William Hope Hodgson reprints

[GOLLUM]

...As is so often the case, the majority of editions of Hodgson (with the exception of the Glen Cook, apparently, of which this is the first I've heard) will only collect his better-known work, with a few lesser-known (or unknown) tales......

Meannig you don't know about Glenn Cook or the fact this is the first time his stuff is being collected together.... I'm a slight fan as you may have gathered...

 

[j d worthington]

Sorry; posted in haste; should have separated those two statements....

Lobo: While possible, I rather doubt it. Given Hodgson's experiences, I think it more likely it's a futuristic tale about warfare, possibly about the horrors of, etc....

 

[Lobolover]

J.D.-I dunno.I havent seen to much "funny" stuff form CAS,though you will certainly prove me otherwise , however,I think some of this would be at least a bit known were it anything real good.

Incidentely,Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani is online,but I havent mustured the courage to read it.

Oh,very recently I've read "The derelict" as I mentioned elsewhere,and it was quite a good tale-reminded me a bit,now that I think of it,of "the whistling room",because of how "out there" said idea is,at least for its time.

Now a personal question-what was your FIRST reading of Hodgeson if you can remember and your first impression?

 

[j d worthington]

First: about it being somewhat known if it was any good... no, not necessarily. If it was only published in a magazine of the period, or in a collection which never got much attention, then it would have disappeared into oblivion, the way so many other tales by various writers have. As you yourself know from your reading, there are plenty of gems out there which simply remain unknown these days, period.

As for Smith: yes, a fair amount of his work was satirical -- in fact, nearly all the things he "contributed" to the Mythos (a debatable point in itself) would fall into that category, from "The Seven Geases" to "The Door to Saturn" on. Smith had an acerbic turn worthy of Bierce, and wasn't slow to use it.

As for my own first reading of Hodgson -- not surprisingly, it was "The Voice in the Night", in an anthology titled More Tales to Tremble By, which was (at that point, at any rate) published as a children's book(!), and which also included such tales as "The Red Lodge", by H. Russell Wakefield; "'God Grante That She Lye Stille'" by Lady Cynthia Asquith; "Casting the Runes", by M. R. James; "Sredni Vashtar", by "Saki"; "Thurnley Abbey", by Percival Landon; "The Extra Passenger", by August Derleth; and "The Book", by Margaret Irwin -- an excellent way to introduce a young person to some of the true jewels of the supernatural tale. (The first book of the set, Tales to Tremble By, wasn't a shabby lot, either....)

After that (several years after), I got my hands on a copy of the Arkham House collection, The House on the Borderland and Other Novels, and that confirmed me as a fan of Hodgson's work....

(If you'll scroll down on the first link, you can see the cover and a few pages of More Tales....)

Fond of Snape: RIP II Archives

The House on the Borderland and Other Novels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Lobolover]

Well,I mean it would have been duged out,consideirng he was rather obscure in his works in general.

 

[j d worthington]

Well,I mean it would have been duged out,consideirng he was rather obscure in his works in general.

No, not necessarily. It all depends on what information there was even on its publication. If it wasn't indicated in any of his papers, then only chance (or diligent searching through existing files) would bring it to light... and if all copies of that magazine were (at least for a time) lost or thought to be lost, it wouldn't surface even then. And if he published it under a pseudobym....

A lot of other things can keep works from resurfacing. They're still trying to track down things that Le Fanu wrote (and Poe, for that matter), so the same may well be the case with Hodgson now and again....

 

[Fried Egg]

I've just read my first Hodgson tale: "Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani". It was in the anthology of "extreme fantasy" that I am currently reading. Strange tale; I thought it was almost more SF than fantasy although I guess it is one of those tales that is straddling the fine line between them.

Anyway, I liked it enough to read more of his stuff although the editor states that this tale is quite unlike anything else the author did...

 

[j d worthington]

Latest update on Vol. 5:

Night Shade Books: Hodgson, William Hope - Collected Fiction vol. 5

Seems like, as with everyone else, thing have been thrown out of kilter with their publication program the last several months, but they appear to have a firmer grasp on it now....

 

[Lobolover]

So, since then: what stories would you say are worth reading, then?

I know and have read The Derelict, The Voice in the night and I know of the good stories of in Carnacki, but besides, I have not the slightest idea.

 

[j d worthington]

So, since then: what stories would you say are worth reading, then?

I know and have read The Derelict, The Voice in the night and I know of the good stories of in Carnacki, but besides, I have not the slightest idea.

If you've read those (plus the novels), you've read the majority of what I've read up to this point, if not all of it....

 

[Connavar]

If you've read those (plus the novels), you've read the majority of what I've read up to this point, if not all of it....

Is the Carnacki the Ghost Finder stories good enough to buy on their own ?

Seeing as i wanted more WHH now and Carnacki are cheap in wordsworth and sounds interesting in the psychic detective.

His Nightshade volumes are real expensive for a reader who usually buys paperbacks.

 

[Lobolover]

Well, there are only four or so genuine ghost stories and alot of "fakes". Im to read Hog yet, but dont bother to buy it is my guess, that is if you do not like the "natural explanation" bit, because his "House among the laurels" is a slap-you-in-the-face-and-stomach-with-the-worst-cliche-stereotype-of-the-most-mediocre-underwhelming- clasic-gothic-novel-natural-"explanation"-ending . Briefly, if you will not avoid being spoiled, it's about a haunted house that's not realy haunted, but is only used by a band of robers/thugs and the haunting is kept up by a system of "wires" . Such a disapointment I didn't read the whole thing either.

I sugest you read his Carnacki stories online/print them out if you can't find a more balanced volume and if you are, like I said, a litle iffy about such things as "natural explanations", of which I whole heartedly share H.R.Wakefield's sentiments.

J.d.-only have completed "House on the borderland" I printed out The Night land too and read a great bit, but every time It's very hard to pinpoint where I left of, seeing that the text repeats itself a lot.

("I ate some of the tablets and drank some of the water"- take that sentence away and you'll be missing half the book!)

 

[j d worthington]

Connavar: I can't quite agree with Lobo on this. Despite some serious flaws, yes, for the price, I'd certainly suggest going with the Carnacki stories; they aren't all truly "weird", but several of those that are are... unusual, shall we say? and the rest are generally entertaining and often manage to build an atmosphere of the weird, no matter how naturalistic the explanation may finally be.

Lobo: Yes, The Night Land can at times be a bit of a slog, but it really is worth it (despite Hodgson's egregious attempt at a pseudo-archaic dialect and the cumbersome structure). I'd strongly suggest reading The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" and The Ghost Pirates as well, and keeping in mind that they do form a trilogy (of sorts) with The House on the Borderland. Some very powerful stuff in there. Oh, and earlier, I forgot to mention the tales collected in Deep Waters; I think you'd find several of them of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Waters_(book)

 

[Lobolover]

Yes, but what is absolutely necessary for him to tell us when he ate and drank every time he did so on every day? Whereas we did not hear about him taking a leak once, I say, theres something mightily wrong here

Ps: wrong link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Waters_(book)

Well, how about "The Stone Ship",(I read something about that) and "From the tideless sea" ?

Pps: I forgot to mention "A tropical horror" also very much worth your time.

Ppps: to the Carnacki- I said given the condition he dislikes natural explanation's, and I figure as much as Wakefield on the mater. I would say a logical explanation is when an author (not everybody, but some at least) obtain a horrible enough idea, but either for the lack of pluck to kill of their character (if their a part of a series making them money) or for the simple absence of an idea how to fit it in and do it right, they decide to retract their posts at the end "sorry, but this actualy never happened" .

 

[Connavar]

Connavar: I can't quite agree with Lobo on this. Despite some serious flaws, yes, for the price, I'd certainly suggest going with the Carnacki stories; they aren't all truly "weird", but several of those that are are... unusual, shall we say? and the rest are generally entertaining and often manage to build an atmosphere of the weird, no matter how naturalistic the explanation may finally be.

Lobo: Yes, The Night Land can at times be a bit of a slog, but it really is worth it (despite Hodgson's egregious attempt at a pseudo-archaic dialect and the cumbersome structure). I'd strongly suggest reading The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" and The Ghost Pirates as well, and keeping in mind that they do form a trilogy (of sorts) with The House on the Borderland. Some very powerful stuff in there. Oh, and earlier, I forgot to mention the tales collected in Deep Waters; I think you'd find several of them of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Waters_(book)

I was just so impressed by WHH when i read him for the first time that i just want more of him right now. Doesnt have to be his wierd nautical stories,other famous stories of his. Since i bought complete Washington Irving for $30 last month i cant afford the first vol of his nighshade collections at the moment.

Unsual and entertaining sound good. Also its £2-3 that so cheap that its nothing even if the stories arent to my taste

 

[j d worthington]

Okay, let's see if this one works:

Deep Waters, by William Hope Hodgson (1967)

Okay, finally! (Seems that the final bit of code wasn't copying properly, for some reason, in the other attempts.)

Now... on the "logical explanation" or, more accurately, naturalistic explanation... yes, there are some where that description would apply; Hodgson (and most of his peers) do not belong in that category though, I would say. It's a difference in orientation. You, for instance, have a specific orientation toward the genuinely weird or supernatural, rather than that which is apparently weird but which still lies within the realm of the natural, or is proven to be natural in the end. The difference is often a philosophical one as much as anything (especially in the early Gothics and those who followed that path); it is as much or more about exploring the susceptibility of the human mind (even the most enlightened) to the irrational as it is telling a "ghost story" (as it is still often called). It's a perfectly valid approach which doesn't intrinsically indicate any lack on the part of the writer; what shows that is whether or not the given explanation works within the context of the tale itself. With Hodgson, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. But one also has to keep in mind that he was, at the same time, following the trend of the detective (or occult detective) tale here, as well; and in at least the majority of cases, the detective tale relies on a rationalistic view of the world which can, given enough information, explain in such terms that which seems to be a violation of the natural order.

We are too prone to create a set of limitations for such things based upon our own preferences and prejudices, rather than looking at a writer's work as it is and seeing whether it succeeds or fails within its own terms. If it succeeds within those terms, then any disappointment we have with it tends to be because of our own expectations or desires, rather than the intrinsic quality of the work itself. If, on the other hand, it violates such terms, or is malproportioned in some way in and of itself, then that is a perfectly valid criticism of the work and the writer's failing within that particular opus. Hodgson certainly has his share of those (the pseudo-archaism mentioned earlier being a prime example), but I wouldn't make a blanket condemnation of his use of the naturalistic explanation; that's more a bias of the reader rather than a fault of the writer.

 

[Lobolover]

Well, Im more regurgitated with "House among the laurels" which seems to be copied straight out of The Necromancer and from what Ive heard, half a dozen other gothic novels.

 

[Fried Egg]

I've just finished "The Houds on the Borderland", my first William Hope Hodgson novel and here is my review:

A dark and mysterious horror of cosmic proportions besets a man living in the "house on the borderland" that presides over a bottomless pit. Hodgson successfully builds up the tension and horror throughout the book marred only by a strange interlude in which the pace of the story is brought to a crawl. In order to enjoy this bit you really need to just immerse yourself in the narrative and try hard to visualise and conceptualise all that is being described.

The book picks up pace again for the conclusion and it's horrific finish. What does it all mean, you may be left pondering. Very little is really explained and it is left to the reader to piece it together and (perhaps) draw their own conclusions.

A flawed masterpiece.

 

[Connavar]

If you are a WHH fan and a Graphic Novel reader dont miss out on Alan Moore's new volume 3 of his League series. Carnacki is one of the new main characters along with W. Somerset Maugham's Aleister Crowley-anologue Oliver Haddo and Iain Sinclair's London-bound time traveller Andrew Norton.

I have the volume but of course cant read it until i have read Hodgson stories with Carnacki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Le...n,_Volume_III:_Century#cite_note-Newsarama5-3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Le...n,_Volume_III:_Century#cite_note-Newsarama5-3

 

[j d worthington]

If you are a WHH fan and a Graphic Novel reader dont miss out on Alan Moore's new volume 3 of his League series. Carnacki is one of the new main characters along with W. Somerset Maugham's Aleister Crowley-anologue Oliver Haddo and Iain Sinclair's London-bound time traveller Andrew Norton.

I have the volume but of course cant read it until i have read Hodgson stories with Carnacki.

Question, Connavar: If this is the case, have you read Maugham's The Magician? If not:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14257/14257-8.txt