The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

Chapman & Hall first published this novel in 1908. Without a doubt, William Hope Hodgson was the forerunner of cosmic horror in literature. Download here a copy of The House on the Borderland in PDF.

This literary subgenre was further developed by H.P. Lovecraft years later. However, the supernatural and cosmic factor added to the horror of this work was what inspired the celebrated author.

For many readers and critics, not enough credit has been given either to the author or to the work, which unleashes a series of overwhelming emotions, stemming from the events narrated and which are beyond all logic.

The House on the Borderland PDF

*Wait a few seconds for the document to load, the time may vary depending on your internet connection. If you prefer, you can download the file by clicking on the link below.

Loading file

Download book

Summary of The House on the Borderland

Two friends decide to go fishing in a rural area of Ireland. There, they find a diary among the ruins of a strange house.

It was a lonely mansion where he lived with his sister. It belonged to a man (the recluse) who recounts his dark and horror-filled experience in that place. It was a lonely mansion where he lived with his sister.

The story of what happens to him is not only astonishing but difficult to assimilate. The man has a hallucinatory dream in which he sees impossible creatures, hybrid bodies difficult to identify.

When he wakes up, he realizes that he has opened a portal to another dimension in his own house. When he goes down to the basement, where the portal is supposed to be, he begins to make a kind of astral journey through time and space.

The man enters a kind of multiverse, where he sees the most unusual things. For example, there is a house identical to his own in a place called the Plain of Silence. These houses seem to mirror each other but from overlapping universes.

Although there is a difference, the interdimensional portal house is inhabited by humanoid herding pigs with a creepy appearance.

While undergoing this kind of astral travel, man can notice that time passes more quickly, until it reaches the point where day and night merge and the boundaries become smoke.

The world enters a stage of agony until the sun dies. Time seems to stand still and the man begins to float, while he sees different beings, such as angels, humans, and demonic creatures that, like him, are adrift.

Suddenly, he wakes up as if from a long, restless sleep. In reality again, from the bedroom of his home, he realizes something unusual.

Will this man be able to live his old life again?

FAQ about The House on the Borderland

What are the supernatural creatures of The House on the Borderland like?

They have different forms. They are hybrid creatures, corporeal, sometimes a combination of animals such as horses and pigs, and sometimes as a kind of large insects. All of them cause total horror and amazement.

What is the conflict in The House on the Borderland?

The hikers who find the recluse’s diary do not know what to make of the confessions and experiences recounted therein.

It is up to them, as well as to the readers, to discover if what he tells is a hallucination, a product of man’s fantasy, or if they are indeed real facts.

How do you open the portal of The House on the Borderland?

It all stems from the dreamlike experience of the man who lives in the house. After waking up, he begins to be besieged by strange and creepy creatures. Apparently, the portal had opened.

Where is the House on the Borderland?

The real house, where the man lives, is in Ireland. However, the house also exists in another dimension, surrounded by the Plain of Silence and home to a humanoid who herds pigs.