William Hope Hodgson

William Hope Hodgson (1875-1918) es sin duda uno de los representantes más originales de lo que se ha dado en llamar el «cuento materialista de terror». La asombrosa facilidad de Hodgson para recrear

«Una de las piezas más potentes de la imaginación macabra jamás escritas»H. P. Lovecraft Según Lovecraft se trata de la obra de ficción fantástica más singular escrita en lengua inglesa, de la que pu

William Hope Hodgson - En Los botes del «Glen Carrig» (1907), primera novela publicada por Hodgson, cuyo largo subtítulo descriptivo anticipa el estilo dieciochesco de esta narración, relata en forma

En los mejores relatos del inglés William Hope Hodgson, el mar es un sitio carente de historia y casi de geografía: constituye una zona intemporal, casi metafísica. Permite el ingreso a la inmovilidad angustiosa y al horror, en lugar de a la aventura y al movimiento. Un autentico Mar de los Sargazos que bloquea y angustia a sus marinos y al hipnotizado lector, gracias a las herramientas que despues usarian con frecuencia H. P. Lovecraft.

William Hope Hodgson (1875-1918) es sin duda uno de los representantes más originales de lo que se ha dado en llamar el «cuento materialista de terror». La asombrosa facilidad de Hodgson para recrear

A manuscript is found: filled with small, precise writing and smelling of pit-water, it tells the story of an old recluse and his strange home - and its even stranger, jade-green double, seen by the recluse on an otherworldly plain where gigantic gods and monsters roam.Un manuscrito es hallado: rellenado con una escritura pequeña y precisa, y oliendo a humedad, cuenta la historia de un viejo ermitaño y de su extraño hogar, y de su aun mas extraño doble hecho de jade verde, visto por el ermitaño en una llanura de otro mundo donde merodean los dioses gigantes y los monstruos.

Telling the story of a dying Earth, The Night Land begins with a man from the 17th century who, mourning the death of his true love, is given a vision through the eyes his future incarnation. In that distant time Earth is only dimly lit by the remaining glow of the dead Sun. The last millions of the human race cluster together inside the Last Redoubt, a huge metal pyramid, and are set upon by mysterious forces from the dark outside. Leaving the protection of their refuge means certain death, but our narrator makes mind contact with a survivor in a forgotten Lesser Redoubt. He must journey alone through the evil darkness to find her, knowing that she is the reincarnation of his past precious love.

Being an account of their Adventures in the Strange places of the Earth, after the foundering of the good ship Glen Carrig through striking upon a hidden rock in the unknown seas to the Southward. As told by John Winterstraw, Gent., to his Son James Winterstraw, in the year 1757, and by him committed very properly and legibly to manuscript.

The captivating tale of the ship "Mortzestus," an unlucky vessel haunted by "too many shadows." The unifying theme seems to be the dreadful forces that lurk just beneath the veneer of what we, in immense folly, believe to be "reality." Malign forces may surface at any moment to drag us to destruction or worse.

Cited by H.P. Lovecraft as perhaps the greatest of all Mr. Hodgson's works, this tale of a deserted house in Ireland hints at a terrifying evil. When two men on an innocent fishing trip encounter the enigmatic ruins of a house, they slowly uncover its secrets through the diary of its previous tenant. At each turn of the page, horrors begin to unfold, monsters are revealed and new dimensions exposed. A gripping story right to the very end, Hodgsons masterful writing leads the reader into a nightmarish world from which there may be no escape.

A manuscript is found: filled with small, precise writing and smelling of pit-water, it tells the story of an old recluse and his strange home - and its even stranger, jade-green double, seen by the recluse on an otherworldly plain where gigantic gods and monsters roam.Soon his more earthly home is no less terrible than his bizarre vision, as swine-like creatures boil from a cavern beneath the ground and besiege it. But a still greater horror will face the recluse - more inexorable, merciless and awful than any creature that can be fought or killed.

Penguin Weird Fiction a celebration of the very best of the weird a store of novels and tales that for generations have delighted and horrified A manuscript is found Filled with small precise writing and smelling of pit water it tells the story of an old recluse and his strange home and it s even stranger jade green double seen by that old man on an otherworldly plain where gigantic gods and monsters roam Soon his earthly abode is no less terrible than this strange vision as swine like creatures boil from a cavern beneath the ground and besiege it But a still greater horror will face the recluse one more awful than any creature that can be fought or killed The House on the Borderland William Hope Hodgson s great masterpiece of cosmic fear is an extraordinary novel that defied all accepted conventions of horror writing forging in an instant a new weird direction for the form Forget vampires and gore this is where the screaming really starts out in the void with no one left to hear Terry Pratchett

La casa en el límite es para muchos el libro pionero y más destacado de lo que se ha venido a llamar horror materialista. Insertada en la época victoriana, la obra deriva y es la culminación del cuento de terror gotico tan de moda entonces, que se proclamaba la defensa del espiritu o el sueño frente al racionalismo. Pero Hodgson inicia un nuevo camino, dejando de lado el aspecto gotico, el castillo, los fantasmas y las puertas que crujen, se adentra en un nuevo terror, compuesto de monstruos y criaturas materiales en escenarios mas cotidianos. Influido sin duda por la revolucion cientifica (hay que recordar que Einstein formulo su teoria general de la relatividad especial en 1905) los textos que revolucionarian el mundo de la fisica en 1905) que podia ser tan sobrecogedora como los fantasmas, al horror de Hodgson se le ha denominado tambien cosmico, porque es un terror a la insignificancia y angustia del ser humano frente a la inmensidad y lo desconocido del universo, todo ello de la mano de la locura. Por eso los criticos han visto en el sello de Hodgson en autores como Lovecraft, pero tambien en los grandes de la ciencia ficcion como Arthur C. Clarke y Stanley Kubrick, e incluso en la reciente La piel fria.

Crowning the heights on the outskirts of a certain town on the east coast is a large, iron water-tank from which an isolated row of small villas obtains its supply. The top of this tank has been cemented, and round it have been placed railings, thus making of it a splendid look-out for any of the townspeople who may choose to promenade upon it. And very popular it was until the strange and terrible happenings of which I have set out to tell.

Los cuentos reunidos en este volumen son claro exponente del conjunto de su obra. En Un horror tropical, un barco sumido en una calma chicha es «tomado» por una monstruosa criatura tentacular. Más al