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A review by neko_cam
The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
2.0
I picked up 'The House on the Borderland' (henceforth 'The House') after learning that H.P. Lovecraft considered this piece particularly inspirational and so, considering how much I enjoy Lovecraft's work, I thought it would be worth further examination.
I enjoyed the first portion of the story which primarily concerns a siege that is laid against the house of the reclusive protagonist by a horde of strange swine-men, and which culminates with the discovery of a massive, seemingly bottomless pit directly beneath the house. I couldn't help but chuckle at the way the protagonist sees fit to simply lock his sister in her bedroom during this portion and, at one point, describes her as seeming to be "in a fainting condition".
The second portion failed to really maintain my interest and enthusiasm. The protagonist passes through time at a constantly increasing rate, eventually finding himself aeons into the future - beyond even the destruction of the Earth and the solar system - and in the presence of what he thinks may be the "Central Suns" of the galaxy. While some of the imagery was quite interesting, the pacing was agonizingly slow. I was hoping that this portion would at least reveal something substantial about the swine-men or their origins, but it just left me with more questions than it answered.
The third and final portion of the story was refreshingly (comparatively) succinct. A swinebeast-godthing seems to have followed the protagonist back through time/space to the house, where it infects his pet dog with a strange, luminous, fungal disease. The protagonist is forced to put down the animal, but not before he becomes unwittingly infected himself. The manuscript closes with the protagonist's panicked prose as the swinebeast-godthing is breaking down the door to his study.
It was easy to see several elements present in 'The House' which I recognized from Lovecraft's work. Thankfully Lovecraft's writing style is not terribly similar to that of Hodgeson, as the story was absolutely littered with superfluous commas. Don't get me wrong; I don't mind prose written in a dated style, but I found the aforementioned (ab)use of commas to be quite jarring.
I wouldn't really suggest 'The House' to anyone who wasn't already a big fan of cosmic horror for fear of turning them off the genre, but I think that existing fans of the genre - and particularly Lovecraft's works - may still be able to find some interesting and enjoyable elements in this story.
I enjoyed the first portion of the story which primarily concerns a siege that is laid against the house of the reclusive protagonist by a horde of strange swine-men, and which culminates with the discovery of a massive, seemingly bottomless pit directly beneath the house. I couldn't help but chuckle at the way the protagonist sees fit to simply lock his sister in her bedroom during this portion and, at one point, describes her as seeming to be "in a fainting condition".
The second portion failed to really maintain my interest and enthusiasm. The protagonist passes through time at a constantly increasing rate, eventually finding himself aeons into the future - beyond even the destruction of the Earth and the solar system - and in the presence of what he thinks may be the "Central Suns" of the galaxy. While some of the imagery was quite interesting, the pacing was agonizingly slow. I was hoping that this portion would at least reveal something substantial about the swine-men or their origins, but it just left me with more questions than it answered.
The third and final portion of the story was refreshingly (comparatively) succinct. A swinebeast-godthing seems to have followed the protagonist back through time/space to the house, where it infects his pet dog with a strange, luminous, fungal disease. The protagonist is forced to put down the animal, but not before he becomes unwittingly infected himself. The manuscript closes with the protagonist's panicked prose as the swinebeast-godthing is breaking down the door to his study.
It was easy to see several elements present in 'The House' which I recognized from Lovecraft's work. Thankfully Lovecraft's writing style is not terribly similar to that of Hodgeson, as the story was absolutely littered with superfluous commas. Don't get me wrong; I don't mind prose written in a dated style, but I found the aforementioned (ab)use of commas to be quite jarring.
I wouldn't really suggest 'The House' to anyone who wasn't already a big fan of cosmic horror for fear of turning them off the genre, but I think that existing fans of the genre - and particularly Lovecraft's works - may still be able to find some interesting and enjoyable elements in this story.