The Girl from Samarcand by E. Hoffmann Price

Name: The Girl from Samarcand
Author: E. Hoffmann Price

"The Girl from Samarcand" by E. Hoffmann Price opens in New Orleans, where Diane, wife of rug collector Hammersmith Clarke, complains to her friend Louise about her husband's obsessive devotion to his Oriental carpets. Diane feels displaced by Clarke's collection, sensing that the rugs hold a hypnotic power over him that borders on genuine romantic rivalry rather than mere hobbyist enthusiasm. The plot turns when a shipment arrives from Clarke's New York dealer, Siraganian, containing not the Persian rug Clarke had ordered but an extraordinary antique silk rug from Samarcand, woven on a linen warp with Mongolian cloud bands, dragons, and blue medallions. Siraganian's accompanying letter explains that a caravan stopping at Meshed left the rug with his agent, instructing it be forwarded to Clarke — though neither Clarke nor Siraganian knows who actually sent it. The rug stirs long-buried memories in Clarke of an adventurous youth in Central Asia, before his marriage, when he worked as a rug hunter for Siraganian and had a fleeting encounter with a girl in a garden near Samarcand. Clarke becomes increasingly absorbed in contemplating the rug, withdrawing from Diane and from society, refusing calls and visitors. Diane, hurt and unsettled by his growing detachment and his mutterings about a "yellow girl" in his sleep, confronts him and ultimately leaves him, moving into Louise's apartment in the Pontalba Building. Gossip spreads through the French Quarter about Clarke's seclusion and his fixation on the rug's shifting play of moonlight and lamplight across its golden pile. One night, Diane, still tied to him by feeling despite her pride, returns to Clarke's studio intending to confront him, but overhears his voice through the door and assumes he is entertaining another woman. She leaves without entering, her suspicion of an ordinary infidelity replacing her deeper, unspoken dread. That night is revealed to be the culmination of Clarke's obsession: as moonlight crosses the rug, a spectral Yellow Girl materializes from it, an ancient dancer whose soul was woven into the rug's silk centuries earlier under the reign of a Mongol khan who had once reproved the poet Hafiz. She reveals to Clarke that they have loved and died together across multiple lifetimes — first executed as illicit lovers in a khan's palace in Samarcand centuries before, condemned to bowstring and sword; then reunited briefly for one evening twenty years earlier in a garden in the valley of Zarab-shan, where Clarke had been hunting rugs for Siraganian, only for him to forget her afterward. Facing death again in that more recent incarnation, she wove her spirit into this very rug and dispatched it toward Meshed, trusting that Clarke's continued rug-buying through Siraganian's network would eventually bring it to him. Now manifesting fully as the moonlight illuminates the rug's surface, the Yellow Girl tells Clarke she cannot cross back into the world of the living again, but that he can cross over to join her, warning him to move carefully along the narrowing strip of moonlit silk without disturbing his body. As the moon patch shrinks to nothing, Clarke chooses to follow her, his spirit departing his body and taking her hand. The rug's blue web glimmers one last moment in moonlight before subsiding into the red glow of the mosque lamp alone — Clarke's body left behind as his essence unites at last, and permanently, with the girl from Samarcand.

By E. Hoffmann Price · First published 1929 · Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal Romance · 5,960 words

First lines

As her guest set the dainty bone china cup on the onyx-topped, teak tabouret and sank back among the embroidered cushions, Diane knew to the syllable the words which were to filter forth with the next breath of smoke; for three years as Hammersmith Clarke's wife had convinced her that that remark was inevitable.

"My dear, where did you ever get those perfectly gorgeous rugs?"

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The Girl from Samarcand is listed on Textopian as a short story by E. Hoffmann Price, dated 1929 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Work type: Short story
Author: E. Hoffmann Price
Date: 1929 CE
Language: English
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Literary Fiction, Magical Realism
Length: 5,960 words
Structure: 1 section, 120 paragraphs
Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

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Work identity for The Girl from Samarcand by E. Hoffmann Price
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Genres

Fantasy — The narrative is fundamentally driven by magical elements including an enchanted rug that transcends dimensional boundaries, a supernatural being manifesting from its threads, and the concept of reincarnation across centuries, all core fantasy tropes.
Romance — The central plot is an eternal love story spanning multiple lifetimes and dimensions, with the protagonist torn between his earthly marriage and an otherworldly connection with the Yellow Girl, exploring passion and devotion as primary themes.
Paranormal Romance — The work specifically blends romantic elements with paranormal phenomena—the supernatural manifestation of a lover from beyond death, communication across dimensional barriers, and the exploration of love that transcends physical reality.
Literary Fiction — The prose employs elaborate metaphorical language, symbolic imagery (the rug as a repository of souls), poetic diction, and sophisticated narrative techniques that prioritize aesthetic and thematic complexity over plot.