# Robert Suydam — Short Fiction character guide

> Robert Suydam in Short Fiction by H. P. Lovecraft.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Robert, Suydam, the Suydam

**First appearance:** 0035-the-horror-at-red-hook

## Snapshot

A shabby, once-respectable scholar who prowls Red Hook's basements chanting names like Samaël and Ashmodai to swarthy strangers.

## Who they are

Suydam's relatives drag him into court over his squalid habits, his imported tomes, and his nightly ceremonies behind green blinds in a Parker Place basement. He defends himself with urbane talk of European folklore and folk dances, walking free while the police quietly open a file on his associates. His double life as gentleman scholar and occult conspirator makes him the pivot on which the story's criminal and supernatural threads meet.

## Relationships

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_psychological_

Robert Suydam is a reclusive scholar whose dark experiments and involvement with degenerate cults draw the narrator's suspicion and fear.

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_psychological_

Robert Suydam is a reclusive scholar whose dark experiments and involvement with degenerate cults draw the narrator's suspicion and fear.

## In the story

### [The Horror at Red Hook](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/the-horror-at-red-hook)

A mysterious figure involved in the dark rituals and the central subject of the investigation.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/iii)

A lettered recluse of ancient Dutch family, subject of a sanity hearing, involved in occult studies and criminal associations.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/iv)

Undergoes a startling physical and social transformation; becomes engaged to Cornelia Gerritsen; leases additional flats for mysterious gatherings.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/v)

The groom who marries into the Gerritsen family and dies aboard the Cunard liner under mysterious circumstances.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/vi)

His corpse is used in the ritual; it becomes animated and ultimately topples the golden pedestal before dissolving.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/vii)

Killed in the collapse; his body identified by dental work. He was a leader in man-smuggling operations, and his connection to the horrors is covered up by his family.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters/robert_suydam
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters