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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 3, September 1944
Page 47
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 47 In 1914 a second collection of short stories put in its appearance. It was titled Men of the Deep Waters, and consisted of tales which had mostly been printed previously in magazine form. The London Times termed it "a serious contribution to literature" and further remarked, "Its quality is excellent..." "In these stories of the sea Mr. Hodgson worthily maintains a well-won reputation of strength in the qualities of imagination, mystic beauty and spiritual force," was the opinion of the Glasgow Herald; and the Liverpool Courier said: "Mr. Hodgson is a writer on whom the mantle of Poe has fallen." Complimentary indeed! And no less so was The Bookman; in the November 1914 number of that periodical (vol. 47 p. 54) this review is to be found: Mr. Hodgson has not gone to work in the orthodox way and put his best stories first in this book; but that is not the only sense in which he is unorthodox. "On the Bridge" is a very vivid sketch---a brilliant bit of imaginative realism, and "The Sea Horses," which has second place, is a story of no little charm, though the sentiment is now and then in need of a restraining touch; it is when you come to "The Derelict" and "From the Tideless Sea" that you find Mr. Hodgson right at home, where he belongs; these, with "The Voice in the Night," "Through the Vortex of a Cyclone," and "The Mystery of the Derelict," are stories that, in their kind, would add something to the reputation of any living novelist. They grip you, as Poe's grim stories do, by their subtle artistry and sheer imaginative power. In fashioning his most uncanny, most supernormal occurrences his imagination so completely realises them that he describes them, and what has led up to them, and all their environment with a minuteness in detail that makes them convincingly real to a reader's apprehension. The fury and terror of storm at sea has never been more impressively pictured than it is in Mr. Hodgson's wonderful description of how the four-masted bark, Golconda, was drawn into the mighty vortex of a cyclone; and of the mystery, the perils, the loneliness of the sea, the almost unthinkable horrors that lurk waiting for the castaway in its unknown places, we have read few stories equal to the others named. No lover of tales of mystery and imagination that are also good literature should miss this book. William Hope Hodgson followed this volume with a third collection of his shorter works, The Luck of the Strong, two years later. It was as favorably received as his first. Said the Daily Telegraph: "Mr. Hodgson more than once has been paid the compliment of being likened to Poe. It is not a compliment carelessly paid. Among it all there is not a dull paragraph." And The Bookman rated the book as favorably; in its August 1916 issue (vol. 50, p. 142) the following account of it appeared: "Rum things! Of course there were rum things happen at sea---as rum as ever there were. I remember when..." This alluring introduction to what perhaps is the best yarn in the book might have served equally well as an opening formula for the rest of the thrilling sea stories that make up the greater part of this entertaining volume of "rum things". Mr. Hope Hodgson is certainly an expert raconteur of "rum things," whether of the sea or the land. He is an
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 47 In 1914 a second collection of short stories put in its appearance. It was titled Men of the Deep Waters, and consisted of tales which had mostly been printed previously in magazine form. The London Times termed it "a serious contribution to literature" and further remarked, "Its quality is excellent..." "In these stories of the sea Mr. Hodgson worthily maintains a well-won reputation of strength in the qualities of imagination, mystic beauty and spiritual force," was the opinion of the Glasgow Herald; and the Liverpool Courier said: "Mr. Hodgson is a writer on whom the mantle of Poe has fallen." Complimentary indeed! And no less so was The Bookman; in the November 1914 number of that periodical (vol. 47 p. 54) this review is to be found: Mr. Hodgson has not gone to work in the orthodox way and put his best stories first in this book; but that is not the only sense in which he is unorthodox. "On the Bridge" is a very vivid sketch---a brilliant bit of imaginative realism, and "The Sea Horses," which has second place, is a story of no little charm, though the sentiment is now and then in need of a restraining touch; it is when you come to "The Derelict" and "From the Tideless Sea" that you find Mr. Hodgson right at home, where he belongs; these, with "The Voice in the Night," "Through the Vortex of a Cyclone," and "The Mystery of the Derelict," are stories that, in their kind, would add something to the reputation of any living novelist. They grip you, as Poe's grim stories do, by their subtle artistry and sheer imaginative power. In fashioning his most uncanny, most supernormal occurrences his imagination so completely realises them that he describes them, and what has led up to them, and all their environment with a minuteness in detail that makes them convincingly real to a reader's apprehension. The fury and terror of storm at sea has never been more impressively pictured than it is in Mr. Hodgson's wonderful description of how the four-masted bark, Golconda, was drawn into the mighty vortex of a cyclone; and of the mystery, the perils, the loneliness of the sea, the almost unthinkable horrors that lurk waiting for the castaway in its unknown places, we have read few stories equal to the others named. No lover of tales of mystery and imagination that are also good literature should miss this book. William Hope Hodgson followed this volume with a third collection of his shorter works, The Luck of the Strong, two years later. It was as favorably received as his first. Said the Daily Telegraph: "Mr. Hodgson more than once has been paid the compliment of being likened to Poe. It is not a compliment carelessly paid. Among it all there is not a dull paragraph." And The Bookman rated the book as favorably; in its August 1916 issue (vol. 50, p. 142) the following account of it appeared: "Rum things! Of course there were rum things happen at sea---as rum as ever there were. I remember when..." This alluring introduction to what perhaps is the best yarn in the book might have served equally well as an opening formula for the rest of the thrilling sea stories that make up the greater part of this entertaining volume of "rum things". Mr. Hope Hodgson is certainly an expert raconteur of "rum things," whether of the sea or the land. He is an
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