THE MAUGHAM OBSESSION

Episode #551 · Written by August Derleth · Narrated by Scott Miller

Quintus Maugham has spent years building the perfect robot. Herman can walk, speak, carry out commands, and move through a household with eerie precision. To outsiders, the machine looks like a scientific triumph. To Maugham himself, it is becoming something far more troubling.

What makes The Maugham Obsession so effective is the way August Derleth avoids spectacle. The tension grows through quiet conversations, uneasy pauses, and subtle changes in behavior that slowly become impossible to ignore. Herman does not rampage through the streets or announce rebellion. Instead, every improvement pushes him closer to something his inventor never intended, leaving Maugham increasingly nervous in his own home.

Told through the recollections of a reporter who watches the situation unfold over time, the story carries the feeling of overhearing a secret that should never have been shared. Maugham begins with enormous pride in his invention, but each visit reveals a man growing more isolated and uncertain. The deeper his obsession becomes, the harder it is to tell where the inventor ends and the machine begins.

Written decades before modern debates about artificial intelligence, surveillance, and synthetic identity, The Maugham Obsession still feels unnervingly current. Derleth understood that the most frightening inventions are often the ones that seem practical at first glance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

August Derleth published hundreds of stories across horror, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction during a career that stretched from the 1920s into the early 1970s. His work appeared in magazines including Weird Tales, Strange Stories, and Fantastic Adventures. He also created the detective Solar Pons as a deliberate continuation of the Sherlock Holmes tradition.

Derleth remains closely connected to the legacy of H. P. Lovecraft because he co-founded Arkham House in 1939 with Donald Wandrei. The company preserved Lovecraft’s fiction in hardcover editions at a time when much of it risked vanishing from print. Stories like The Maugham Obsession reveal another side of Derleth’s writing: quiet, psychological science fiction built on mounting unease rather than action alone.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to The Maugham Obsession by August Derleth — a chilling classic sci-fi tale about a robot becoming more human than intended.

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