The last of Lovecraft's youthful tales saved by its creator.
For the first time, a cursed lineage appears – a motif quite frequent in Lovecraft, borrowed from Poe. It is also the writer's first approach to Gothic poetics in prose.
"The Alchemist" was a "validation" of Lovecraft's literary skills in the United Amateur Press Association, i.e., a literary text based on which the author's writing predispositions were assessed and a decision was made about whether to accept him into the said association or reject his candidacy.
It is also worth emphasizing that this is the first fictional work by Lovecraft to be published in print.
