Rank the works of William Hope Hodgson

[Die Math]

In order to create a guide for novices concerning lesser known weird fiction authors, I have been conducting online surveys among fans to highlight some of their more popular works. In this thread, please rank your ten favorite William Hope Hodgson stories (novels or short stories). Your favorite story should be numbered 1, while your less preferred stories should ascend down to the number 10. If you haven't read or like 10 of his stories, you don't have to fill out a complete list, but I will only include submissions in my survey for those who have ranked at least 5 stories.

Once I have sufficient results, I'll put the details into a spreadsheet and create a table to share with the respondents. Thanks for participating!

 

[hitmouse]

1. House on the Borderlands
2. The Night Land

That is all I have read. I thought Night Land was very interesting, but written in an unforgivably annoying style.

 

[Extollager]

Would it be OK to move this thread to the Classic SF&F area? That might be more appropriate for discussion of Hodgson. However, if there was interest in discussion specifically of his non-weird tales of seafaring life, etc., the Literary Fiction area would be appropriate for the thread.

 

[Die Math]

1. House on the Borderlands
2. The Night Land

That is all I have read. I thought Night Land was very interesting, but written in an unforgivably annoying style.

Thanks for responding. It does seem like most people have only read a book or two by the author, which is why I'm conducting this survey to help bring attention to his lesser known works.

 

[J Riff]

All good here, enjoyed every one. But then, I live in a houseboat on the Sargasso Sea.

 

[Extollager]

I've read The House on the Borderland several times, The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig" twice, and The Ghost Pirates, and about half of The Night Land, but none or virtually none of the non-science fiction/fantasy. Has no one here at all read any of it?

 

[J Riff]

There's lots of stories I haven't read, with great titles, like: Terror of the Water-tank, Through the Vortex of a Cyclone, a Fight with a Submarine, etc. Then there's the Captain Jat and Captain Gault stuff, and more. The Hog was good, as I recall.
Looks like there's a few less-common ones at Manybooks.net

 

[J Riff]

read a few shorts - highly reccomended, and could be about anything at all. Like the short short one about the stolen book, using a publisher's blank, or dummy copy.
But mainly, you want to avoid the Sargasso Sea, esp. on a raft, because there are things in there....

 

[Randy M.]

Night Shade Books is reissuing in paperback their massive 5 volume complete collection of Hodgson's fiction. So far the Carnacki collection, The House on the Borderland, The Ghost Pirates and The Boats of the Glen Carrig are all, I think, now in tpb format, with The Night Land still to come. The Carnecki stories are included in the volume with ...Borderland.

Some of the Carnacki stories are fun, "The Voice in the Night" is probably as terrifying as any short story I've read (and I suspect an influence on many later writers, including recently Caitlin Kiernan), but the more I read the more I become ambivalent about Hodgson. He had an expansive imagination but his prose is so clunky it diminishes my enjoyment. I recall, many, many years ago being bored by ...Glen Carrig but I should reread it since I remember almost nothing about it. The House on the Borderland was, for me, powerful up to the passage that I think most readers find awe inspiring -- when the narrator's consciousness seems to separate from his body and go to the stars -- which I found over-extended, with Hodgson struggling to find the language to express his imaginative vision.

I've owned The Night Land in a thick mass market paperback for decades but the font size put me off; now I'm waiting for the Night Shade edition.

I haven't responded to this thread because, in my experience, "The Voice in the Night" is the best Hodgson I've read and the rest feels compromised by narrative choices and the limitations of his prose.


Randy M.

 

[J Riff]

I really like the olde prose, the sailor's expressions, the arcane lingo. 1920 is not today.

 

[BAYLOR]

Night Shade Books is reissuing in paperback their massive 5 volume complete collection of Hodgson's fiction. So far the Carnacki collection, The House on the Borderland, The Ghost Pirates and The Boats of the Glen Carrig are all, I think, now in tpb format, with The Night Land still to come. The Carnecki stories are included in the volume with ...Borderland.

Some of the Carnacki stories are fun, "The Voice in the Night" is probably as terrifying as any short story I've read (and I suspect an influence on many later writers, including recently Caitlin Kiernan), but the more I read the more I become ambivalent about Hodgson. He had an expansive imagination but his prose is so clunky it diminishes my enjoyment. I recall, many, many years ago being bored by ...Glen Carrig but I should reread it since I remember almost nothing about it. The House on the Borderland was, for me, powerful up to the passage that I think most readers find awe inspiring -- when the narrator's consciousness seems to separate from his body and go to the stars -- which I found over-extended, with Hodgson struggling to find the language to express his imaginative vision.

I've owned The Night Land in a thick mass market paperback for decades but the font size put me off; now I'm waiting for the Night Shade edition.

I haven't responded to this thread because, in my experience, "The Voice in the Night" is the best Hodgson I've read and the rest feels compromised by narrative choices and the limitations of his prose.


Randy M.

I have a hardcover edition of The Night Land On line ive seen an illustrated edition of this Hodgson novel.