The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson British writer William Hope Hodgsons (1877-1918) 1908 horror novel, while not successful in its day, proved to be an early milestone in the more science fiction-based cosmic horror and fantasy subgenres later to be further developed by writers such as H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. During a late 1800s camping trip to rural Ireland, two vacationing gentlemen stumble across the ruins of a massive house in the wilderness, whereupon they discover an ancient, somewhat water damaged journal. The journal was written by the owner of the house whose ruins they explored, a man in apparently his early fifties whose name we never learn, who bought the edifice cheap due to local superstitions regarding its bad reputation. Living there with his elderly sister and his loyal dog Pepper, the narrator begins a running record of strange occurances in the house, which begin with a strange vision of an alien plain watched over by ancient mythological gods where a giant replica of his own house is under the assault of a massive half-human, half-swine creature. Over the days following this vision, his home is set upon by groups of human-sized versions of the same swine-things, and, as he defends his home, he undergoes other, more wondrous and sometimes more sinister visions as he attempts to unravel the mystery of where these creatures come from and why they so desperately wish to gain access to his home. While in its earliest pages theres a bit of trapping or suggestion that a typical gothic house affair may be in the waiting, Hodgson veers wildly in other directions, the ghostly images suffered by the narrator relating the nature of time and space rather than vengeful revenants rattling chains or other 18th and 19th century supernatural boogeyman archetypes. His earth based time in his home form a siege narrative as he tries to defend his home from the assaults of the swine-things, later adventuring into the strange countryside about his ancient home to discover their source. Meanwhile, his dreams and visions slowly lead him to hints of the nature of the cosmos itself, as encounters with the spirit or consciousness of a long-lost love hint of the possible nature of the afterlife, and a long sequence in the novels final third allowing the narrator to witness the death of the solar system itself, as well as what lies beyond it. The House on the Borderland is a stunningly effective work, with its final third being a particularly inspired spiral into wonder and horror. The book reads as one which the writer wrote in a white-hot state of inspired enthusiasm. However, Hodgson doesnt answer all the questions the reader will have throughout the work, and, to fill in some gaps, readers will have to infer from what they DO know, or settle for the lack of information Hodgson is content to leave some of his revelations dangling upon. This is, of course, intended by the author, though readers used to having every little thing spelled out for them may end up frustrated with this novel in the end. An excellent, influential, and, in this day and age, underappreciated early foray in post-gothic cosmic horror, The House on the Borderland is a striking early example of the style and concepts that would eventually lead horror away from the boogens below to the stars - and their denizens - above.
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 23:54:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015