The House on the Borderland
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
The House on the Borderland is a supernatural horror novel by William Hope Hodgson. He went beyond the existing ghost story and gothic molds, synthesizing a new cosmic horror that made a huge impact on later writers of weird tales, notably H. P. Lovecraft. The two gentlemen Tonnison and Berreggnog head to a village in Ireland for a week's fishing. There they discover the ruins of a strange house and the diary of the house's former occupant, the words on its torn pages hinting at an evil far beyond anything that has existed in this world before.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Horror Writers Association continues its Haunted Library of Horror Classics series with this reprint of Hodgson's eerie 1908 novel, a pioneering work in the weird fiction canon. Two travelers in Ireland come across a large house that has half-fallen into an immense pit surrounded by brambles and overgrowth. Within the house, they discover a tattered diary written by an unnamed man, referred to in footnotes as the Recluse, who lived in the house with his sister turned housekeeper, Mary, and canine companion, Pepper, his only friend. The Recluse writes of the unimaginable horrors he's experienced while living in the house, encountering demons he calls the "swine-things" and descending into madness as he visits otherworldly dimensions and sees visions of the end of the world. Even seasoned horror readers will be taken in by the atmosphere of existential dread Hodgson evokes in the Recluse's descriptions of his torment. An introduction by contemporary horror titan Ramsey Campbell, a brief account of Hodgson's life, and footnotes throughout add helpful context that will ease readers into Hodgson's uncanny world. Weird fiction fans should snap this up.