William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918)

This is the most problematic and the most "flawed" (if you wish) of Hodgson's novels, and yet there are things about it ... the imaginative sweep of the main set up/setting/idea ... it's hard for me to talk about this book in an objective way, because it changed my life. As I read it, I felt Hodgson reaching out and touching things that had haunted me (without my being to name them) and naming them in a way that had unbelievable power.

Yes, it's told in a weird pastiche of 18th century (or show more thereabouts) English. Yes, the book almost excruciatingly goes over the same ground (backwards) in the second half. Yes, the picture of sexual relationships is troubling to say the least. But that backdrop ... that world ...

There are works of imagination that force me to wonder of the author "what happened to you? what did you see? where have you been?" and this is surely one of them. show less

I'm opposed to this sort of work in principle. I didn't like the idea of abridged classics even as a child, and I'm still not keen on living writers taking liberties with the works of dead ones. Make no mistake, this is not a matter of the completion of an unfinished work, or new adventures for old characters. It's effectively a rewrite. Which ought to be the most diabolical of liberties.

However, The Night Land is the most special of cases. William Hope Hodgson was a visionary writer of show more cosmic horror, and his work influenced Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Jack Vance and many, many others. This is his longest and last-published work. Scholars have since suggested that it was has first written novel. This would figure. It bears all the hallmarks of a cherished journeyman piece. It is too long, digressive and the prose is utterly tortuous. Yet the vision of humanity struggling to survive in a sunless world, besieged by monsters is utterly compelling.

Stoddard has taken the original, moderated the faux-archaic prose, broken up the chapters and added dialogue and some linking scenes. He's also cut some of the digressions, notably some unforgivable ruminations on domestic violence. Most of this is only what a good editor would have done or advised. It all works because it is done with respect for Hodgson's underlying vision. If you've struggled with the original, as I have, this is a way into Hodgson's nightmare world. Think of it as a treatment for a graphic novel yet to be drawn or a film almost certainly never to be made. show less

If you couldn't make it through The Night Land, never fear. The House on the Borderland is much shorter, much faster paced, and in places quite exciting. The framing device, so common to stories a century ago, is fairly quickly told. The meat is the tale told in a found volume, written by the Recluse who lives in the titular house, with a sister who makes so few appearances that for chapters at a time it's not clear if she still lives. Two primary sequences dominate: the siege of the house show more by swine-people, and an extended visionary voyage to the far far future and the eventual death of the solar system. Interestingly, a third sequence is referred to, involving a reunion with a long-lost love. This sequence though is part of the "lost" pages manuscript. Why Hodgson chose to do this is not clear, but from the painful to read remnants that are presented, these are pages well lost.

Virtually nothing is explained. Once, it didn't seem to matter to authors that things remained beyond our ken. The over-written prose still manages to evoke a sense of fear, in the first half, and amazement in the second. show less

“And then, all at once, I had a horrible sense that something was moving in the place.” — The Thing Invisible

First published in 1912, and a year later collected in English writer William Hope Hodgson’s, Carnacki, Ghost-Finder, The Thing Invisible is a fun and atmospheric read perfect for a dark and stormy night. Thomas Carnacki was a detective who specialized in investigating crimes and events which, at least on the surface, appeared to have only a supernatural explanation. He show more apparently neither believed nor disbelieved, and as shown in this story, was as fearful as the next man when confronted with an otherworldly possibility. This is the only story in the series I really felt this way about. The others seemed darker, and there were always pentagrams and other occult things of the time. To me, they had a darker tone, but not the fun mystery atmosphere of this one.

Hodgson uses an after-the-fact explanation to great effect as he invites four friends by note (not three, as stated in Penzler’s Locked-Room Mysteries) to join him for an accounting of his most recent hair-raising case. The device is a touch of genius by Hodgson, giving the reader a sense of sitting next to Jessop, Arkwright, Taylor and the unnamed narrator who begins the story before Carnacki recounts the ghostly case.

The setting is wonderful: a chapel next to the castle of Sir Alfred Jarnock in South Kent. Carnacki has just returned and spins an atmospheric tale for his friends, detailing his adventure as he attempted to get to the bottom of a knife attack on Jarnock’s butler, Bellet. The attack happened at night, but in full view of the Rector, Jarnock and his son. No one else was in the chapel. More disturbing, the weapon which hangs in the church and struck Bellet’s left breast with great force, is the Waeful Dagger, which has a reputation for being haunted. On the dagger is an inscription about vengeance and striking, and a carved talisman. The dagger is said to have the ability to act on its very own…

After speaking with the principals, and concluding from an inspection of the roof that there is no secret, obscured way into the chapel to explain the presence of an outsider, Carnacki knows he must spend an evening in there alone. Jarnock Sr. believes it’s too dangerous, and he may be correct. But Carnacki finds a way around his objection. Armed with a revolver, and protected only by a knight’s suit of armor, he waits in the dark, hoping to discover one way or the other whether there is a supernatural explanation, or an earthly one. This is where Hodgson is at his very best:

“I stepped out of the pew into the aisle, and here I came to an abrupt pause, for an almost invincible, sick repugnance was fighting me back from the upper part of the Chapel. A constant, queer prickling went up and down my spine, and a dull ache took me in the small of the back, as I fought with myself to conquer this sudden new feeling of terror and horror.”

Will Carnacki survive the night? What happens when the knife goes missing, on its own? Will either of the plates from the camera Carnacki has set up capture what lurks in the Void? Only those four men Carnacki shoos out the door once his tale is told — and of course the reader — will ever know the truth.

Fun, spooky, humorous and exciting, this is a wonderful story which had me wanting to read more of Carnacki’s accounts. The Thing Invisible, however, turned out to be the only one up my alley as per mood, content, and solution; the other Carnacki stories had too much occult stuff, and were extrememly repetitive in nature. The Thing Invisible however, is a fun little novelette, an old-fashioned tale perfect with some hot chocolate on a dark and stormy night. Enjoy. show less