auteuil (16th district of Paris >>>> http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue_d%27Auteuil)which actually exists and created in 1860 and perhaps HPL made a mistake writting it

Robert

Roderick T. Long said...

Since the whole point is that he can't find the street on any map, I don't think it's likely that Lovecraft meant to use an actual street.