It was the Joy of the Sunset that brought us to speech. I was gone a long way from my house, walking lonely-wise, and stopping often that I view the piling upward of the Battlements of Evening, and to feel the dear and strange gathering of the Dusk come over all the world about me.
The Night Land
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Paperback
Hodgson is like David Lindsay ("A Voyage to Arturus"): a terrible writer of leaden prose whose vision is nonetheless so astoundingly overpowering that it compels the reader despite the actual words in which that vision is expressed.
Hodgson dealt in horror, I am tempted to say "plain and simple", but Hodgson's horrors are anything but. "The House on the Borderland" is possibly his most distilled essence, though some of the Carnacki tales are also thoroughly shuddersome. But here, in "The Night Land", he has tinctured the sheer horror with that element of anomie and ages-long regret that Jack Vance later so successfully used in his masterly "Dying Earth".
If you carry on past the witless (and needless) "dream" opening, the florid language settles in and you can see past it to the monstrous world being painted. The effect is stunning. Had Hodgson's prose been only moderately better, he'd be remembered today as a master.
But make no mistake, flaws or not, this is indeed a masterpiece.
Hodgson dealt in horror, I am tempted to say "plain and simple", but Hodgson's horrors are anything but. "The House on the Borderland" is possibly his most distilled essence, though some of the Carnacki tales are also thoroughly shuddersome. But here, in "The Night Land", he has tinctured the sheer horror with that element of anomie and ages-long regret that Jack Vance later so successfully used in his masterly "Dying Earth".
If you carry on past the witless (and needless) "dream" opening, the florid language settles in and you can see past it to the monstrous world being painted. The effect is stunning. Had Hodgson's prose been only moderately better, he'd be remembered today as a master.
But make no mistake, flaws or not, this is indeed a masterpiece.
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Everyone raves about "The Lord of The Rings", but this is the real "grand-daddy" of the "modern" epic adventure. I read this for the first time when I was a young teen-ager (admittedly skipping the more "flowery" bits), and the book's dark and frightening imagery has haunted me ever since. I recently picked up an old copy and re-familiarized myself with it more thoroughly. Yes, the prose is repetitive, and Victorian in style, but it's all part of the experience. It takes a bit of discipline to plow through this tome, but it's worth it - knowing that you've completed reading so difficult and rewarding a book makes you feel good. Think about all the folks who have given up trying to wrestle with it..?! There are very few books written which are able to convey such senses of atmosphere and desolation. This is a book that you either like immensely, or hate completely. Hodgson was brilliant - what a shame that he died so young. Imagine if they made it into a film...WOW!
Format:Paperback
the setting in this book is the most powerful in horror. the perversity of mankind's survival, a bleak image of itself, after the sun has died. the description of the land without sun. the intensity in man's life, forever surronded by monsters in a surronding land man has no chance in ever getting back. nothing in horror has affected me more than these horrible descriptions. the morbidity of man's survival. a world without sun. how can you destroy such a story? well, Hodgson can. a love story described in the most stupid way, endless repitions. i walked for two hours. i ate a tablet. i walked again for two hours. ate another tablet. i slept. please. this could have been the best book ever. sigh
Want to see more reviews on this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 31 reviews
3.6 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dark Future
Disgruntled English students usually think they are suffering when they are made to read William Golding's "Lord of the Flies". Read more
Published on Feb 3 2003 by Greg Hughes
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great premise but horribly written...
Hodgson's The Night Land (published in 1912) is frequently cited as one of the great masterpieces of horror and fantasy fiction. Read more
Published on April 26 2002
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
