Hot and Cold on Hodgson: Review of "The House on the Borderland"

Today's topic is The House on the Borderland, by William Hope Hodgson, published in 1908. I decided to read this book based on Lovecraft's evaluation of Hodgson in his "Supernatural Horror in Literature" essay. Lovecraft said that Hodgson's writing was "Of rather uneven stylistic quality, but vast occasional power in its suggestion of lurking worlds and beings behind the ordinary surface of life... perhaps second only to Algernon Blackwood in his serious treatment of unreality."

Further, Lovecraft called this book "Perhaps the greatest of all of Mr. Hodgson's works."

And, to be honest, I find myself agreeing with Lovecraft's evaluation, in both the positive and negative aspects.

First off, this is one of the strangest books I've read in a long time. It is a Weird Tale perfectly tailored for a magazine like Weird Tales, though it was published before that magazine started and I don't know if they ever reprinted it.

That strangeness works both for and against the story, because, while there are some very creative ideas at play, they are often muddled by sub-par execution.

The House on the Borderland is of short novel length, and it is effectively the story of a strange old house in western Ireland. This house stands, or rather stood, at the center of some very strange phenomena, or so we're led to believe. Whether they really happened or not is another question. It is perfectly possible that the main story is the product of a madman.

It has extremely variable pacing, swinging from swift action to sedate dream-quest and back again. The tone and style are familiar "English gentleman" style, educated and often quite detached, while still having some excellent descriptive power here and there. Our two PoV characters are a bit different, with the present era's Mr. Berreggnog being a bit more detached and grounded, while the unnamed Recluse is more fanciful and melodramatic. But both share that dry tendency that you've seen before.

There is lots of description at times, sometimes so much that it overstays its welcome. The ideas presented in the book are very creative for 1908; I've read "very creative" short science fiction stories from 50 years later that played on the same ideas. The ideas of Hodgson were fairly new in 1908, but by now many of them have been done to death. As a modern reader, I can recognize Hodgson's creativity while also observing that many of the ideas he pioneered seem quite trite today. 

The story presents a flood of unanswered questions and mysteries, which has pluses and minuses.

At the same time, there is practically no character development in the book, very little agency, and really not even much to endear the characters to the reader in any way.

It presents several different narratives, but the connection between them is often quite threadbare. The story almost feels like a rough anthology at times.

I recommend this book to those curious about old fantasy and science fiction, to fans of Lovecraft who want to read what he enjoyed, and to the critical who may find something interesting in the juxtaposition of great ideas and mediocre implementation.

For more spoiler stuff, watch the embedded video's Spoiler Section, starting at 11:56.

To check out the book for yourself, go here.