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The House on the Borderland

by William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918)

  • Free to read
  • 3 hours to read
  • 30 chapters
  • Reading level: 7th grade

"The House on the Borderland" by William Hope Hodgson is a supernatural horror novel published in 1908. A recluse living in an ancient, circular house in remote Ireland records his terrifying experiences in a journal later discovered by two fishermen. He encounters monstrous Swine-creatures emerging from a mysterious pit, experiences visions of cosmic dimensions and otherworldly arenas, and witnesses time itself accelerating toward the end of the universe. This hallucinatory tale influenced H. P. Lovecraft and pioneered modern cosmic horror.

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  • Science fiction

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The House on the Borderland

William Hope Hodgson

From the Manuscript discovered in 1877 by Messrs. Tonnison and Berreggnog in the Ruins that lie to the South of the Village of Kraighten, in the West of Ireland. Set out here, with Notes.

TO MY FATHER
(Whose feet tread the lost aeons)

Open the door,
And listen!
Only the wind's muffled roar,
And the glisten
Of tears 'round the moon.
And, in fancy, the tread
Of vanishing shoon—
Out in the night with the Dead.

"Hush! And hark
To the sorrowful cry
Of the wind in the dark.
Hush and hark, without murmur or sigh,
To shoon that tread the lost aeons:
To the sound that bids you to die.
Hush and hark! Hush and Hark!"
Shoon of the Dead

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Contents

Show all 30 chapters
  1. The House on the Borderland
  2. Author's Introduction to the Manuscript
  3. The Finding of the Manuscript
  4. The Plain of Silence
  5. The House in the Arena
  6. The Earth
  7. The Thing in the Pit
  8. The Swine-Things
  9. The Attack
  10. After the Attack
  11. In the Cellars
  12. The Time of Waiting
  13. The Searching of the Gardens
  14. The Subterranean Pit
  15. The Trap in the Great Cellar
  16. The Sea of Sleep
  17. The Noise in the Night
  18. The Awakening
  19. The Slowing Rotation
  20. The Green Star
  21. The End of the Solar System
  22. The Celestial Globes
  23. The Dark Sun
  24. The Dark Nebula
  25. Pepper
  26. The Footsteps in the Garden
  27. The Thing from the Arena
  28. The Luminous Speck
  29. Conclusion
  30. Footnotes

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About this edition

This free edition of The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #10002, released 2003-11-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Science-Fiction & Fantasy, Crime, Thrillers and Mystery, Novels, British Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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