Horror and fantasy before the Great War unleashed its own
horror
Lovecraft was a voracious reader and one author that clearly
had an influence on young Lovecraft was the works of William Hope Hodgson whose
books all date to before WWI. Hodgson
had a fascinating and varied career as a sailor, bodybuilder, personal coach,
poet, author, and military member. In
fact, he died in WWI in April 1918 at Ypres.
Had he lived, who knows what other books he would have written. As it is, he was a great influence to readers and writers.
These works were always scarce, hard to find and not sought
out much by the average reader. I first
read The Boats of the Glen Carrig, and House on the Borderland when Ballentine
published the Adult Fantasy Series, bringing back into print important and rare
books of influence in the genres of Science Fiction, fantasy, and horror at an
affordable price. I read The Night Land somewhat later. Long before Project Gutenberg, these editions were the only way an average person could read these
scarce tomes. In fact, if you follow
the link, there is a list of published works that are a primer of horror and
fantasy. Now with the internet and
on-line book finders such as Amazon.com, it is possible to turn up had to find
books.
I posted this blog entry to interest new readers to Hodgson
or Lovecraft and to provide a rudimentary introduction to some of Hodgson’s
works. I am by no means a Lovecraft or
Hodgson scholar and the advanced reader won’t find much here that he/she hasn’t
already found out about this fascinating author. Really this has been a trip down memory lane for me and if
nothing else, the blog reader will find a few links of interest and some free
downloadable books. You just can’t beat
free these days.
"In The Boats of the Glen
Carrig (1907) we are shown a variety of malign marvels and accursed unknown
lands as encountered by the survivors of a sunken ship. The brooding menace in
the earlier parts of the book is impossible to surpass, though a letdown in the
direction of ordinary romance and adventure occurs toward the end. An inaccurate
and pseudo-romantic attempt to reproduce eighteenth-century prose detracts from
the general effect, but the really profound nautical erudition everywhere
displayed is a compensating factor."
The Night Land (1912) is a much longer and more ambitious book,
that seems to presage Lovecraft’s Dreamlands.
Lovecraft absorbed much in his reading and little escaped his eye,
filing away information like a computer for later inquiry or incorporation. The House on the Borderland (1908) is
perhaps the best known of Hodgson’s works to the modern reader, and one can see
elements in Dreams in the Witch House. China
Miéville traces the origin of "the tentacle" as an object of
horror in H. P. Lovcraft in the book, The Boats of the Glen Carrig, about ships
trapped Devil’s Triangle of the Sargasso Sea in his 2009 essay, The Tentacles.
Lovecraft’s early milieu is one that needs study to
understand how genres of fantasy & horror evolved and then much later fused
with elements of science fiction and reading the books that Lovecraft read can
help our understanding of that time. The influences on the Cthulhu Mythos is varied and deserves study and our attention.
Interest in Hodgson’s works are now at an all time high and editions are
more plentiful and easier to find.
However, you need not go out of pocket because Project Gutenberg has
these Hodgson novels available for free
download:
The House on the Borderland
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10002
The Boats of the Glen Carrig http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10542
The Night Land http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10662
As well as two other novels
The Ghost Pirates http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10966
Carnacki, The Ghost Finder
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10832
And a short story by Hodgson from another source The Fifth Message from the Tideless Sea http://www.amalgamatedspooks.com/tidelesssea.htm
Lovecraft’s Supernautal Horror in Literature download http://www.feedbooks.com/book/234/supernatural-horror-in-literature
A Hodgson Bibliography http://www.thenightland.co.uk/nightbiblio.html
Additional links of interest
Undoubtedly I have missed some obvious links and
observations, but this little bit should be enough to entice and send an
inquiring mind off into the aether of the internet for more information and
stories. Happy hunting and happy
reading.
CoastConFan
Forgive me, but Lovecraft only encountered Hodgson's work in 1934. I believe the tentacle motif cited by China derives from "Count Magnus" - Lovecraft read M. R. James just a few months before writing "The Call of Cthulhu".
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you have brought this up because I think some confusion stems from a Wikipedia article on Hodgdson: “Hodgson's work is said to have had an influence on H.P. Lovecraft, even though Lovecraft did not read his works until 1934.”
ReplyDeleteI suggest the date of 1934 in the Wikipedia article may be a typo – perhaps it’s supposed to be 1924, or another date entirely, since Lovecraft certainly mentions Hodgson and James in his 1927 essay, Supernatural Horror in Literature. I hope that one of the readers of this blog will find out the truth. I do know the essay was revised in 1934, but I don’t a list of the revisions.
Hodgdson’s, The Boats of the Glen-Carrig was published in 1907 and Montague R. James, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, in which the story Count Magnus appears, was published in book form in 1904. Lovecraft drew from many sources for his works and de-emphasized some writer’s styles in his works, a few over time, such Merritt and Dunsany. It’s fun to trace those influences in his works.
I haven not yet been able to get a copy of China Mieville’s essay, The Tentacle, so citing it on the strength of a Wikipedia article was probably sloppiness on my part, but this is no scholarly work (obviously), just some fan musings. Again, I’d like to thank you for pointing out inconsistency with the dates, it shows people are indeed paying attention.
The Text of Lovecraft’s Supernatural Horror in Literature
This is an old commentary thread, but I cannot resist the temptation to point out that the Wikipedia date is probably correct, since the commentaries about Hodgson in Supernatural Horror are later additions that weren't in the first edition.
Delete