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The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson – Book Review

I arrive late to the wonderful world of William Hope Hodgson.

Born in 1877 to a wealthy family, in Essex, his father was a Church of England minister. He ran away from boarding school when he was 13, and after being caught, got his father’s permission to become a cabin boy. His father died soon after, leaving the family without income, surviving on charity until William returned some years later.

He was bullied at sea, by older officers. The sea is a feature of many of his short stories, and in particular, his revenge, albeit a literary one, satisfied by a conglomeration of sea serpents, ghost ships and other unpleasant things emerging from the depths.

He lived with his mother in poverty until after his first novel was published in 1907 when he began to receive something of an income, but he was never affluent.

Apart from the sea being a common background in his writing, Hodgson is also known for his short stories featuring recurring characters: the “detective of the occult” Thomas Carnacki, and the smuggler Captain Gault.

In this British Library collection, the stories are about half of each. There are very few duffers, and this is an excellent way to become familiar with his style.

The most well-known of his Carnacki stories is <i>The Whistling Room</i> which is in many anthologies, and even introduced by Alfred Hitchcock in one. These are more of a classic horror, ghost story model, but have the habit of taking a direction different to the expected one late in the story – hence their categorisation as weird.

For me though, the stories of the sea are when he is at his strongest. Specifically I would select <i>The Derelict</i>. This is a perfect example of weird fiction with elements of a classic ghost ship story, moving into science fiction and cosmic horror. It is genuinely scary, and put me in mind several times of [author:Dan Simmons|2687], to whom he surely was an influence.

His experimentation into the weird was limited by his need to make some money, and hence he returned more often than he would have liked to Carnacki stories, as they at least made some money; in the ilk of Algernon Blackwood, Poe and Conan Doyle. But it was when he had a free rein to do his own thing he was at his best.

He was killed at Ypres in 1918. After his death his work was largely forgotten, and except for a minor resurgence in the 1930s, it was only recently it has received the attention and readership it deserves.

His work is said to have influenced H.P. Lovecraft, though Lovecraft did not read his works until 1934. and also, more recently, China Miéville.

The British Library put out some tremendous stuff. This is in their series <i>Tales of the Weird</i>, which has just published number 36 in the series, The Flaw in the Crystal: And Other Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair, with 37 and 38 due out in the next couple of months.

There’s a 3 for 2 offer on their website at the moment, to give them a well-earned plug..