The House On The Borderland: (Illustrated)

Friends go fishing in Ireland. They find ruins of a manor house. Find book inside. Book tells of terrible experience by brother and sister who lived in the house years before. It gets stranger and stranger. Of course in about 100 pages you don't lose much time.

Laboriously creepy. Many many, horrible and terrifying ideas in this book...too many...overwhelming. The book started out wonderfully and then degenerated into a cornucopia of frightening journeys that were repetitious and finally lost their effect.

I only read this book because H.P. Lovecraft was influenced by it.

I suppose this was heady stuff back in 1900. Advancing through time to the end of the sun was interesting.

As a "found footage" story, this was pretty good.

But I wasn't as blown away as some others.

This book read like something experienced on a bad drug trip. Aside from the hysterical tone, disjointed story line, ridiculous monster-critters and excruciatingly slow pace, there was the author's habit of putting a comma after every verb. Unless you have an insatiable desire to read an intensely boring account of the end of the cosmos, give this a miss.

What starts with the feel of the classic it's described as (or suppossed to be), it then just rambles off in to space (literally). Some simple descriptions take pages and pages as if we can't understand a "copper colored sky". If this author was at the forefront of the genre, then I'm not sure what the genre is (Thriller, Science Fiction, Fantasy). I know it's a hundred years old. Great, that earned it another star. Don't bother.

I had a hard time finishing this. I was bored to tears. This might have been innovative when written, but now it is just too long and not particularly interesting. Science has made much of the conjecture of what is out there far less appealing. It felt like I was reading someone's journal describing his latest trip on LSD.

It's a good thing this was free from kindle. It was a total waste of time. Rambling with no direction or any way to bond with the characters, except for the dog who was nicer than either of its owners.

The back cover of this book describes it as "a classic tale of cosmic horror." That is what I especially like about Hodgson's story. On one hand, it's the story of a person who is drawn by his curiosity to explore what turns out to be an almost unintelligible threat -- his house sits over a huge pit, inhabited by menacing "swine creatures" from who-knows-where with who-knows-what purposes. But on the other, that pit, the creatures, and what happens when the narrator follows his curiosity, raise the story to that "cosmic" level, where the fate of the earth, and good and evil play out.

Hodgson is very good at infusing his scenery with character. Both here and in his much longer book, The Night Land, it's the very earth that poses the challenges of evil. Here it is this pit underlying the comfortable, if ancient and imposing house that the narrator has moved into. The pit seems to be a kind of gateway, a passage for evil to enter our and the narrator's world. The house, figuratively both our and his dwelling, sits precariously on top of it.

The story itself moves along quickly, as a story within a story. It begins with the discovery of the narrator's manuscript in the ruins of the old house by two vacationers -- a trite mechanism, you might think, but remember that the book was first published in 1908.

I like Hodgson. Both this book and the other that I have read, The Night Land, are more than throw-away horror stories -- Hodgson uses the medium of the horror story to raise bigger questions about the precariousness of life and everything that is familiar and comfortable.

You must be kidding!!! This has to be the most ridiculous book I've ever read. It was free, so I can't really complain; it was worth every penny. I read the whole thing in an effort to discover what it is about this story that so many people praise, find intriguing, or think has deep significant messages about the human condition. It has none of those. I found nothing here more than what appears to be an hallucinogen-inspired disjointed rambling waste of time.

I'm a Lovecraft man through and through. Let's trek to the Mountains of Madness. Let's dive deep into the Cthulhu mythos and see what we find. I even like many of the homage-style reimaginings. But sometimes you need a break from Lovecraft's style and preoccupations. And that's where this little gem comes in. Written in 1908, this story, and Hodgson's larger body of work, left an indelible impression on Lovecraft, and on many of our best known contemporary writers of horror fiction. Many commentators have observed that Hodgson's work marked the first great move away from typical Gothic fiction and toward a more realistic, scientific, cosmic, "multi-dimensional" sort of horror writing.

The book is actually a bit of a two-fer. Some fishermen on a walk-about find the abandoned ruins of a strange castle-like mansion. Within the ruins they find the remains of an old manuscript. This book is that manuscript; the ruin is the House on the Borderland.

MILD GENERAL SPOILERS. We start with the traditional disclaimer from the unknown author that what he has written may sound mad, but really isn't. From there we learn that the house was abandoned before he moved in, had an evil reputation, and indeed began eventually to creep him out. So far, so good. The story then continues until it abruptly ends. Until then, the author tells two stories that aren't really all that related.

The first story is a general doorway to the pit of hell type story. It's moody, the tension and dread are handled nicely, and the overall effect is along the lines of barricaded-in-the-farmhouse while the zombies try the doorknobs. Perfectly fine, but overwritten and overwrought in an old-fashioned way. I will admit I did a bit of skimming.

The second story, though, is the grabber. This is a House on the Borderland, but it's the borderland between the here and now and other dimensions and universes. BIG SPOILERS. Basically, the house is a portal, or stargate, or wormhole, or transporter, or whatever you want to call it. Our author is transported through time and space, floats through the solar system, visits other worlds and dimensions, and sees things - scary, mythical, alien things. Again, the author's descriptions get a little purple, but it all prefigures the multiverse, space-time, quantum stuff that's being written today, and it's all written in that vaguely formal, full of dread and portent style that's fun when done right.

And get this. As a bonus, (BIG SPOILERS), at one point the author gets to look out his window and watch time go by so quickly that he observes the death of our Sun, the destruction of our solar system, and the death of the universe. With a little tweaking you could fit his description into a standard cosmology model and have a decently correct description of that event. How cool is that for a book over a hundred years old?

So, this is an important book in the genre, the writing is old-fashioned and a bit creaky but way fresher than you might expect, and the book is loaded with ideas that are fun and that are all the more impressive for being so attuned to what would actually be discovered about the universe. With a bit of judicious skimming, (skip the swine-thing creatures), this was an excellent treat.

(Please note that I found this book a while ago while browsing the store Kindle freebies. As you have probably surmised, I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

There was an amazing short story in here, maybe an amazing novella. As a novel it fails. I failed to find a cohesive plot, but instead, several sweeping movements of inconsistent theme and engagement. Firstly, it take a while to kick in. This ramp up could have been more effective if it built the mood and dread, but it failed to do so for me.

Once it got going (about 15-20% in), and we see the giant swine god trying the doors around the house it is full speed. The stuff with the Swine Things was brilliant, and I have not seen these used effectively anywhere else. Great monster siege, and the stuff at the end that calls back to this is wonderful. There's some great fungoid horror, that was used to far greater effect in the smaller space of A Voice in the Night.

Unfortunately, there's the half in the middle (particularly, the space time slog) that's just dreadfully dull. There's some really cool exploration of the house and cave that's nice and atmospheric, but never quite pays off. There's some dreadful writing that drags it down. The epistolary protagonist sits around for weeks and then "suddenly" something happens. A lot. Suddenly a pet cat in the home appears for the first time in Chapter 24. The muddy pages mentioned in the beginning that could have been used to obscure something amazing but unknowable happening, but instead never came into play. There's a number of other examples of things that are introduced that don't contribute to either mood or plot, and make the whole thing come off as sloppy.

Outside of scholarly interest, I can't recommend this. This story could seriously benefit from a "Good Parts Version" treatment.

William Hope Hodgson was a prolific English writer of genre fiction who was active during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Many consider his 1908 novel The House on the Borderland to be a classic of the horror genre. The acclaimed American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft credited Hodgson's stories, and this novel in particular, with having a strong influence on his own work. After reading such high praise, however, I found this novel extremely disappointing. It certainly doesn't merit "classic" status, and it's not the least bit horrific.

Two travelers on a fishing trip in rural Ireland come upon the ruined remains of an old house, where they discover the tattered journal of one of the building's former inhabitants. In this manuscript, a nameless narrator describes his relationship to this mysterious abode. Though the house seems to be the source of unspoken dread among the residents of a nearby village, the narrator is heedless of such forebodings and moves in anyway, along with his sister and his dog. One night after dozing off, he has a vision in which he leaves his body and astral projects through space to a bizarre world far outside our solar system. This realm is dimly lit by a blood-red, ring-shaped sun, and is populated by a host of grotesque creatures resembling mythical beasts, among them humanoid creatures part man, part swine. Thankfully, he awakens from this vivid dream to find himself returned to his body and to his house. The reality of his strange vision is confirmed, however, when a crew of swine-men show up on his doorstep and attack him.

Hodgson deserves some credit for his inventiveness, but his storytelling is sorely lacking. The hellish visions and events of the book are all related with a startlingly emotionless, matter-of-fact dullness: "I saw this. Then I saw that. I heard this. Then I saw that." Rarely does the narrator ever pause to ponder the horrific nature of what's taking place, therefore the reader doesn't feel any terror either. Nor is any attempt ever made to understand or explain what is happening or why. Books in the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres may be excused from following the rules of reality, but to be successful they must establish some kind of alternate rules in their place. In this book anything goes. Astronomical phenomena is mixed with mystical mumbo jumbo. What applies to the narrator does not apply to his dog. The various worlds and creatures depicted don't even obey the same physical or mystical laws. Things happen for no other reason than simply because Hodgson wants to describe something spooky.

All of which would be forgivable if the story weren't so boring. It may be too much to expect that Hodgson's horror could be as scary or as appealing to today's audience as the works of current authors like Stephen King, yet even when you compare this book to Hodgson's contemporaries or predecessors like H. G. Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or Edgar Allen Poe, this work is woefully inferior. There is a scene in the novel that involves the acceleration of time. Wells covered the same imagery beautifully in The Time Machine, but here Hodgson goes on for three chapters describing the rising and setting of the sun and moon. Day, night, day, night, day, night. The reader gets the idea after the first few pages; the rest is just beating a dead horse.

I first became familiar with Hodgson through one of his nautical stories--Jack Grey, Second Mate--which I enjoyed very much. I might consider reading more of his stories in the action/adventure vein, but I'm steering clear of his horror stuff from now on. Once bitten, twice shy.

2 men come across hand-written manuscript which drives gist of tale, so why does it have editor's notes? I read Carroll & Graf Publishers poor version (it does not acknowledge original publication date & lacks commentary). But the notes seem contextual to the point that it seems Hodgson did indeed write them (see The Sea of Sleep chapter).

Are these notes found in Hodgson's original effort? If yes, they seem odd and dissociating. If unique to this publication, Carroll & Graf's editors have done a disservice to its readers.

The tale itself is interesting and undoubtedly lays foundation for Lovecraft among others. The end of the cosmos scenario is intriguing though Sol will likely go nova rather than become dying ember. Yet this section also gets tedious.

A mysterious recluse buys an ancient house that is reputed to have been built by the Devil and learns that it is the portal to another dimension of horror.

William Hope Hodgson's seminal horror novel is of interest for its historical significance as an inspiration to writers of weird fiction, but it has much to recommend it on its own merits as well. The framing device, in which contemporary figures discover a first person account that provides the bulk of the story is a familiar trope of the genre and probably makes one of its earliest appearances here. It sets an atmosphere of dread very successfully. The first part of the story, concerning the recluse’s struggle with the Swine-Things that besiege the house and the last part concerning his mysterious fate are tightly written and eerie. Unfortunately, there is a lot of dead weight as well--namely, some spiritualistic nonsense about reuniting with a former love on the shores of the Sea of Sleep and an interminable interlude in which the recluse flits about a rapidly aging universe. Some reviewers complain about Hodgson’s prose style. I suppose some allowances must be made since he was conforming to stylistic norms of more than a century ago, but it wasn’t a barrier for me since I listened to the excellent audio version produced by the Tales to Terrify podcast, and a good reader can make up for some clunky writing. (I wish I could remember the reader’s name, but I recommend searching this version out.) By the way, the appearance of the fungus at the end of this story reminds me of a short story written by Hodgson called “The Voice in the Dark,” a remarkable sea story in which a hideous fungus is encountered. I encountered it in one of the compilations of stories from Weird Tales magazine that is available on Kindle.

This is a rview of the Caroll and Graff edition from 1996. As i understand, the short introduction by Hodgeson is missing from it. However, to my mind, it's an excellent gothic novel, with some time-and space travel mixed in it, as an expression of the author's sentiments on loss, love, death, and religions, at times, it's easier to understand the structure of the text as a series of diary entries. Than to understand the plot itself: is the narrator a rational man who has a realistic explanation for his experiences? is he losing his grasp of reality? if so, why? or does he relate the truth? the reader would be rewarded for patience. fans of Poe, H.G.Wells, and Borgess wold do well to give it a try.

I happened across this title by accident. I was at the Vancouver airport looking for a book to read. I scanned the classic sections and this one popped out at me. The title was familiar and it was something I remember wanting to order a year ago.

If you enjoy Edgar Allan Poe, H.P.Lovecraft, Arthur Machen and the like, then I definitely recommend this work.

The setting is Ireland and its far environs. Two men on a hunting trip happen upon a garden and some ruins, discovering a lost manuscript half- buried under earth and rubble. They read it and discover the writings of a reclusive man, living in a house on the border between reality and the otherworld. The man's only companions are his dog and his sister (whom we rarely see throughout the story).

Sinister happenings occur earlier on and the man has to defend his home against... well... I won't give anymore away. Later on, the book takes a journey through time and space, a celestial adventure through the cosmos.

All in all, a fascinating and gripping read. Highly imaginative, thrilling, compelling, fantastic and stirring. There are elements of terror blended with a tender sublime here. It is fascinating to think this was written in early twentieth century. I am reminded of the works of Lord Dunsany in terms of tone and visual scope. This book is far from forgettable. A literary-fantasy-horror adventure of the highest kind.

For the most rabid fans of supernatural/horror fiction, utter and complete weirdness counts for a lot; it's a spice that lifts otherwise straightforward genre material into an exalted realm of deliriously entertaining oddness. H.P Lovecraft is the poster boy in the field of determined weirdness. His work isn't brilliantly written or exceptionally scary, but his single-minded focus on describing horrors that are so hideous, so cosmic, that they can't, well, be described adequately except by screaming hysterically, has given him an enduring cult status amongst horror mavens. On a more exalted literary level there's Mervyn Peake, whose sublimely unusual novels Titus Groan and Gormenghast defy categorization, although they're often shelved in the fantasy section of libraries and bookstores.

The House on the Borderland is a book Lovecraft praised often, and it's easy to see the influence it had on him. The story starts off in traditional late-Victorian style with the discovery, in deepest, darkest, rural Ireland, of a manuscript written by an unnamed man who wished to record the events he experienced in his stately home. The site where the home once stood is now an overgrown ruin next to a massive pit into which a river flows and then disappears underground. The story revealed in the manuscript is of a house under siege by demonic creatures that are half-swine, half-human. But that's not all, not by a long shot. The house also appears to be a portal or stargate to another house on another planet (?) in another dimension (?), perhaps even in a separate universe. The alternate house is a duplicate of the Irish one, except for the notable addition of a surrounding mountain range of Himalayan proportions peopled by hideous gods, all of them staring down at the house. And now for the strangest part of the story. In the last third of the novel our hero witnesses the speeding up of time and the aging and destruction of our solar system and the universe. Yes, things get that crazy.

Published in 1908, Borderland is very much supernatural fiction for the 20th century. Up until then the genre had revolved around ghosts, more ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and the occasional ghoul or church grim. In short, supernatural fiction was largely based on familiar creatures and characters from folktales that had been around since forever. Hodgson imagined a new world of terrors. His swine creatures aren't just terrestrial monsters, but, it would appear, emissaries of something vastly more powerful and evil. The final third of the story, with its unprecedented journey to the end of Time, is a triumph of imagination. The only way to adequately describe it is to try and imagine what a Stephen Hawking fever dream might be like. It's more than worth the price of admission, and it's hard to imagine how a sequence such as this could be described better. Borderland might also represent the first time a supernatural story has used the Is This Real Or Is It The Ravings Of A Madman? gambit. If you pay close attention to the actions of the narrator's sister (the only other occupant of the house) you begin to realize that the entire story could be taking place in the narrator's mind.

The House on the Borderland is very entertaining, always surprising, and has more than a few shivery moments. I first read it as a teenager, and the intervening years have been very kind to it. The only knock against it might be that the final section of the story almost feels like an add-on rather than a part of the whole. And Hodgson's love affair with commas can get a bit distracting. Hodgson wrote a few other novels and some excellent short stories, all of which are worth reading. The only exception is The Night Land, an even stranger (if that's possible) novel that's fatally flawed by being written in an intentionally archaic style. There's something ironic in the fact that Hodgson wrote his tales of cosmic terror only a few years before the real life horrors of World War I. Hodgson joined the British Army and was blown apart by an artillery shell in April 1918 at Ypres. One can only wonder at what he might have written had he survived the war; even his singular imagination might not have been prepared for what he saw on the Western Front.

Read more of my reviews at JettisonCocoon dot com.

Woah. That was. A trip. Steam of consciousness psychological horror is how I'd describe this. I thought it had a very Lovecraftian feel, and then discovered it was an inspiration to Lovecraft. Ancient horrors indeed.

Two campers find the diary of a recluse, and read about the strange goings-on in his house, which includes parallel universes, beasts, the horror of time travel to the end of days, and creeping sickness. Was all this real? Was the man merely mad?

It all feels a tiny bit disjointed, as if the book is actually several short stories mushed together and given the overarching theme of the house. However, I had a good enough time listening to it.

This book is out of copyright, so you can find a free version on Project Gutenberg and a free audiobook version on Librivox, as well as a free audio production done by Tales to Terrify.

Hosgson’s existential masterpiece stirs vast cosmic indifference into personal suffering of lost love. Life itself is seen in a perspective impossible to describe. This is literary horror at its finest. Visionary, eerie, and bruising by turns, it is one of the finest novels of mystical yearning imaginable. Delight yourself. Shiver at the implications. Read this book. / Gene Stewart

Two campers discover a vast chasm and a discarded journal that records the unusual, supernatural events of the house which used to reside there. The House on the Borderland is composed of fantastic disparate parts sewn together by perhaps too tenuous a thread. The individual parts are on their own evocative, from the claustrophobic atmosphere of the house besieged by monsters to the the dreamlike exploration of the house's long-distant fate; they're creative, striking, and vast in content although the atmosphere and language are both unremarkable. The plot which unites these episodes is sketchy at best, and while this prompts meaningful questions in the reader--how are these aspects connected, what themes unite them?--it also makes one long for coherency and perhaps a stronger sense of purpose. Otherwise the book has aged well; fans of its successors (Lovecraft noted Hodgson as an inspiration, but almost all speculative horror fiction draws from these roots) will find it accessible and resonant, despite the lack of coherent plot and some archaic stylistic trappings. It's a flawed book--or perhaps just an early one--but fascinating, and I recommend it.

I really liked the first half of this book. I was interested and very creeped out, my only complaint being that the word "presently" was used a bit excessively. Then somewhere around the halfway point, there's a particular thing that happens... and it just keeps going on and on and on, and I lost interest completely. It just went on way too long.

The House on the Borderland chronicles one man's experiences during his stay in a mysterious house that he bought on the cheap because of its reputation. This book is very similar to the works of Machen and Lovecraft in how it creates a tense atmosphere throughout the story. The only detraction is that there is very little dialogue since there are so few characters in the story. Almost the entire book is written as the diary entries of the owner of the house. As such, it gets a little tiresome at times. Still, there are some pretty suspenseful moments that drove me to continue reading. Such moments are really what elevate this book to the level of a classic in the genre. It's also the kind of book that doesn't attempt to answer all of your questions about what's happening. The entities and occurrences related to the netherworld are never really understood. This is definitely a classic of early horror literature, but just be aware that it is written in an older style that may not satisfy modern society's need for instant gratification.

I picked this up the other day at my favorite comic book store, which only cements how awesome I think that place is.

I'll be honest and say that I've never read the original book, so I have nothing to compare it to. (Although it is now something I feel I must read!) This probably helps and hurts my experience, to be honest.

The artwork in this volume is nicely done. It has this nice funky feeling to it, making it fit the strangeness of the story. I love the nice, slick artwork you see in the more mainstream stuff, but that just wouldn't have fit this tale. The more bizarre points in the book are very well brought across, which is a plus.

The story is of course, awesome. It's easy enough to follow along with and twisted enough that fans of Lovecraft will find it an engaging read. I do have to say that I felt like I missed out on a little, as I hadn't read the original story. Don't worry- the story is complete, but the problem with adaptations is that so often the smaller details of the book get dropped/lost/missed along the way.

If you like strange reads, horror, or just anything by Vertigo, you'll have to read this comic. It's well worth the cover price.

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

Review by Nickolas Cook

There are classics of the genre and then there are CLASSICS of the genre. "The House on the Borderland" is a CLASSIC.

Hodgson uses the plot device of a found tale, as two weekend campers find a crumbling manuscript in the ruins of an ancient house in the woods. Creepy enough already, but when the campers begin to read the lost story of a recluse and his sister it gets even more foreboding.

Lovecraft cited this as one of the best horror novels ever written, and it's easy to see why the man who made his name writing 'cosmic horror' would find it such a compelling read. Hodgson is the father of Lovecraft's fears.

Hodgson has actually written two separate novels in "The House on the Borderland". The first is by far the most frightening of the two pieces, as swine-like intelligent creatures siege the house and the protagonist must battle them for his life. There is a dream sequence at the beginning that sets up that the house is really more than a simple domicile, is, in fact, a sort of extra-dimensional time and space nexus, something that becomes even more apparent in the second half of the book. Through this dream sequence our protagonist finds that there is a monstrous collection of gods that watch the house and its inhabitants from a vast blank desert field.

After his battle with the swine creatures our protagonist descends into the belly of the earth, through a cave in his backyard (which we find later is actually connected to the cellar of the house as well). What he finds there is just as cosmic in its revelations, but he goes no further and barely escapes with his life.

Then comes the second part of the book. And this is where it becomes true 'cosmic horror' as the protagonist is given a glimpse of what the far-far future holds for the universe. As he sleeps, he is thrown headlong into the future and must watch as his own body rots away behind him. He sees the death of the sun, and eventually the death of the earth, and the other planets in the Solar System. Finally, he must face that monstrous collection of gods once again and stay sane.

By book's end we are left with the impression that the world is an unstable collection of facile life and dust, under the control of some faceless entities that give not a wit for mankind's fate.

That's true 'cosmic horror' at its best.

Hodgson's other works were hit and miss with readers, and none ever reached the pinnacle of "The House on the Borderland". This is a truly inspiring work, made all the more so as it was written long before Lovecraft, Machen, or Lord Dunsany tried their hands at 'cosmic horror'.

This review does come with one caveat: The grammar and style is a bit outdated, and may be a barrier for those unwilling to traverse an age or two of craft.

--Nickolas Cook.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book.... Which was probably good because it was far more weird than anything I could have imagined.

There were really creepy parts to this book - the horrible swine faced creatures, the pit - and if someone came up to me and said "boo" when I was reading certain bits I would have jumped out of my skin. And there were also really thought provoking parts - like the cosmic journey - which was reminiscent of The Time Machine, and I will have to look to see which was written first. I also loved pepper the dog.

When reading, however, I kept wanting to skim over parts to get to the good stuff. And, while the good stuff was freaky, it left me wanting more. A lot more. I also kept getting drawn out of the story but wondering just what the heck the author was high on when he wrote this - and what symbolism he was trying to impart (if any) that I was missing.

This is one of the weirdest books ever written. If it didn't predate the invention of LSD by 35 years or so, I would be convinced that the author was tripping out when he wrote this. It begins conventionally enough: a pair of vacationing fishermen leave camp one day for a long walk and stumble upon the remains of an old mansion near an enormous pit. One finds a ruined old diary and brings it back to their camp and reads it aloud to his friend.

The bulk of the novel consists of the contents of the diary and even that begins as a straightforward tale of horror: a man, his sister and their dog live in the mansion and one day, while exploring the surroundings, the man stumbles upon a mob of pig-like humanoids. He fights off a determined attack on his house (all the while leaving it up to the reader to judge whether the man has gone mad: his sister appears to be more scared of the man than any other creature).

Suddenly, the tale takes a wild and fantastic leap. Time starts to accelerate at a fantastic pace, leading to strange transformations of the world. One is led to think that the author was inspired by every Hollywood time travel cliche ever written until one remembers the date the book was written and realizes that it was the author of this book who invented all of those cliches before they WERE cliches.

I read the Carroll & Graf edition of this book and would recommend that one find a copy of the novel with some commentary or an introduction. The book left me wondering what the author had in mind. It is not a pointless exercise in fantasy, but I'll be darned if I can figure out what it means. The Carroll & Graf edition didn't even tell me when the book was written, which led me initially to suppose that it was something done very recently. Quite a shock to realize that it was written a century ago.

Combine H. P. Lovecraft, Julio Cortazar (his story "House Taken Over" may have been inspired by this book) and the siege mentality of "Straw Dogs," and you have "The House on Borderland." Written before World War I, this book ranks right up there with Poe's only novel, "The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym" as one of the seminal contributions to the genre of science-fiction (before there was such a term) and horror. The narrative of an elderly widower -- told in the form of a manuscript found in the ruins of the house -- is compelling. The "action" tends to sag a bit in the middle of the novel as the narrator's mind/spirit embarks on a nightmarish "out of body" journey where he floats as a passive "witness" to an unexplained dimension of time and space, where the house also exists, and he seemingly observes the death of the solar system. However, the narrator's recounting of his mounting dread and helplessness as the story builds to its frightening climax is remarkable. You're left with many questions, none of them satisfactorily explained. But that's the mystery of the house and the manuscript -- some things just have ragged edges. I'm amazed no one has seen fit to adapt this to film.

7/29/2007: THIN PLACES. [Since I can't write another review of the same book under the store rules, I'll add to this one.] A few days ago, I read that there is a concept in Celtic mythology (now incorporated into Celtic Christianity) known as "thin places." These are reputed to be places in Ireland (and other parts of the British Isles) where two worlds conjoin, almost like a portal from this world to another, allowing us to be in the presence of the divine -- in Christian culture, the presence Holy Spirit, even Jesus Himself. When I read about this, I immediately thought: "The House on the Borderland!" I don't know if Hodgson actually was thinking of the concept of "thin places" (the House is in a remote, unpopulated area of Ireland, near a river (a "classic" thin place)) and positing one that would be a dimensional doorway between our world and a super- or supra-natural world of hostile and infernal beings. Certainly the title, and the entire concept of the House existing at a dimensional crossroads, suggest that such a conceit may have been on his mind. If so, I'm even more impressed with the imagination that produced this timeless novel. In any event, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt on this point.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book.... Which was probably good because it was far more weird than anything I could have imagined.

There were really creepy parts to this book - the horrible swine faced creatures, the pit - and if someone came up to me and said "boo" when I was reading certain bits I would have jumped out of my skin. And there were also really thought provoking parts - like the cosmic journey - which was reminiscent of The Time Machine, and I will have to look to see which was written first. I also loved pepper the dog.

When reading, however, I kept wanting to skim over parts to get to the good stuff. And, while the good stuff was freaky, it left me wanting more. A lot more. I also kept getting drawn out of the story but wondering just what the heck the author was high on when he wrote this - and what symbolism he was trying to impart (if any) that I was missing.

This is one of the weirdest books ever written. If it didn't predate the invention of LSD by 35 years or so, I would be convinced that the author was tripping out when he wrote this. It begins conventionally enough: a pair of vacationing fishermen leave camp one day for a long walk and stumble upon the remains of an old mansion near an enormous pit. One finds a ruined old diary and brings it back to their camp and reads it aloud to his friend.

The bulk of the novel consists of the contents of the diary and even that begins as a straightforward tale of horror: a man, his sister and their dog live in the mansion and one day, while exploring the surroundings, the man stumbles upon a mob of pig-like humanoids. He fights off a determined attack on his house (all the while leaving it up to the reader to judge whether the man has gone mad: his sister appears to be more scared of the man than any other creature).

Suddenly, the tale takes a wild and fantastic leap. Time starts to accelerate at a fantastic pace, leading to strange transformations of the world. One is led to think that the author was inspired by every Hollywood time travel cliche ever written until one remembers the date the book was written and realizes that it was the author of this book who invented all of those cliches before they WERE cliches.

I read the Carroll & Graf edition of this book and would recommend that one find a copy of the novel with some commentary or an introduction. The book left me wondering what the author had in mind. It is not a pointless exercise in fantasy, but I'll be darned if I can figure out what it means. The Carroll & Graf edition didn't even tell me when the book was written, which led me initially to suppose that it was something done very recently. Quite a shock to realize that it was written a century ago.

Combine H. P. Lovecraft, Julio Cortazar (his story "House Taken Over" may have been inspired by this book) and the siege mentality of "Straw Dogs," and you have "The House on Borderland." Written before World War I, this book ranks right up there with Poe's only novel, "The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym" as one of the seminal contributions to the genre of science-fiction (before there was such a term) and horror. The narrative of an elderly widower -- told in the form of a manuscript found in the ruins of the house -- is compelling. The "action" tends to sag a bit in the middle of the novel as the narrator's mind/spirit embarks on a nightmarish "out of body" journey where he floats as a passive "witness" to an unexplained dimension of time and space, where the house also exists, and he seemingly observes the death of the solar system. However, the narrator's recounting of his mounting dread and helplessness as the story builds to its frightening climax is remarkable. You're left with many questions, none of them satisfactorily explained. But that's the mystery of the house and the manuscript -- some things just have ragged edges. I'm amazed no one has seen fit to adapt this to film.

7/29/2007: THIN PLACES. [Since I can't write another review of the same book under the store rules, I'll add to this one.] A few days ago, I read that there is a concept in Celtic mythology (now incorporated into Celtic Christianity) known as "thin places." These are reputed to be places in Ireland (and other parts of the British Isles) where two worlds conjoin, almost like a portal from this world to another, allowing us to be in the presence of the divine -- in Christian culture, the presence Holy Spirit, even Jesus Himself. When I read about this, I immediately thought: "The House on the Borderland!" I don't know if Hodgson actually was thinking of the concept of "thin places" (the House is in a remote, unpopulated area of Ireland, near a river (a "classic" thin place)) and positing one that would be a dimensional doorway between our world and a super- or supra-natural world of hostile and infernal beings. Certainly the title, and the entire concept of the House existing at a dimensional crossroads, suggest that such a conceit may have been on his mind. If so, I'm even more impressed with the imagination that produced this timeless novel. In any event, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt on this point.

This novel derives most of its genuinely creepy effect from all of the unanswered questions that will flow through your brain for days after you read it...who built that damn house? What exactly is it made out of? How is the "Recluse" able to have visions of the far future just by residing in the mansion? Does somebody (or some thing) WANT the protagonist to have these visions? If so, why? What is the significance of the violent, besieging swine-men and how can they exist in the "real world" of the 1900s and billions of years in the future (when the Earth is a frozen and dead sphere in a darkened solar system) at the same time? Who (or what?) created the swine-men? What do the gigantic statues of the ancient and evil mythological gods of Earth legend (Set, Kali, etc.) glimpsed in the "amphitheatre" have to do with the story? Hodgson (to his credit and to incredible effect) never gives the reader obvious answers to these questions in this skillfully crafted tale of terror that makes full use of mankind's fear of the unknown. To be sure, Hodgson knew all of the answers, but he wanted us to have fun (for the rest of our lives, no doubt) trying to figure out exactly what he was getting at. Hodgson was an author of startling originality, and "House..." is far more frightening than any other work penned by any of his contemporaries (Stoker, Wells, James, and numerous others) and it's easy to see why Lovecraft admired him so much...so why don't more horror and sci-fi fans know who he is? I'm clueless, so somebody please fill me in. Lovecraft fans will no doubt notice that Hodgson's "Universal Sun" (as seen in the terrifying visions of the Recluse, as it sends forth "messengers" into the void after all of creation has been destroyed) is the obvious prototype of HPL's Azathoth. This novel left me eagerly looking forward to reading more Hodgson books ("Nightland", "Boats of the Glen Carrig", others). It's a damn shame that he was killed in the First World War, because he would have certainly cranked out more ground-breaking horror classics.

This graphic novel adaptation of William Hope Hodgson's 1908 gothic horror novel, while absolutely stunning visually, suffers from the hokeyness of story I find in almost all gothic horror. The graphic novel starts off with two young boys hiking in Ireland and discovering overgrown ruins and an old diary. The diary relates how a bachelor and his sister moved to the lonely estate, only to be preyed upon by horrific swinelike beast-men one night. They barely hold them off, and then the beast-men disappear without a trace. The sister goes slowly insane while the man explores the caverns and tunnels below the house. There, he opens a portal to a dimension in which supernatural evil lurks, and things get a bit trippy. We're not sure what's real and what's in his head, and we're not supposed to know. Like a lot of gothic horror, evil lurks just on the other side of our world and we are left alone (ie. ain't no God going to bail you out!) to fight a hopeless battle against it. If you've ever read any H.P. Lovecraft or even played the Call of Cthulu RPG based on his writings, you'll find a lot of the themes very familiar. And indeed, Lovecraft cited Hodgson's book as the seminal influence on his own work. Hodgson wrote it when he was 35 and died ten years later on a WWI battlefield (a horrific terrain not unlike that he wrote about), so in many ways, Lovecraft filled the void left by his death. While aficionados of gothic horror will love this, I can't really recommend it to others except that it is a wonderful piece of art. The deep somber colors and rich textures are well worth spending half and hour poring over.

If you are looking for a "horror/thriller" ala Stephen King, this is NOT the book for you! If, however, you are looking for a combination of science fiction-fact with a pretty scary moral message relating to good versus evil (and lots of atmosphere to boot) then this book definitely is THE ticket!!
Hodgson wrote this in about 1918, and considering his details about red-giant stars and the probable end of the solar system, the prophetic writing in terms of science-fact is absolutely incredible.
But the real points of this book:
1) Man's struggle alone versus evil (with little or no help from God)
2) The random nature of misfortune and catastrophe over which we have no real control
And in those two statements you discover the disturbing message of this book. Hodgson seems to be saying that there is a place where there is a devil but no God. He also maintains that evil can exist in a "vacuum" where there is no presence of good. Finally, the only "hopeful" message is that we can fight all we like against the perception of evil but our resources in the struggle are severely limited by our human weakness.
Whilst making these points Hodgson raises some interesting (but ultimately unanswerable) questions about our perception of time. For example, time is measured by the rotation of our planet - but surely this is an arbitrary standard in a dimension where the space-time continuum no longer applies, for example in a "worm-hole", black hole or white hole. These were interesting concepts for 1918. The only weakness is that Hodgson was possibly borrowing here from ideas put forward by Wells in the "Time Machine". Putting this reservation to one side, the imagination required to write the "end of the solar system" sequence is not only amazing, but surprisingly in-line with modern cosmological theory.
(I must make a final confession: I originally read this book when I was thirteen years of age and at the Dunn school in Santa Barbara. No doubt the impression that it made on me then has biased my enthusiasm for this book as I read it today! :-)

William Hope Hodgson's first published novel, "The Boats of the Glen Carrig" (1907), is a tale of survival after a foundering at sea, replete with carnivorous trees, crab monsters, bipedal slugmen and giant octopi. In his now-classic second novel, "The House on the Borderland," which was released the following year, Hodgson, remarkably, upped the ante, and the result is one of the first instances of "cosmic horror" in literature, and a stunning amalgam of sci-fi and macabre fantasy. An inspiration for no less a practitioner than H.P. Lovecraft, the book really is a parcel of malign wonders. Once read, it will not be easily forgotten. I myself read the book for the first time some 20-odd years ago, and it has stayed with me ever since; a recent repeat reading has served to remind me of just why.

"House" takes the form of a found manuscript that had been written by "an old man" (we never learn his name, although he is one of the spunkiest, toughest, bravest old men imaginable) living in a very mysterious house in a desolate area of western Ireland. A recluse, living only with his elderly sister and his dog, Pepper (an animal who proves to be one of the gutsiest, loyalist pets you've ever encountered), he writes of the increasingly outre experiences he has recently undergone in this strange abode. We learn of his bizarre vision of a larger but identical house on some distant planet, watched over by the hideous gods and goddesses of Earth's past. In the manuscript's most exciting section, he tells of his battle with the "Swine Things" that besieged his home, and of his subsequent exploration of the great Pit from which they had emerged. In a segment that takes up almost half of his history, the recluse tells of his incredible voyage through time, space and dimensions, a journey that almost makes me wish that I had read this book in college, while under the influence of some psychotropic substance. This mind-expanding section boasts a sequence in which time superaccelerates, and Hodgson's descriptions here will surely bring to mind (and manage to outdo) the forward-traveling segment of the 1960 film "The Time Machine," with its rapid-fire sun/moon transitions. Hodgson's description of the last days of our planet and solar system, with a dead sun hanging ponderously in the sky over a frozen Earth, are almost as effective as H.G. Wells' in his "Time Machine" novel of 1895, with that author's dead, oily sea and (come to think of it) some crab monsters of his own. The recluse's cosmic journey after Earth's demise, and his visit to the Green Star and the "celestial orbs" (Hodgson's conception of heaven and hell?), are as mind-blowing, surely, as the "star gate" sequence in 1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey," and perhaps more meaningful. And any book that manages to rival Wells' and top George Pal and Stanley Kubrick in the cosmic spectacle department can't be all bad, right?

I used the expression "perhaps more meaningful" just now, and that "perhaps" might represent, for many readers, a significant drawback of "The House on the Borderland." For, although we are shown glimpses of many mystifying wonders in the recluse's tale, Hodgson does not deign to explain one of them. The origin of the Swine Things, the meaning of the counterpart House on another planet, the cause of the hermit's cosmic journey, the reason for the destruction of the House and many other conundrums remain mysteries by the book's end; not just open to interpretation, but practically demanding some sort of explication on the part of the reader. I'm not usually a fan of such open-ended stories (for example, the writers on the hit TV series "Lost" had better tie up every last loose end or I am going to be mighty P.O.'ed!), but here, it works somehow, only adding an aura of cosmic inscrutability to an already awe-inspiring affair. Hodgson writes simply in this novel, forgoing the pseudo-archaic 18th century English of "Boats" and the hyperadjectival, baroque language of 1912's "The Night Land," but still seemingly can't resist the urge to play with the language a bit. For example, I've never read a book with so many unnecessary commas, as in this sentence: "For, a time, I mused, absently." But again, this affectation works, only increasing the strangeness quotient of the book. Not for nothing was "The House on the Borderland" chosen for inclusion in Newman & Jones' excellent overview volume "Horror: 100 Best Books." Read it today for the awe and the shudders, and then tell me in the year 2030 how well YOU remember it....

When I first read this novel I thought that the author had been heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. Then I looked up the original date of publication (1908), which is several decades before Lovecraft published. I wouldn't hesitate to call this one of the best otherworldly and weird books ever written. It is not graphic blood and guts splatter- Edwardian gentlemen did not write such [stuff]. This is better, besides the psychological terror that builds, you have cosmically mind boggling themes of infinate time and space- and the world beyond this world, of which ours is but a pale inferior shadow.
I often wonder just who William Hope Hodgeson was. He was plainly a man of action, that much is clear from his battle with the pig demons, but he was also something more. I wonder what forgotten corner of the Empire he picked up his knowlege of things cosmic and beyond the veil....

Is William Hope Hodgson's "The House on the Borderland" the creepiest, eeriest story ever written? It is sometimes described that way, although I cannot confirm it because I have yet to read every creepy or eerie story ever written. I have read a fair amount of H.P. Lovecraft, some Robert E. Howard, and many modern mass-market horror novels. Hodgson probably ranks somewhere in between those two regions. Written in the early part of the 20th century, this author's novel is an attempt to blend together horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Unfortunately, Hodgson later died in WWI, forever silencing a splendid talent. Without a doubt, Hodgson influenced later horror and fantasy authors with this jaunt through the spectral reaches of space and time.

The story begins when two men make a fishing expedition into the hinterlands of Ireland. Near a tiny hamlet called Kraighten, the two encounter some of the strange local people who speak an unknown language. Further strangeness ensues when they realize that much of this area does not appear on any map. The two men explore the surrounding area, stumbling over an old garden near a yawning abyss. Then they discover the ruins of a large house on an outcropping of rock. While exploring these remains, one of the men discovers a damaged manuscript in the wreckage. Taking the book with them, the two travelers head back to camp, but not before experiencing some serious reservations about the area. A bubbling lake nearby scares them, as does unsettling sounds coming from somewhere in the vicinity. After hightailing it back to camp, they begin to read this mysterious journal. What follows constitutes the bulk of Hodgson's book, a deeply disturbing tale about an anonymous man who lived in the house and who experienced a series of events unexplainable by any rational means of discourse.

Some years before, this man lived in the house with his loyal dog and his spinster sister. He was a loner, more interested in spending his time reading books or rambling around his large gardens than throwing parties or hanging out with the local population. One night while lounging in his study, the man undergoes a strange out of body experience. He is transported to another dimension, where he finds an exact replica of his own house on a vast plain surrounded by enormous statues of deities, scary creatures who look like pigs, and a luminous mist of unknown origin. While this might be enough to scare any sane person out of his or her wits, our man continues to stay in the house after his astral experience.

More eeriness ensues: the nasty pig creatures crawl out of the abyss forming near the house and attempt to invade the premises. Closely following this horror is an inexplicable episode, which makes up most of the book, where the owner of the house experiences a breakdown of the very fabric of space and time. Hodgson writes about these events in minute detail, outlining every aspect of this fabulous trip beyond the limits of sensory perception. "The House on the Borderland" ends with no fixed answers about the creepy manuscript. Moreover, the author makes sure to have the manuscript trail off in the middle of a horrible event, leaving the reader guessing as to the conclusions of this strange tale.

It is not difficult to see how this story influenced several big names in the horror business. Lovecraft definitely borrowed some of the themes here to create his Cthulhu mythos. The detached method of having the horrors told to us through a strange manuscript also finds expression in several other supernatural tales written well after Hodgson's book. In this respect, "House on the Borderland" is a groundbreaking work worthy of continued reprinting. Any fan of Lovecraft, Blackwood, or any of the other godfathers of horror needs to read this book if for no other reason than to get a glimpse into where their favorite authors cribbed ideas from. This tale is not as scary as certain better known horror stories, but it does occasionally deliver some effective shocks to even the most jaded horror aficionado.

One of the book's failings was the author's attempt to depict the breakdown of time. This section reminded me of H.G. Wells. Moreover, this part of the story seemed to run on forever. I wanted the story to get back to the scariness of otherworldly beings and supernatural horrors.

Hodgson's book is a necessary read. Do not go in expecting straight horror, but acknowledge that you are about to read a great mix of several genres. Without William Hope Hodgson, who knows where the horror novel would be today.

_When I first read this novel I thought that the author had been heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. Then I looked up the original date of publication (1908), which is several decades before Lovecraft published. I wouldn't hesitate to call this one of the best otherworldly and weird books ever written. It is not graphic blood and guts splatter- Edwardian gentlemen did not write such [stuff]. This is better, besides the psychological terror that builds, you have cosmically mind boggling themes of infinite time and space- and the world beyond this world, of which ours is but a pale inferior shadow.

_I often wonder just who William Hope Hodgeson was. He was plainly a man of action, that much is clear from his battle with the pig demons, but he was also something more. I wonder what forgotten corner of the Empire he picked up his knowlege of things cosmic and beyond the veil....

_When I first read this novel I thought that the author had been heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. Then I looked up the original date of publication (1908), which is several decades before Lovecraft published. I wouldn't hesitate to call this one of the best otherworldly and weird books ever written. It is not graphic blood and guts splatter- Edwardian gentlemen did not write such [stuff]. This is better, besides the psychological terror that builds, you have cosmically mind boggling themes of infinite time and space- and the world beyond this world, of which ours is but a pale inferior shadow.

_I often wonder just who William Hope Hodgeson was. He was plainly a man of action, that much is clear from his battle with the pig demons, but he was also something more. I wonder what forgotten corner of the Empire he picked up his knowlege of things cosmic and beyond the veil....

When I first read this novel I thought that the author had been heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. Then I looked up the original date of publication (1908), which is several decades before Lovecraft published. I wouldn't hesitate to call this one of the best otherworldly and weird books ever written. It is not graphic blood and guts splatter- Edwardian gentlemen did not write such [stuff]. This is better, besides the psychological terror that builds, you have cosmically mind boggling themes of infinate time and space- and the world beyond this world, of which ours is but a pale inferior shadow.
I often wonder just who William Hope Hodgeson was. He was plainly a man of action, that much is clear from his battle with the pig demons, but he was also something more. I wonder what forgotten corner of the Empire he picked up his knowlege of things cosmic and beyond the veil....

borderland was written in the early 1900s and is a wonderful dark fantasy/horror/sci-fi book. it's refreshing to read a book that is so descriptive without the gore and vulgarity that so many horror novels have these days. call me old-fashioned, but i like atmosphere more than action. hodgson is very visual about alternative dimensions, time travel and things that go bump in the night. like the previous reviewers mention, if you like machen, and lovecraft, you'll enjoy hodgson's book. there's all kinds of editions out on this book. not to sure why. i have an old carroll & graf paperback from '85.

Two travelers take time out from their fishing trip to explore their chosen river. After the water disappears and reappears, the two find a ruined mansion and a fragmentary journal half-preserved in the rubble. It tells the story, or part of the story, about the otherworldly forces that caused its collapse, and that might not be wholly gone ...

Although written as a novel, this has the feel of two or three shorter stories stapled together. Those describe spirit-travel between worlds, the home of the the mythic gods, and an unexplained but terrifying siege from another plane. Somehow, despite the workable parts this story is built from, it grinds along, never developing enough energy to pick up speed. The diarist lives with his house-keeper, his sister, who ranks somewhat below the dog in his respect and affection. The writing seems undistinguished, without enough force to bring the reader any real tension or reason to care about the characters, and counts too much on events that it elides.

If you can find this out-of-copyright text for free (and you can), it's well worth the cost. I can't call it a must-have for even the most ardent of fantasy fans, however.

-- wiredweird

I award this book 5 stars, not because it is one of the best books ever, but because it is one of the best of its kind. I first read it many years ago, in another edition, and it scared me so much I have never been able to forget it. This book is haunting and troubling. I agree with the reviewer that it is better not to reveal too much of the story; the story must be read and information given bit by bit to make this story effective. But I did have a slightly different interpretation. When I originally read it, I couldn't decide if it was all "real" or if the writer was suffering from a psychotic break. I guess it doesn't matter in terms of a good story. At any rate, anyone who enjoys a really good scarey book should read this one!

i first read this book in its original form many years ago, and it was already very old. it eventually got stolen from the library as its value had increased. it was out of print for many years. without ruining it for you i would recommend highly. i couldn't put it down the first time i read it and stayed up until about three to finish. kept the lights on after that. it is different than any other book i have read and is not a horror "story". it is actually a narrative document in first person, develops slowly but please read. the only reason not to like it is if you hate accounts that make you nervous.
this manuscript involves a man who is at a very remote rural home and his dog discovers

Hodgson's master work is usually stated to be The Night Land, but in my opinion The House on the Borderland is better -- perhaps because it is shorter and it has more genuinely spooky action. It takes an effort to really get into Hodgson's prose style, but if you slow down and let your mind be lulled, his stories become quite engaging. The Night Land is flawed by his tendency to dwell too much on how many hours the central character walks or crawls, how many hours he sleeps, how many food pills he eats, etc., similar details of which we are spared in The House on the Borderland. Hodgson also has a romantic infatuation with simpering girl-women, whom he describes as "My Own" and over whom the narrator is the "master." This is outright cloying by modern standards. I am also struck by the interesting parallel of the quest in The Night Land to Tolkien's later narrative of Frodo's pilgrimage into the land of Mordor.

The first time I checked out the graphic novel adaptation of William Hope Hodgson's THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND, I was repulsed by what happened to the only female character. I checked it out again because I was reading the original and wanted to compare the two.

Parts of this graphic novel are definitely taken from the original. However, what repulsed me in Messrs. Corben and Revelstroke's version isn't. I really wish that they hadn't combined the two female characters in the novel into one woman and then given her such sadistic treatment.

That said, the framing sequence here is much more horrifying than in the book. I think it's quite the best part of the comic -- and that Mr. Hodgson's nameless recluse might prefer this fate.

If you hate women, you will love what happens to Mary.

This edition, https://www.the store.com/House-Borderland-William-Hope-Hodgson/dp/1539318125/ref=sr_1_5?s=b, was great. No page numbers, no publisher info, no title page at all. The story is from a manuscript, and the book is literally set up like one! Very novel and enjoyable. Hodgson was a great writer using period language (1907) and amazing imagination which made the story even better!!

a man in a house starts to be bothered by some strange beings. he must protect his house, and his sister (who sort of goes in and out of the story). he decides to investigate, and finds that there is more to his house than meets the eye. excellent book. great descriptions, especially of the cosmos and the weird landscape. Hodgson have a way of describing how horrible it is to be utterly helpless while your surrondings are or are changing to something really great, weird and horrible. this is more a story about contact with something outerworldly, than a haunted house story. hodgson's masterpiece.

I love classic ghost stories, and am always happy to curl up with Susan Hill, Oliver Onions, Algernon Blackwood, J.S. LeFanu, and, of course, the great M.R. James. I have never been a fan, however, of H.P. Lovecraft. Not surprisingly, therefore, I didn't enjoy William Hope Hodgson's "The House on the Borderland", which is Lovecraft on steroids. And given that Lovecraft is already too overwrought for my liking, Hodgson is definitely not my cup of tea.

The book starts off well; indeed, very well. But the two men on the fishing trip turn out to be little more than potted plants. Nothing much happens to them, and they don't really do or accomplish anything. One of them reads the manuscript found in the ruins of the house, while the other listens to the tale. Yawn.

As for that tale, which is the heart of the book, Hodgson has thrown in everything but the kitchen sink. In addition to the story being heavily laden, it's also directionless and confused. What are we dealing with here? Not ghosts, surely. Demons? So it would seem. But why confuse the issue with pretentious and unsuccessful science fiction gibberish? Hodgson's obsession with space/time/dimensional travel is both bizarre and tiresome. This is H.G. Wells territory, and Hodgson is lost in it. In a very short book, there is page after page of the sun rising and setting at an ever-increasing pace and of the seasons melding together in the wink of an eye. It's interminable and boring.

I usually prefer to think that the protagonist in these tales is actually experiencing horror, rather than assume he's psychotic. But not in this case. The guy's crazy. It should be left at that. And the book -- it should be left on the shelf.

As someone who really likes turn-of-the-century horror writers like Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood, this book sounded like something right up my alley. Like a number of other reviewers, I thought the beginning chapters dealing with the pit and its creatures were terrific (in the true sense of the word), but the author lost me somewhat in the very long cosmological journeys through space-time that make up the middle of the book. It almost seemed like two novels--one that I really wanted to read, and one that I had to wade through to get back to the one I wanted to be reading. Unfortunately, the latter interfered with the experience of the former.

I'd still recommend it as a quirky and interesting--if ultimately a little disappointing--read for people who like the gothic fiction of this period. Some of it reminded me of H. G. Wells at his best, and I would definitely give other stories by this author a try.

I bought this book due to it being recomended somewhere by H.P. Lovecraft. I was not disappointed. Some of the scenes were just a little too sci-fi for my taste but the parts with the narrator trapped in his monlith house as it is attacked by grotesque beasts were just plain scary. For the time period when this was written it is definitely a revolutionary horror tale. I'm surprised that it was even published for the time. If you like horror and want to see the influences on some of your favorite modern day fright writers I suggest checking this book out.

The fantastic visionary horror about a human fear and despair. A creatures from an other dimensions attacking the narrator's house, which stands lonely in desolate gardens, the witness of the end of our solar system, the way into a strange assembly of old and forgotten heathen Gods in a arena in the midst a great mountains, horrible steps of something invisible heard by nights, a dark basements and endless abyss below the house (perhaps opening to another worlds - the all is written out with the most amazing imaginary. Especially the journey of the main figure through the billions of the centuries into the future by an accelerating of the time is something absolutely original and inimitable. I have read a lot of the books but I never have met so the wonderful one as "The house on the borderland" is. I dare to say, that Mr. Hodgson is (despite of his rather worse and jerky style) more better and more creatvive than for example Lovercraft, Blackwood or C.A. Smith, but it's only my subjective opinion. What a shame that he was killed in the World War I. He could have proved much more.

I have been a Si-Fi lover all of my life and "House on the Borderland" is one of the best stories that I have had the pleasure to get involved in. You can not just read it-- you must become part of the story. I have not read the book in many (15) years and it still pops into my head (a lot). I really hated that it is as short as it is. Not that it hindered the telling of the story, but I wanted it to continue... on and on.

This is a review of the illustrated graphic novel adaptation of the HODGSON novel. Definitely unsettling, this mature comic is dark and gothic just like a LOVECRAFT story or HAMMER film. The artwork is creepy and original and paints the gloomy picture the original book intended. A good, quick way to digest a visual work of literature about a place somewhere between good and evil that keeps the reader on the edge of eerie dread.

Richard Corben's artwork in this graphic novel is awesome as usual. Corben's art in this book is moody, abstract, and at times surreal. The art matches the story perfectly.
I have never read the original version by William Hope Hodgson, but after reading this adaption of it to the graphic novel format, I certainly will.
An excellent example of why I will always buy any book with Richard Corben's fantastic artwork.

If you like supernatural horror fiction that explores the subtle effects of uncanny fear on an isolated individual, you'll enjoy THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND. Hodgson is a master of this sort of horror. If you prefer your horror with spurting blood and entrails exposed, Hodgson is not your writer. He prefers to depict his protagonist's struggle with growing dread of some profoundly evil presence, which his commonsense tells him can't exist even though the hair on the back of his neck is standing.

The novel's premise is not original: the lonely man living in a strange house that rests on a portal to the underworld. It's Hodgson's skill in working out fascinating implications of that premise that makes the novel worth reading.

This odd, deeply atmospheric novel is undoubtedly the masterwork of the eccentric Edwardian English wrtier William Hope Hodgson. It presents the haunting story of an old recluse who lives in a weird borderland between ordinarly reality and unspeakable horror. The tale is presented through the experience of two friends who discover an old manuscript in the ruin of a mansion while camping in rural Ireland. The papers describe the strange visions and terrifying experiences of the recluse who, together with his elderly sister, was the house's last living inhabitant. The story is powerfully evocative of the different kinds of evil that can befall a human mind. It should appeal to anyone who likes Lovecraft or Poe, but goes far beyond the limits of the horror genre in its imaginative power and artistry.

Interesting in some parts, with a couple of thrilling sections. The cosmic sequence in the second half of the book was pretty unique to anything I've read before, but also drags on for too long.
The main character was not very convincing. Too often something would happen that would absolutely terrify or drive a normal person to madness, and the narrator would simply express curiousity or surprise, along with an unrealistic clarity of thought.
Too many strange incidents with no hint of an explanation. I'm not one that needs a full explanation of every mystery in a book, but at least give the reader something to chew on. I also found the end to be a bit of a letdown. The quality of writing was fair, but slightly repetitive.

WOW ! William Hope Hodgson is a an underrated, but Great talent. Were he writing today, he'd be a "bestselling author" . . his horror stories are sublime !

"The House on the Borderland" is a scary, desolate , masterpiece . . i'd love to see it made into a movie ! Maybe M.Night, or Ridley Scott . .

His "Carnacki, The Ghost Finder", stories are deserving of 'classic" status. If you love horror, it's hard to beat these stories . . i found myself hesitant to walk around the house at night after reading these.

He did his research, he KNEW his subject matter. Buy it !

Other reviewers have given the gist of the story quite well, so I won't recount it here. Let me just say that there is a reason why this story has been so influential to its readers after nearly 100 years, and continues to amaze and shock. It's because it may be true. I say this because the visions described in this book are more than just scary, they are based upon the real descriptions of other planes of consciousness given by real mystic adepts who have penetrated into the unseen creation through the facility of mystic transport. Even modern-day occurrences of the co-mingling of different planes of existence have been documented in places like Findhorn, Scotland (RE: "The Findhorn Garden"). Indian Mystics from time immemorial have told of "sunnas" - vast regions of emptyness and isolation where monumental icons and symbols from Universal Mind manifest as objects and tableaus. They are the "out-lands" of the astral cosmos, like a sand-spit that collects the wreckage of ships and other flotsam and jetsom from the "stream of consciousness" of Eternity. It's an uncomfortable vision of what's beyond this life on Earth that we know. But reality is far stranger than any fiction. This brilliant narrative may just be a glimpse of the true nature of space-time - and how small is a man, indeed, who is confined to the physical body alone. The dated style is authentic for its era, and those who find it objectionable probably won't like this review either. A lot of thought went into this novel, breaching subject matter that is utterly bizarre and alien to most. Those few travelers who fly on the wings of consciousness will smile knowingly at this. I suggest you also read the entire collection of books by Carlos Casteneda, who gives a glimpse of near-earth astral phenomena. A WONDERful and spellbinding book in any sense, I highly recommend it.

William Hope Hodgson is an author who is pretty much unknown in America and who has been forgotten in his native Britain. This is a shame for as The House on the Borderland demonstrates, Hodgson was a brilliant horror writer. The House on the Borderland is one of the scariest books I have ever read and all horror fans should consider buying it.

The entire story is told as a narration, not through dialogue, and that irritates me really. The comics medium is supposed to bring the narration through pictures, and the story should unfold through dialogues. Maybe the story is unfit for the medium, since there are a lot of panels where the main character is alone, still, Corben should and could have found a way to make it much more fun.

The characters are not well built, and it is hard to identify with someone you haven't really met. Which is important since the genre should be horror, but I can't say I got scared, or thrilled at all.

The only reason I give it 3 stars is because of the artwork of one of my favorite comic artists. The bottomline: recommended only for true Corben fans, otherwise you can skip this one.

This book was definitely an interesting one, although I felt as though the middle section of the book strayed drastically far from what he had set up beforehand. My favorite parts of this book are those that deal with the swine beasts of the pit. Those parts are extremely exciting and, in some areas, quite chilling.

it's alright, but a little hokey and dated, and i don't know what book most of the other reviewers on this page read. two young men find a manuscript in the ruins of a castle about a guy shooting white pigs out his window. wow. talk about "cosmic dread" and "icy terror". there was nothing spectacular or even slightly memorable about this book, except the beginning. the reason everyone gives such verbose praise to this thoroughly forgettable, antiquated novel is that lovecraft said a few good words about it. but let's remember our friendly neighborhood sheep, he was a man of his times, and i seriously doubt that if he was alive he would have such lavish praise for this novel now. lovecraft's material dated well (except for the racism), so did blackwood's (aside from the pantheism), so did lefanu and bierce's:hodgson's most certainly did not. skip it and read something by arthur machen or thomas ligotti.

This was my first experience reading Hodgson and I must say I was blown away. Epic, spectacular, mind-blowing, nearly delirious in its imaginative scope, and awfully scary... the only problem is this paperback edition is woefully edited, with typos galore -- and the editor seems to have no clue when or where to use a comma. They are EVERYWHERE! But skim past the typographical mishaps and enjoy this story for what it is: a glorious ride into uncharted regions of space and time, into what very well might be Hell itself.

Written sometime around 1906, this book is farther out there than almost anything you could find written today. Its one of those books that the less you know going in, the better. But I promise you, it will change the way you look at the world, at least for a little while.

This story is quite reminiscent of Arthur Machen's work, with a similar feeling of weird alienation. It's not as well done as Machen, I think, because Hodgson's style is one of piling on the creepy events with little coherence to the whole. But there are memorable images, and the overall effect is quite unsettling if you take it seriously.

DO NOT BUY THIS EDITION. Always check "Look Inside" before buying a book from the store. Many books, such as this one, are published by garbage people with no interest whatever in giving you an enjoyable reading experience. This book has spaces between the paragraphs, and the paragraphs aren't indented! It's garbage.

The House on the Borderland is one of the works which inspired H. P. Lovecraft, and it's easy to see why. A crumbling mansion in a forgotten corner of Ireland, in which an elderly man lives with his sister (shades of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher) is an intriguing premise. The writing is decent and at times quite evocative.

An earthquake opens up a fissure in the ground, and to the old man's horror an entire nest of peculiar monsters is set loose in the land. Hodgson weaves a compelling narrative at this point; the efforts of the man to repel these creatures is well-described and engaging.

Then -- poof! the tale self-destructs.

The writer shifts gears and takes his main character on an astral out-of-body quest deep into the universe. Colors, flashing lights, and pages upon pages of description that amounts to nothing. It felt a little like the concluding shots of Dave Bowman's fall into the monolith at the end of 2001 -- trippy and drawn out.

In short, Hodgson abandoned his set-up and premise and drops us into an acid-trip. I'm guessing he wanted to weave a paranormal tale that deliberately leaves questions in the reader's mind. To do that well, however, there has to be a meaty story with some form of resolution. Lovecraft rarely gives his audience every piece of information, but there is substance and a concrete value to his metaphors. The House on the Borderland may have been his inspiration, but Lovecraft immeasurably improved on the craft.

Very disappointing.

I must agree with Lovecraft when he says the language is a little archaic. it tends to bog the story down, but the story is never the less creepy and yet fun. what is constantly wondering what is actually happening to the nearest her in that house. I saw a reference to this book in the third gate and decided to read it. it was a fun diversion

This was a fairly entertaining book, but it left me unsatisfied, since it was primarily concerned with emotional effects, to the detriment of plot and fleshed out ideas. It was similar to Lovecraft, with a little Stapledon mixed in, but not quite as good as either. Also, the character of the sister was a major problem. It was hard to believe that someone could be so oblivious to these bizarre events, or that her brother could be so oblivious to her. But I can see how this book had a big influence on later science fiction and horror writers

I have to agree with the reviewers from Illinois and Ohio. There are about 30 really good pages of horror which were very scary however after that the plot totally changes and it just lost me in all this end-of-the-world/space-time imagery that it was impossible to follow...not that I even really cared to follow because it wasn't scary at all. As a science-fiction book it was o.k. but as a horror book it was really lame.

House on the Borderland is a must-read for those who appreciate the atmosphere Lovecraft created in many of his tales, such as The Lurking Fear. The swine-things in the subterranean pit are the most frightening thing I have ever read. The story does drag a bit toward the middle-end, as our protagonist is travelling across time.

(...) This book is an adventure story about a guy who has a gun and a whole buttload of pigpeople to kill. Zoom! Boom! Bazoom! That's what I think his shotgun sounded like as he unloaded it into those foul creatures! It's crazy, I tell you!
Then he goes into space right? To the GREEN SUN. Obviously a play on the Loc-Nar from the movie Heavy Metal. What a load. William H. Hodgeson obviously travelled into the future to copy it. Or maybe the Grimaldi guy went back in time and showed him the story boards. I don't know. But it's crazy, I tell you! (...)