The House on the Borderland (Essential Gothic, SF & Dark Fantasy) - Softcover

Hodgson, William Hope

3.6

8,905 ratings by Goodreads

9781783612369: The House on the Borderland (Essential Gothic, SF & Dark Fantasy)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783612363 ISBN 13: 9781783612369

Publisher: Flame Tree 451, 2014

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Cited by H.P. Lovecraft as ‘perhaps the greatest of all Mr. Hodgson's works’, this tale of a deserted house in Ireland hints at a terrifying evil. When two men on an innocent fishing trip encounter the enigmatic ruins of a house, they slowly uncover its secrets through the diary of its previous tenant. At each turn of the page, horrors begin to unfold, monsters are revealed and new dimensions exposed. A gripping story right to the very end, Hodgson’s masterful writing leads the reader into a nightmarish world from which there may be no escape. FLAME TREE 451: From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and fantasy to science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic. Each book features a brand new biography and glossary of Literary, Gothic and Victorian terms.

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Review:

This classic novel of the weird supernatural, first published in 1908, was an important influence on H. P. Lovecraft. In the ruins of an ancient stone house in Ireland is found the diary of an elderly man who lived alone with his sister and their pets, and who longed for his lost love. The diary tells of how the man explores a cyclopean cavern beneath the house and fights off swarms of white pig-like monsters pouring up from below. Then, in a visionary sequence, he breaks through to an alternate space-time dimension and sees a doppelganger of his house on a vast desolate plain. The prose is hokey at times, but the strange mood evoked by the other-dimensional setting is powerful indeed. As acclaimed horror writer T. E. D. Klein says, "Never has a book so hauntingly conveyed a sense of terrible loneliness and isolation."

About the Author:

William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918) was born in Essex but moved several times with his family, including a stint in County Galway in Ireland – a setting that would later inspire The House on the Borderland. Hodgson made several unsuccessful attempts to run away to sea, until his uncle secured him some work in the Merchant Marine. His association with the ocean would unfold later in his many sea stories. After some initial rejections of his writing work, Hodgson managed to become a full time writer of both novels and short stories, which form a fantastic legacy of adventure, mystery and horror fiction.

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