William Hope Hodgson

I have never read him before but I just received my copy of A Wandering Soul from Tartarus press. What seems to be the consensus on Hodgson amongst fans of weird fiction?

Hodgson is truly one of the giants of the weird tale. The House on the Borderland is generally considered to be his main contribution, with its uniquely psychadelic combination of horror and SF, although I prefer The Ghost Pirates which, despite its kind of Hardy Boys-sounding title, has many chilling moments and even seems to pre-echo John Carpenter's film THE FOG to an extent. The Boats of the Glen Carrig is a long novel that contains most of the sea-terror tropes which Hodgson would explore in his shorter works. I haven't read THE NIGHT LANDS yet. These can all be found from Night Shade Books.

I'm not familiar with the Tartatus edition of A WANDERING SOUL, but it sounds interesting - let us know what you think!

Here is what Lovecraft had to say about Hodgson:

http://home.clara.net/andywrobertson/nighthpl.html

He's also a decent writer of the short impossible how-done-its. Not really weird, and definitely for the puzzle-solver, but still good.

Ah, right, prosfilaes, you must mean the Carnacki stories! Here is a good Wikipedia writeup on those:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnacki

Actually, no. All his stories have never been collected, but Wikipedia describes some of them, and you'll run across them in anthologies; I found recently one in The Mammoth Book of Vintage Whodunnits, for example. His Captain Gault stories have been collected in Captain Gault, Being the Exceedingly Private Log of a Sea-Captain.

Now I am definitely interested in reading the three stories Lovecraft referred to as a sort of trilogy. Thanks for the link. I just read Supernatural Horror in Literature not long ago but forgot about that part I guess.

I'll second the recommendation for The House on the Borderland. I've read the beginning of The Night Land and sampled further in. Those early chapters are as good as anything in the Weird tradition. Difficult to read, though.

prosfilaes - interesting! I don't think I've read any of the Captain Gault stories. I'll have to check some of my anthologies and see if I happen to have any at hand.

Thulean - only a trilogy in very loose terms. You don't really need to read them in order, in other words. I think WHH was referring more to style and theme than to plot lines.

dukedom - I've heard that THE NIGHT LAND has some really well done weird touches, and is quite experimental, despite its being tough going due to deliberately archaic language.

KentonSem@8,

Night Land seems to inspire other writers, too. China Mieville wrote an introduction for a recent edition, I understand.

I'm on my third attempt to read House on the Borderland at the moment, and have stalled again. Perhaps I'll try one or two of his others.

Some of his short stories may be found here: http://www.strangeark.com/czfiction.html

The short stories, or those I've read at least, are more accessible, but also less weird, than the novels.

The Night Land is the sort of thing the phrase "flawed masterpiece" was invented for. The style is cumberous and the length excessive, but weird imagination at display is first-rate.

If you're starting Night Land, I suggest skipping straight to the second chapter. Just skip the first - you can infer what happened from the second chapter, and it makes for a bad start to the book. You could go back to it after the protagonist has gone out into the Night Land, when you know more about where the story is going. An odd approach, to be sure.

Would it be better to get the Night Shade or Tartarus editions of Hodgson? I have the CAS hard covers put out by NS. Are the Hodgson books comparable to those in quality?

I can't speak for Tartarus, but I'd say that the Night Shade Books collections of William Hope Hodgson, Clark Ashton Smith and Manly Wade Wellman are pretty much definitive and are also very nicely produced. 5 volumes each, some are in second printings by now, but they are very reasonably priced for such gorgeous hardcovers. The WHH ones have a dark blue binding with a silver-etched cover illustration by Jason van Hollander (the same on each book, but I like it that way in this instance).

Night Shade announced last year that they are unlikely to do any more hardcovers, as they want to concentrate on the more lucrative trade paperback releases of their titles. Understandable, but still a shame.

I should also note that Centipede Press is going to do a massive (and very expensive) edition of WHH. Here is a sample:

http://www.centipedepress.com/masters/hodgsonmwt.html

dukedom and Andreas, thanks for THE NIGHT LANDS info!

Centipede Press tempts me with a lot of their books, but man, they cost a lot. I might email them for a content list though. If it contains all of his stories that would be in the Tartarus or Night Shade sets then it might be worth it to just get the Centipede volume.

>13 Thulean:, 15

I have the MWW, CAS and WHH sets from Nightshade. Like KentonSam I much prefer the inset covers of the Hodgson books to the paper slip covers. The quality of the paper\print is very much like the other sets, the font is close to the MWW books. The Hodgson books are thicker and look more impressive on the shelf.

The cover illustration by Jason van Hollander, btw, was very much influenced by an illustration from one of John Dee's works.

The Centipede Press volume appears to be a "Best Of" if it only contains 20 stories in addition to the novels, which the NightShade volumes collected everything and then some.

I have an "extra" set of first editions of the Hodgson NightShade works, with the exception of Vol.2 (House on the Borderlands) which sold out so fast. Send me a message if you are interested.

Welcome to the Weird Tradition, ogodei! Nice of you to offer that extra set - I hope someone takes you up on it!

I cannot figure out how to send a PM here. I am interested for sure. Obviously depending on the details but I am interested. :)

A PM?

Personal Message / Private Message

> Thulean: Obviously you did find out how to leave a comment on another user's profile. If you had then checked the little "private message" box before posting, the message would only have been visible to you and the recipient.

I see. I did not notice the check box before. Thanks BarkingMatt.

Just came by to note that I saw a beautiful Arkham first edition, with DJ, of The House on the Borderland in a local rare book shop yesterday. The price of $240 was reasonable for a collector, but still rich for my blood. Send me a message if you want to know more...