The House on the Borderland

The House on the Borderland (1908) is a supernatural horror novel by William Hope Hodgson. Tonnison and Berreggnog make a fishing holiday to the remote village of Kraighten in rural Ireland. On the third day of their stay, they stumble upon the ruins of a strangely shaped house on a large lake. They discover the moldering journal of the Recluse, an unidentified man who recorded his last days in the house before its destruction. The Recluse begins his journal with descriptions of how he acquired the house, along with his daily life with his sister and his faithful dog, Pepper. He started the diary to record the strange experiences and horrors occurring in and around the house. The Recluse relates a vision in which he travels to a remote and vast arena, “the Plain of Silence”, surrounded by mountains with representations of mythological beast-gods, demons, and other “bestial horrors” on their slopes.