William Hope Hodgson

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson. "What were they, those Beast- gods, and the others? At frst, they had appeared to me, just sculptured Monsters, placed indiscriminately among the inaccessible peaks and precipices of the surrounding mountains. Now, as I scrutinised them with greater intentness, my mind began to reach out to fresh conclusions. There was something about them, an indescribable sort of silent vitality, that suggested, to my broadening consciousness, a state of life-in-death--a something that was by no means life, as we understand it; but rather an inhuman form of existence, that well might be likened to a deathless trance--a condition in which it was possible to imagine their continuing, eternally. 'Immortal!' the word rose in my thoughts unbidden; and, straightway, I grew to wondering whether this might be the immortality of the gods."

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson"On each side, I looked, and saw more, continually. The mountains were full of strange things--Beast-gods, and Horrors, so atrocious and bestial that possibility and decency deny any further attempt to describe them. And I--I was filled with a terrible sense of overwhelming horror and fear and repugnance; yet, spite of these, I wondered exceedingly. Was there then, after all, something in the old heathen worship, something more than the mere deifying of men, animals and elements? The thought gripped me--was there?"

The House on the Borderland Have you ever wondered what a place would be like where you were outside of time and space, neither dead nor alive? Where you could observe the mechanisms of the universe and see the death of our planet and sun? Where you could commune with souls of the dead in the black, silent sea of sleep? A manuscript is found: filled with small, precise writing and smelling of pit-water, it tells the story of an old recluse and his strange home - and it's even stranger, jade-green double, seen by the recluse on an otherworldly plain where gigantic gods and monsters roam. Soon his more earthly home is no less terrible than his bizarre vision, as swine-like creatures boil from a cavern beneath the ground and besiege it. But a still greater horror will face the recluse - more inexorable, merciless and awful than any creature that can be fought or killed.

I den klassiska skräcklitteraturen är William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918) ett av de märkligaste namnen. Hodgsons universum befinner sig i ständig upplösning, havet är en dyster värld där okända krafter härskar, mögel täcker övergivna skepp och öar, och utanför verklighetens gränser pockar gåtfull ondska på att bryta sig in. Atmosfären och styrkan i Hodgsons visioner undgår få läsare. Hans erfarenheter som sjöman letade sig också in i de flesta av hans romaner och noveller. Här presenteras några av författarens starkaste skräcknoveller, i första hand sjöhistorier men även en och annan ockult deckare.

The story collection includes the following tales: ON THE BRIDGE THE SEA HORSES THE DERELICT MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED THE HOUSE OF PRAYER FROM THE TIDELESS SEA THE CAPTAIN OF THE ONION BOAT THE VOICE IN THE NIGHT THROUGH THE VORTEX OF A CYCLONE THE MYSTERY OF THE DERELICT THE SHAMRAKEN HOMEWARD-BOUNDER GREY SEAS ARE DREAMING OF MY DEATH Well, the last one is a poem, but there you go. This Large Print Edition is presented in easy-to-read 16 point type.