The black kiss by Robert Bloch and Henry Kuttner
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"The black kiss by Robert Bloch and Henry Kuttner" is a horror short story written in the early 20th century. Set on the California coast, it follows an artist haunted by planned, escalating sea-dreams tied to an ancestral legend, drawing him toward a supernatural act of possession. An artist, Graham Dean, inherits an old San Pedro house once occupied by Morella Godolfo, a figure of sinister local legend said to consort with
unearthly sea-dwellers. As Graham’s seascape dreams intensify into vivid visions of green depths and shadowy swimmers, he learns from an occult-wise ally, Doctor Yamada, that such beings can steal human bodies through a kiss, and that Morella herself was once a sea-thing inhabiting a human shell. Lured to a coastal cave, Graham is kissed again and finds his mind trapped in the pale, scaly body of the creature, while his human body is taken by Morella. After swimming with the monsters to a wreck and witnessing their predation on drowning men, he returns to the cave, confronts his stolen human form, and restrains it as Yamada and Graham’s uncle arrive. In a final act of self-sacrifice, Graham ensures the sea-creature in his body cannot escape, dying as Yamada fires and as he himself delivers a fatal bite, breaking the possession and atoning for the black kiss. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Bloch, Robert, 1917-1994 |
|---|---|
| Author | Kuttner, Henry, 1915-1958 |
| Illustrator | Brundage, Margaret, 1900-1976 |
| Illustrator | Finlay, Virgil, 1914-1971 |
| Title | The black kiss |
| Original Publication | Indianapolis, IN: Popular Fiction Publishing Company, 1937. |
| Series Title | Michael Leigh |
| Series Title | Produced from Weird Tales June 1937. |
| Note | Also published with the title: Sea kissed. |
| Credits | Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 82.5 (6th grade). Easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Horror tales |
| Subject | Artists -- Fiction |
| Subject | California -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 76435 |
| Release Date | Jul 3, 2025 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 6442 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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