Carnacki The Ghost Finder is a collection of short stories written by William Hope Hodgson. The book is centered around the character of Thomas Carnacki, who is a supernatural detective and ghost hunter. The stories are written in the first person and are presented as if they are being recounted by Carnacki himself. The book includes nine stories, each of which features Carnacki investigating a different supernatural occurrence. The stories are set in England in the early 20th century and feature a variety of supernatural ...
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Carnacki The Ghost Finder is a collection of short stories written by William Hope Hodgson. The book is centered around the character of Thomas Carnacki, who is a supernatural detective and ghost hunter. The stories are written in the first person and are presented as if they are being recounted by Carnacki himself. The book includes nine stories, each of which features Carnacki investigating a different supernatural occurrence. The stories are set in England in the early 20th century and feature a variety of supernatural beings, including ghosts, demons, and otherworldly creatures. The stories are written in a classic horror style, with plenty of suspense and tension. Hodgson's writing is atmospheric and descriptive, creating a sense of dread and unease throughout the book. The character of Carnacki is also well-developed, with a dry wit and a no-nonsense approach to his investigations. Overall, Carnacki The Ghost Finder is a must-read for fans of classic horror and supernatural fiction. The stories are engaging, the characters are well-developed, and the writing is top-notch. If you're looking for a spooky read that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this book is definitely worth checking out.1912 Version.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
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William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki stories are early entries in the 'paranormal investigator' subgenre- an odd hybrid form which took many cues from the wildly popular Sherlock Holmes stories, combining aspects of Arthur Conan Doyle's idiosyncratic detective with tropes lifted from ghost stories, horror stories, and other streams of weird fiction. Weird masters Algernon Blackwood and M.P. Shiel also created their own sleuths of the uncanny. It is a strange mixture and difficult to calibrate. A detective story demands a certain level of concrete detail and effective plotting, whereas atmosphere and suggestion are key constituents of weird writing. Moreover, authors take a risk when they repeatedly expose the same character or characters to mind-bending supernatural horror- the sheer prodigality of the great weird tale is somewhat tamed when a character is shown to be familiar with the other world, making additional demands on the reader's willing suspension of disbelief; and, frankly, even the best weird author is not necessarily a master of believable characterization. Hodgson's Carnacki is perhaps less than a living, breathing literary creation, but his adventures are fine examples of (mostly) supernatural horror which innovatively meet the demands of intermingled realism and weirdness. The tales uniformly begin when the narrator and a small group of friends are invited to dinner at Carnacki's home, where, after a good meal and little ado, the Ghost Finder narrates his latest case. The nine stories in the collection vary somewhat in quality, most feel slightly padded, and not every case is in fact, in the end, a supernatural one. One of Hodgson's "hooks" in creating Carnacki is that the investigator arrives for his cases armed with the latest early 1900's technology, including cameras and the marvelous Electric Pentacle, a sort of lighted ceremonial diagram which provides protection from beings from Beyond. Also in Carnacki's arsenal are the imaginary ancient tomes the Sigsand Manuscript and the Saaamaaa Ritual (a Lovecraftian detail which again makes me wonder why the modern Lovecraft industry has not picked up on Hodgson to an even greater degree). Despite Carnacki's rational bent, once the malevolent Outer Beings arrive outside his Pentacle, he is frank in describing his abject terror to his audience. He only seldom flirts with despair and instead is shown fighting through his fear with appealing English matter-of-factness. The detective story trappings are diverting but the primary interest is in Hodgson's occult beings and forces. A strong atmosphere of dream and of nightmare pervades the tales whenever the dark forces make their appearance. These terrifying encounters build slowly, from 'old dark house' Gothic setups to confrontations with the cosmic and irreducibly strange. In "The Whistling Room", one of the strongest pieces, Carnacki describes the ultimate encounter thus: "And then, suddenly, the Unknown Last Line of the SaaaMaaa Ritual was whispered quite audibly in the room. Instantly, the thing happened that I had known once before. There came a sense as of dust falling continually and monotonously, and I knew that my life hung uncertain and suspended for a flash, in a brief, reeling vertigo of unseeable things." The reader never knows who whispers the Last Line; Carnacki never specifies when this thing happened that he had known once before- these internal vistas simply fly open in the moment of supreme fear and add psychological weight to the character's experience of the impossible. While Hodgson's excellent seafaring horror tales or his brilliant novel House On The Borderlands would probably be better entries for those unfamiliar with his work, the Carnacki stories might hold a special appeal for readers weaned on Sherlock Holmes (or Kolchak the Night Stalker, or The X-Files, for that matter).