150. (October 2025) The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club

The House on the Borderland Q5 - Gaming Cosmic Horror

Apocryphal — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 13:33:42 +0000

There are umpteen different Lovecraftian games, from the classic Call of Cthulhu and it's spinoffs (like Trail of Cthulhu) which model things like investigations and sanity, to more esoteric story game type efforts.

Which games do you think are particularly good at capturing Cosmic Horror? What does a gaming experience need in order to model Cosmic Horror? Are Cosmic Horror gaming campaigns necessarily short? Or can they also be longer campaigns? Are there any non-Lovecraft games of Cosmic Horror?

The House on the Borderland Q1 - Cosmic Horror

Apocryphal — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 13:00:53 +0000

William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland is described as a tale of Cosmic Horror, a genre perhaps mostly associated with Lovecraft now. Lovecraft was aware of the work of Hodgson and it's hard to imagine he wasn't inspired by it, but I've read he came to it too late in his career for it to have been much influence. What makes it Cosmic Horror? Was it the first? Can you think of other examples of early Cosmic Horror? What's the difference between this book and, say, a book like Stapledon's Star Maker, which also explores the expanse of the universe in literary form.

The House on the Borderland Q4 - Characters

Apocryphal — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 13:22:58 +0000

There are only a few characters in the book, and none of them are particularly well described - they are all vehicles, I suppose. It's not a character driven book. We have the two fishermen (did we need two, or would one have done just as well?), the owner of the house who we get to know the best. His sister (a necessary character? What does she contribute?). The dog, Pepper, and later Pepper's replacement. Pepper is the only one in the House with a name, that I can recall. Why is the dog so important? Lastly, there are some nebulous characters in the form of She and the mob of hog men, both of which are more like forces than characters.

Do you have any thoughts on these and their relationships? Did the book need more character, overall? Or Less?

The House on the Borderland Q3 - Symbolism

Apocryphal — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 13:16:50 +0000

This book is rife with symbolism, from the pig men to the dark sun and anthropomorphic statues of ancient gods, to the green sun and the Sea of Sleep. There's also the Pit, the fungus, the dog(s), and She.

What could it all mean? Did anything jump out at you as pointing significantly one way or another? Hodgson himself doesn't provide much in the way of answers in his text.

The House on the Borderland Q2 - Structure

Apocryphal — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 13:09:45 +0000

The novels follows a distinctive structure in that it opens with a framing narrative, then switches to a first person narrative by the house owner which describes an attack on the house. Then there's a break in the middle - part of the book is damaged (why, how, and what is the significance of this?). Then follows a cosmic journey of sorts to the green star at the centre of the universe. Finally, we return to the fishermen for a denouement.

What did you think of the structure? Was the framing narrative needed? Successful?
Why the break in the middle? Did Hodgson just not know how to describe things here, or is there some other significance?
Compare the writing in the 'attack' section to that of the 'journey' section. How is the prose different? Is this intentional? Significant?

Cover blurb for The House on the Borderland

RichardAbbott — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 15:29:39 +0000

British fantasy author William Hope Hodgson wrote the supernatural horror book The House on the Borderland in 1908. The book is a hallucinogenic description of a recluse's stay in a rural location and his encounters with paranormal beings and ethereal realms. Two men are taken aback when they come upon a peculiar abyss while on a two-week fishing trip in secluded western Ireland. They discover ruins and a journal buried in them on a rock spur above this hole. They read the journal. The journal's author describes himself as an elderly guy who has long resided in a historic building. A few months later, awful man-sized monsters with dead-white skin attack the House after emerging from a nearby Pit. Strong and intelligent, the Swine-Things are unable to enter; after a night and day during which the Recluse kills several of them, they vanish. He waits several days before leaving the House with Pepper to seek the previous gardens outside because he is scared of the dangerous monsters. The story closes with the guy in his study seeing the beast enter the Cellar through the trap door. After recovering from reading the journal, the two guys resume fishing without attempting to return to the terrifying abyss.

About William Hope Hodgson

RichardAbbott — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 15:32:30 +0000

William Hope Hodgson (15 November 1877 – 19 April 1918) was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction, and science fiction. Hodgson used his experiences at sea to lend authentic detail to his short horror stories, many of which are set on the ocean, including his series of linked tales forming the Sargasso Sea Stories. His novels, such as The House on the Borderland (1908) and The Night Land (1912), feature more cosmic themes, but several of his novels also focus on horrors associated with the sea. Early in his writing career Hodgson dedicated effort to poetry, although few of his poems were published during his lifetime. He also attracted some notice as a photographer and achieved renown as a bodybuilder. He died in World War I by the direct impact of an artillery shell at the Fourth Battle of Ypres in April 1918.