<p><strong>William Hope Hodgson</strong>&nbsp;(1877-1918) was an English author best known for&nbsp;<em>The Night Land</em>&nbsp;(1912) and, this, his second novel,&nbsp;<em>The House on the Borderland</em>. Noted by H. P. Lovecraft as &ldquo;a classic of the first water,&rdquo; it is considered a literary milestone that signaled a radical departure from the typical Gothic fiction of the late 19th century, ushering in a newer more realistic and scientific cosmic horror that left a marked impression on those who would become the great writers of weird tales of the mid-twentieth century.</p><p>The story within the story is a hallucinatory account of an old recluse and his very strange house in which he experiences attacks by supernatural swine-beasts, travels to otherworldly dimensions, and bears witness to the destruction of the solar system &mdash; &ldquo;it is galactic adventure, prophetic fantasy, macabre romance, and drugless trip, and brilliantly unites its many disturbing elements, easily equalling, if not surpassing, all predecessors and contemporaries.&rdquo;</p>