Before You Begin

Before you begin.

Hamilton Craigie's "The Incubus" is a compact Weird Tales moral nightmare: a jealous man, a professor, a line of twine, a black tomb, and a burden that turns guilt into something almost physical.

Published in the April 1923 issue of Weird Tales, it belongs to the magazine's early fascination with antiquarian settings, psychological dread, and practical objects made uncanny by fear. The tomb here is less a spectacle than a pressure chamber: lantern light, dripping stone, and ordinary twine become instruments of Marston's collapsing conscience.

This LitLab edition preserves the story as a single continuous tale. The internal movements used for illustrations and unlock logic are editorial scaffolding only, not reader-visible chapters.