The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918)
Serious Treatment of Unreality
'The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson, edited by Xavier Aldana Reyes, is part of the British Library Tales of the Weird series, published in 2019. Contains ten short stories.
William Hope Hodgson was born in Whetherfield, Essex in 1877: His father was the Reverend Samuel Hodgson, who was placed by the Church in different stipends, including at Middlesburgh, Nottinghamshire, Battersea, then Ireland, and finally became curate of All Saints Church in Blackburn in 1890. William was educated at school in Margate, and settled with his family in Blackburn for a year before serving in the Merchant Navy from 1891-1900. The sea became an important setting for much of his subsequent fiction, which is reflected in the above collection. TIMELINE
The Blackburn Weekly Telegraph obituary of 2nd May 1918 dedicated to Lieutenant William H. Hodgson stated that he was known as a 'physical culturist' , and goes on to say that he was a good all round athlete, boxer, swimmer and won an award for saving life at sea.OBITUARY From 1901-1903 it appears that Hodgson ran a physical training school in Blackburn. TIMELINE
The obituary counts Men of the Deep Waters (1914) as his best writing. The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction cites The Boats of the Glen Carrig (1908) and The House on the Borderland (1908) as being the most influential in terms of horror fiction.
The introduction to this collection advises that Hodgson wrote some seventy shorts stories, the majority of them being likened to sea adventures, and not part of a weird or horror genre. REYES
At his best Hodgson depicts humans straying into collision with horrific entities which embody nature at its most hostile. Like the 'Thing' from his 1905 short story A Tropical Horror rising above the bulwarks of a ship with its " vast slobbering mouth a fathom across. From the huge dripping lips hang great tentacles." The Thing has no visible eyes, but the "stealthy celerity of an enormous eel". The reader is given a sketch of some horrid presence but we have to fill in the details ourselves.
A similar nautical horror emerges in Out of the Storm (1907) - a ship's officer dangerously on the point of madness explains " The undoomed living shall know some of the things that death has hitherto so well guarded." Derelict (1912) shows a discovery of a rotting ship, covered by a spongy mould with a disgusting smell. Once aboard, sailors find this particle turns acidic and corrosive, transforms into a slime which pursues them. The Thing in the Weeds (1912) shows a monstrous giant weed pounding a ship. Considered to be a forerunner to The Fall of Cthulu by H.P. Lovecraft. Finally, The Voice in the Night (1907) opens with "It was a dark starless night we were becalmed in the North Pacific." A couple in a boat make contact, they are abandoned at sea, their provisions are rotting, and resort to eating fungus found on a deserted ship which in turn starts to devour them.
There is a great sense of human helplessness in the face of relentless assault. There is little in the way of triumph or heroism. In the other stories, the intriguing psychic detective Carnacki emerges. He uses his intuition and ingenuity to defy and outwit the more ferocious elements of nature along such as in The Hog or exposing fake haunting in The Whistling Room (1910). In The Horse of the Invisible Carnacki will take on the role of an occultist, using a pentacle symbol for protection and makes the "First and Eight signs of the Saamaa Ritual ". In another story he will wear garlic. But there is some irony here, Carnacki's focus is not on controlling supernatural force as some sort of sorcerer. He will use sophisticated photography and a detective's intellect .In a story sadly not included here, The Thing Invisible , Carnacki declares that in respect of hauntings," I am bound to admit that ninety-nine cases in a hundred turn out to be bosh and fancy."
The crowning glory of this collection must be the posthumous offering The Hog (1947). Carnacki is facing a swinish multitude of forces who languish in some outer dimension surrounding our planet. Rather than humans intruding in remote oceans, these sinister porkers are somehow getting channelled into our world led by some sort of head pig. Carnacki has to spend a night in a circle using an elaborate system of coloured lights and anything else he can to stop them breaking through. They have already possessed some poor soul who is with Carnacki. These beings are predatory rather than demonic. Motivated by instinct than deliberate evil.
The obituary placed Hodgson and his wife in France when War broke out. He returned home, and joined the Officers Training Corp of the University of London. In 1915 June Hodgson became a member of the 171st battalion of the Royal Field Artillery. A year later, Hodgson was thrown from his horse, breaking his jaw and suffering from concussion, and was discharged from the Army. He recovered enough to re-enlist as a second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery in March 1917. Hodgson was hospitalised briefly whilst on the Western Front on 10th April 1918. He volunteered to join a Further Observation Post on 17th April 1918. There is one claim that Hodgson was hit by a German shell on 19th April 1918 and that French soldiers buried any surviving body parts. TIMELINE However, most sources state that Hodgson was killed by a German shell on 17th April 1918, which is the date that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission use. CWGC At this part of the War , the last desperate German breakthrough known as Operation Michael, was well underway and there was another wave of heavy casualties. Hodgson is commemorated on a memorial panel at Tynecot cemetery. CWGC.
William Hope Hodgson's tales as presented in this collection are not superior literature or even the best of the genre-though I would rate The Hog very highly. As the editor of this collection concedes "Hodgson's imaginative invention and ability to conjure up a strong feeling of the dread of the unknown shine through and compensate for any of the author's stylistic shortcomings." REYES
And as Hodgson was killed in action aged 40, we can only speculate on what he could have achieved had he survived. Perhaps he could have written a strong and fierce war memoir or joined the post Great War interest in occultism.
Ends
Fantastic writers and the Great War Entry about William Hope Hodgson, writer not credited.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Entry for William Hope Hodgson
Masonic Great War Project Entry for William Hope Hodgson.
The British Library Shop Further information about this book and the British Library Tales of the Weird.
Thank you to the Great War Forum for their help. It appears that Hodgson's war service records are not available at the National Archives, most likely lost .
The Thing Invisible (Text ) William Hope Hodgson
The Blackburn Weekly Telegraph obituary is available from the British Newspapers Archive. Have not been able to link directly.
Books
The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction 1900-1914, edited by Sandra Kemp, Charlotte Mitchell, David Trotter, Oxford University Press, 1997
11th May 2026
Instagram Mr bleak
I am trying to update news about this blog and other 19th century history on Bluesky : Do join me.
Michael Bully @bleakchesneywold.bsky.social
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment