Editing William Hope Hodgson (section)

==Most famous works==
Hodgson is most widely known for two works. ''[[The House on the Borderland]]'' (1908) is a novel of which [[H. P. Lovecraft]], in his long essay "[[Supernatural Horror in Literature]]", wrote "but for a few touches of commonplace sentimentality [it] would be a classic of the [[first water]]".<ref name="HPL">{{cite web |url=http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/superhor.htm |title=Supernatural Horror in Literature (1927, 1933–1935)|author-first=H. P.|author-last=Lovecraft |access-date=2010-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091012165932/http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/superhor.htm |archive-date=12 October 2009 }}</ref> ''[[The Night Land]]'' (1912) is a much longer novel, written in an archaic style and expressing a sombre vision of a sunless far-future world; Lovecraft described it as "one of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written".<ref name="HPL" /> These works both contain elements of science fiction, although they also partake of [[Horror fiction|horror]] and the [[occult]]. According to critical consensus, in these works, despite his often laboured and clumsy language, Hodgson achieves a deep power of expression which focuses on a sense not only of terror but as well of the ubiquity of ''potential'' terror, of the thinness of the invisible boundary between the world of normality and an underlying, unaccountable reality for which humans are not suited.

''[[The Ghost Pirates]]'' (1909) has less of a reputation than ''The House on the Borderland'', but is an effective seafaring horror story of a ship attacked and ultimately dragged down to its doom by supernatural creatures. The book purports to be the spoken testimony of the sole survivor, and the style lacks the pseudo-[[archaism]] which makes ''[[The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"]]'' (1907) and ''The Night Land'' tedious reading for many.

Hodgson is also known for his short stories featuring recurring characters: the "detective of the occult" [[Carnacki|Thomas Carnacki]], and the smuggler [[Captain Gault]]. The Carnacki story [[Carnacki#"The Whistling Room"|"The Whistling Room"]] has been reprinted in numerous anthologies, including collections introduced by [[Alfred Hitchcock]]. Hodgson's single most famous short story is probably "[[The Voice in the Night (short story)|The Voice in the Night]]" (1907), which has been adapted for film twice. Another story regarded highly by critics is [[List of stories by William Hope Hodgson#"The Shamraken Homeward-Bounder"|"The Shamraken Homeward-Bounder"]].

Hodgson's work is said to have had an influence on H.P. Lovecraft, even though Lovecraft did not read his works until 1934. In a 2009 essay, [[China Miéville]] traces the origin of "the tentacle" as an object of horror to Hodgson's ''[[The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"]]'', but the motif had already been used by [[M. R. James]] in "[[Count Magnus]]", which Lovecraft first read shortly before employing the motif.<ref>China Miéville, "Weird Fiction", in Bould, Mark et al., ''The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction''. New York: Routledge, 2009, p. 510–516. {{ISBN|0-415-45378-X}}</ref>