The House on the Borderland

by William Hope Hodgson, Ann VanderMeer (Introduction)

Overview

A house seemingly disconnected in time and space becomes the setting for brutal conflict between the hapless homeowner and a collection of grotesque semi-human creatures in this landmark of fantasy and horror.

The House on the Borderland is the account of a man, known only as the recluse, who moves into a remote and shunned house and unwittingly finds himself suspended between worlds, traveling through time, and fighting for his life against a siege of misshapen monstrosities. The author’s sweeping imagination evokes a wide variety of fantastical effects, from eerie intimations of the weird to vivid manifestations of supernatural horror, from fabulous glimpses of otherworldly landscapes to direct combat with non-human assailants of murderous intent. First published in 1908, the novel quickly acquired a reputation as a rare and visionary example of cosmic horror that would influence and draw praise from H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Olaf Stapleton and others. As gripping and surreal as a fever dream, The House on the Borderland remains one of the most transporting destinations in literature.

With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The House on the Borderland is both modern and readable.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780712354646
Publisher:	British Library Publishing
Publication date:	09/17/2024
Series:	Tales of the Weird
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918) was a British author and poet best known for his works of macabre fiction. Early experience as a sailor gave resonance to his novels of the supernatural at sea, The Ghost Pirates and The Boats of the Glen-Carrig, but The House on the Borderland and The Night Land are often singled out for their powerful depiction of eerie, otherworldly horror. The author was a man of many parts, a public speaker, photographer and early advocate of bodybuilding. He was killed in action during the Battle of the Lys in the First World War.

Read an Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson is the perfect embodiment of a weird novel. Written in the early twentieth century (the first edition published by Chapman and Hall in 1908), it has become a guidepost and inspiration for many weird fiction writers since its first publication. It is truly a unique vision and when you think about it, it is radical for its time. When Hodgson first conceived of this work of fiction, there weren’t any other works remotely like this. In this way, Hodgson was a pioneer of the weird tale. Indeed, H. P. Lovecraft would later call it “one of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written.”*
   After spending decades reading weird fiction, I was happily surprised to find myself still caught up in moments of amazement upon re-reading this iconic novel. Imagine my joy as I pored over the pages, reminding me once more why I am drawn to this type of story in the first place. As the editor of Weird Tales magazine for several years, and then later as co-editor of The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, I thought I would find a re-examination disappointing and perhaps even a bit of a bore. But NO!
   In true fashion of the weird, there is an underlying mystery in this novel, in addition to its supernatural elements. The tale unfolds as a story within a story. This frame introduces us to two gentlemen who decide to embark on a fishing vacation in a remote part of Ireland; so remote that it is difficult for them to find it at first. The vacationers feel a sense of unease and while travelling around near their camping area they come across a strange ruin and therein they discover a battered but mostly readable manuscript. In their quest to understand more about this area, one of them reads the entire manuscript to the other by the light of the campfire.
   The elderly narrator of the found manuscript retells the story of his search for answers, as he and his elderly sister are living in a strange but remarkable house. At first it is again a sense of unease, but instead of this feeling frightening away the narrator, he decides to investigate further and seek an understanding of what is happening around him. He writes, “Yet through the whole week, there had been nothing to alarm me, either by sight or sound; so that I was able to look back, calmly, to the incident; though still with a sense of unmitigated wonder and curiosity.”
   In both the frame and the heart of the story, the vacationers and the elderly narrator continue to pursue answers to this enigma, despite their unease. For the vacationers, they teeter between learning more and just simply running away. But they find themselves compelled to continue reading, an action that seems to be less risky for them. Even as they feel strong impressions of discomfort, they continue to read this possibly unholy manuscript as the darkness of the night envelopes them.
   While in his study, the narrator is gifted with a strange, hallucinatory vision of the cosmos. And perhaps it is this vision that compels him to stay put and uncover more answers. As I continue reading, I can’t help but imagine myself right in the middle of this dream. Hodgson does such an incredible job of putting one in the thick of this mystical action with no slowdown and no reprieve. Since the manuscript is written much like a diary, or journal, in first person, I am sitting there with the narrator in his study seeing everything he sees and experiencing everything he feels. These uncanny visions and sensations are disturbing and yet, as magnificent as anything I have ever encountered. I simply can’t look away.
   The elderly narrator, however, later finds himself surrounded by strange creatures that have crawled out from the pit near the house. Although he is startled and frightened by this discovery, he maintains his wits about him and proceeds to deter their attacks on the house. In this way, the house becomes a fortress against the oddness that surrounds them, even as it contains its own peculiarities and secrets. And yet—later, he decides to venture right into the pit! As he explains, “It may be easily understood, that I was tremendously curious, though in a frightened way, to know to what infernal place that hole led…” It is this sentiment that reminds me of many modern-day horror movies where the protagonist makes the decision to investigate the origin of the eerie sound, in many cases ultimately leading to their injuries or in some extreme cases, their demise.
   And even in the descriptions of these vile creatures, we see a sense of beauty in the grotesque, a sense of awe in their presence. “I think it was the eyes that attracted me the most; they seemed to glow, at times, with a horribly human intelligence…” Unlike Lovecraft, Hodgson wasn’t driven by his fear of the other but instead his attraction to the wonder of the unknown. His characters are drawn strongly to these images, these sensations, not necessarily out of a sense of fear, but a sense of wonder and yes, perhaps even admiration.
   One of the strengths of this work of fiction is how Hodgson can take something so horrific and so frightening and yet make it stunning. We’re not completely sure just what we’re reading, but we must turn the page to see what beautiful nightmare awaits us. Consider this passage, “The speed of the planets, appeared to increase; and, presently, I was watching the sun, all ringed about with hair-like circles of different coloured fire—the paths of the planets, hurtling at mighty speed, about the central flame…”
   It’s interesting to think about the writer’s all-too-short life when contemplating this novel. Hodgson’s earlier works concerned adventures on the seas, influenced by the years he spent sailing around the world. The untold mysteries of the deep—and the world at large—continued to inform his work, as is evident in The House on the Borderland, and later The Night Land (1912), as well as his sea fiction, the novel The Ghost Pirates (1909) and many of his short stories.* You could even imagine that his unwise decision to volunteer for what ended up being a suicide mission at the end of the First World War is in keeping with his belief that there must be more to life than just this ordinary world.
   He seems to be fully obsessed with the creation of the world, the universe, but even more so with its destruction and ending. And yet, he paints such a scenic picture of what this looks like to the observer. How can one not be drawn to descriptions such as “About this time, there happened a fresh thing. The sun, earth, and sky were suddenly darkened, and, apparently, blotted out for a brief space. I had a sense, a certain awaredness (I could learn little by sight), that the earth was enduring a very great fall of snow.”
   One could think of this novel as somewhat of a spiritual quest. Weird fiction does often lend itself to this theme, even if it may not be so obvious. Hodgson’s father was an Anglican clergyman, a man of the cloth. And although Hodgson and his father disagreed on many of the church’s doctrines, he did pursue his own version of spirituality. Hodgson left home at the early age of thirteen to escape the conflicts and arguments with his father as he discarded that particular path to religious enlightenment. He still wanted answers to the big questions that religion purports to address. What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? What happens after we die? This novel could be approached as a kind of response to that. An exploration of possible answers, which is universal across all religions and cultures. Humankind’s curiosity about these larger mysteries continues to involve and provoke readers, and this book does not disappoint!
   The House on the Borderland continues to inspire literary generations of not just weird fiction writers, but also science fiction, horror and fantasy writers, as well as game designers, musicians, artists and filmmakers. For the modern reader, this book is still very enjoyable to read, yet one may wish to limit the reading to a chapter or two at a time, especially in the more dreamy, hallucinogenic, cosmic adventuring sections, rather than bingeing all at once. This allows the reader to contemplate the beauty of the language Hodgson uses as well as to embrace fully the visions portrayed. However, the reader may just be pulled into the story so thickly, so thoroughly that the only escape, if one should desire such a thing, is to continue onward until the end. Ann VanderMeer, 2023

Table of Contents

The Finding of the Manuscript
The Plain of Silence
The House in the Arena
The Earth
The Thing in the Pit
The Swine-Things
The Attack
After the Attack
In the Cellars
The Time of Waiting
The Searching of the Gardens
The Subterranean Pit
The Trap in the Great Cellar
The Sea of Sleep
The Noise in the Night
The Awakening
The Slowing Rotation
The Green Star
The End of the Solar System
The Celestial Globes
The Dark Sun
The Dark Nebula
Pepper
The Footsteps in the Garden
The Thing from the Arena
The Luminous Speck
Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"The Big Bang in my private universe as a science fiction and fantasy reader and, later, writer." —Terry Pratchett

From the Publisher

William Hope Hodgson's visionary 1908 novel The House on the Borderland proves fertile ground for legendary underground comix artist Richard Corben. It's the haunting tale of an accursed mansion teetering metaphorically between hallucinatory human visions and the dark bottomless pit of the human subconscious. In Revelstroke's adaptation, two young backpackers discover a decaying manuscript among the ancient ruins of a manor house in the remote Irish countryside. They read aloud from the moldy tome, invoking the horrible story of Hodgson's fictional narrator, Byron Gault, who tells a harrowing tale of inexplicable evil and violent struggle against terrors. In the winding cellar corridors of the decrepit house, Gault, his sister and their dog fight off savage attacks by cloven-hoofed half-humans erupting from the depths of the mansion's foundations. Or do they? Hodgson's hair-raising story brings into question the very sanity and reliability of the narrator himself. The nearly 40 pages of mystical descriptions from the original novel (i.e., an exploding sun and the notion of traveling the breadth of the universe in an instant) are judiciously adapted to the graphic novel format. Corben's moody color and dramatically illustrated panel sequences make this eerie book potent reading and a captivating tribute to the original novel. There is an introduction by noted comics writer Alan Moore. (May) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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