I certainly will neither be the first, nor the last, nor the most illustrious (the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and C.S. Lewis having preceded me) to praise William Hope Hodgson's writings. What works best in Hodgson's horror tales, is the matter-of-fact way in which the narrator generally tells the story. Hodgson's extensive experience at sea informs his stories with a verisimilitude that one only gets with first-hand knowledge. The sailors in the stories, while on occasion prone to superstition, are neither ones to back down from ship-invading horrors, nor reckless when presented with overwhelming force. Thus Hodgson's nautical tales, while of the same era as much of Algernon Blackwood's best tales of horror, are generally much more centered on biological than spiritual horrors, his heroes responding more physically than emotionally (or psychically).

Many, including Lovecraft, have written of Hodgson's marring his work with elements of romance. Indeed in a number of Hodgson's works the horrors are met by male-female couples, often meeting as a result of the circumstances or in the first stages of discovering their love for each other. Yecch! you say, there's no place for such things in horror. Certainly, if one reads H.P. Lovecraft, A. Blackwood, M.R. James and the like, one might have the impression that there are no women in the world, and those that do exist either breed monstrosities or dabble in the black arts... this is of course patently absurd. In Hodgson's stories, from "From the Tideless Sea" in the Sargasso, Capt. Gault's "The Adventure of the Garter," to the lovers in The Night Land, there is a very normal and natural human response to the stress of impending or past horrors, men and women turn to each other for companionship and relief from the inhuman horrors. This isn't to say that Hodgson doesn't couch all these budding relationships in the now dated societal constraints of his time, and doesn't use some rather saccharine prose to do it, but it all adds to, rather than detracts from the realism of his stories. Also, unlike much contemporaneous fiction, Hodgson's women, while certainly not attempting to break out from their socially-dictated place in the world, are generally competent, plucky, and able to be more than a bimbo sidekick for the man.

If one is looking to discover Hodgson, or extend one's reading, The Boats... is perhaps not the best place to start; many other publishers offer editions of Hodgson's best works. However, for the more than casual Hodgson fan, and for those wishing to build a complete collection of his fiction, The Boats... is an excellent place to start. For those who enjoy the likes of Hornung's Raffles and Leblanc's Arsène Lupin, the Capt. Gault stories will surely be pleasing. One way or the other, you'll never see seaweed in quite the same light as you did before.

Contents:

• Introduction by Jeremy Lassen
• The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"
• The Sargasso Sea Stories
  • From the Tideless Sea Part 1
  • From the Tideless Sea Part 2: More News From the Homebird
  • The Mystery of the Derelict
  • The Finding of the Graiken
  • The Thing in the Weeds
  • The Call In the Dawn
• The Exploits of Captain Gault
  • Contraband of War
  • From Information Received
  • The Case of the Curio Dealer
  • The Diamond Spy
  • The Drum of Saccharine
  • The Red Herring
  • The German Spy
  • The Painted Lady
  • The Problem of the Pearls
  • My Lady's Jewels
  • The Adventure of the Garter
  • Trading with the Enemy
  • The Plans of the Reefing Bi-Plane
• The Adventures of Captain Jat
  • The Island of the Ud
  • Adventure of the Headland
• Stories of Cargunka
  • The Bells of the Laughing Sally
  • The Adventure with the Claim Jumpers
• A Note On The Texts