A few problems with a sentence (a tale from circa 1930)

Question

Reading an old tale, I have a problem with the following sentences (because of the context, I pasted also the preceding sentence):

My memory is not what it was, and there are certain lacunae for which my readers must contrive to forgive me. The only wonder is, that my powers of recollection have survived at all, beneath the hideous burden they have had to bear; for, in a more than metaphoric sense, I have been as one condemned to carry with him, at all times and in all places, the loathsome incubi of things long dead and corrupt.

The first thing I am not sure of is the "I have been as one condemned". Can the "as" be omitted? My otherproblem is "carry with" - it does not seem to be the usual usage, does still mean "carry him with me", as in "still present whenever I go"? But who is "him"? I thought it refers to the incubus, but as there is the plural, incubi, I do not think so.

Answer 1

Let's look at the context:

in a more than metaphoric sense, I have been as one condemned to carry with him the loathsome incubi of things long dead and corrupt.

(for simplicity I've omitted the parenthetic statement "at all times and in all places")

The prefix for the statement in question is that it is more than a metaphor. So it is a metaphor, but perhaps with some elements having a literal parallel.

A simile, which is a type of metaphor, always uses "as" or "like" when drawing a comparison. The writer isn't saying he has literally been condemned to carry dead and corrupt things, but that he is like (or "as") a man who has. The use of the fantasy creatures "incubi" to describe unpleasant things makes it more obviously metaphorical.

Without the wider context I am guessing, but perhaps the literal aspects of this metaphor (what makes it more than metaphorical) relate to him actually carrying things?

Answer 2

As one condemned = like a person condemned. Him refers to this metaphorical person, condemned always to carry painful memories with him.