The House on the Borderland
Two men, vacationing in Ireland, come upon a great ruined house, where they find an ancient manuscript. Its author tells a strange tale; transported through unfathomable immensities of space, he comes across an "anti-house," precisely like his own, where strange and evil creatures seek to enter. Back on earth, the same grotesque horrors appear; besieges, he seeks to escape. The horror builds.
And now something even stranger occurs: time itself goes mad, centuries pass in instants, the sun is swallowed by the central sun of the universe, a great sentient star that emits a curious violet light, and sends thought messages everywhere – messages of infinite sadness, for the forces of evil are great.
"The wanderings of the narrator's spirit through limitless light-years of cosmic space and kalpas of eternity, and its witnessing of the solar system's final destruction constitute something almost unique." – H. P. Lovecraft
Now available as part of the British Library Tales of the Weird series with a new introduction by Ann VanderMeer exploring why Hodgson’s tale is the ‘perfect embodiment of a weird novel’, this edition of the 1908 cult classic still thrums with the visionary energy which influenced countless writers including H. P. Lovecraft and Terry Pratchett.
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William Hope Hodgson
William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918) was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction and science fiction. Hodgson used his experiences at sea to lend authentic detail to his short horror stories, many of which are set on the ocean, including his series of linked tales forming the "Sargasso Sea Mythos". His novels such as The Night Land and The House on the Borderland feature more cosmic themes, but several of his novels also focus on horrors associated with the sea. Early in his writing career he dedicated effort to poetry, although few of his poems were published during his lifetime. He also attracted some notice as a photographer and achieved some renown as a bodybuilder. He died in World War I at the age of 40.
British Library Tales of the Weird
The British Library Tales of the Weird series revives and unearths classic strange fiction from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the form of novels, single-author collections and thematic anthologies, complete with new introductions and fascinating notes by expert editors.
British Library Tales of the Weird consists of sixty-three books and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
