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A Voice in the Night
Blue Book Magazine, November 1907
A VOICE IN THE NIGHT
by William Hope Hodgson
In this story, a schooner at sea ("becalmed in the Northern Pacific") is approached in the middle of "a dark, starless night" by a small rowboat. The passenger aboard the ship, who refuses to bring his boat close alongside and requests that the sailors on the schooner put away their lantern, tells a disturbing tale. Initially begging food for his fianc茅e, he receives a box of foodstuffs, floated to him in a wooden box. Later that same evening he returns to report that his fianc茅e is grateful for the food, but will soon die, and he tells the sailors his full story.
This story was adapted into the "Voice in the Night" episode of the 1958 TV series Suspicion. This was one of ten episodes of Suspicion made by Shamley Productions, the company established by Alfred Hitchcock to produce his television series. It was directed by Arthur Hiller from a script by Stirling Silliphant. It starred Barbara Rush, James Donald, Patrick McNee, and James Coburn.
It was also adapted into the 1963 Toho classic Matango/Attack of the Mushroom People. (Toho is the Japanese production company behind the Godzilla movies.)
4800 Words.
A VOICE IN THE NIGHT
by William Hope Hodgson
In this story, a schooner at sea ("becalmed in the Northern Pacific") is approached in the middle of "a dark, starless night" by a small rowboat. The passenger aboard the ship, who refuses to bring his boat close alongside and requests that the sailors on the schooner put away their lantern, tells a disturbing tale. Initially begging food for his fianc茅e, he receives a box of foodstuffs, floated to him in a wooden box. Later that same evening he returns to report that his fianc茅e is grateful for the food, but will soon die, and he tells the sailors his full story.
This story was adapted into the "Voice in the Night" episode of the 1958 TV series Suspicion. This was one of ten episodes of Suspicion made by Shamley Productions, the company established by Alfred Hitchcock to produce his television series. It was directed by Arthur Hiller from a script by Stirling Silliphant. It starred Barbara Rush, James Donald, Patrick McNee, and James Coburn.
It was also adapted into the 1963 Toho classic Matango/Attack of the Mushroom People. (Toho is the Japanese production company behind the Godzilla movies.)
4800 Words.
Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1907
6 people are currently reading
752 people want to read
About the author
William Hope Hodgson
820听books548听followersWilliam Hope Hodgson was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction, and science fiction. Early in his writing career he dedicated effort to poetry, although few of his poems were published during his lifetime. He also attracted some notice as a photographer and achieved some renown as a bodybuilder. Hodgson served with the British Army durng World War One. He died, at age 40, at Ypres, killed by German artillery fire.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
May 9, 2019
Absolutely great and eerie story set upon the ocean. In the night two men of a schooner hear a voice alongside their ship requesting for food. A stranger tells them that he and his fiance survived the sink of their vessesl a couple of months ago. It was the Albatross. They survived by finding a ghostly ship providing them with necessities and a small island they could live upon. But why does the stranger shun the light aboard of the schooner? Why doesn't he go onboard? On his second trip to the schooner he's telling Will and the narrator their horrible story. It has something to do with a terrible fungus growing uncontrolled infesting everything in its surrounding. What did that fungus to the two survivors and how did it spread? This story will run shivers down your spine, guaranteed. Hodgson creates an uncanny atmosphere at its very best. Stunning and highly recommended!
October 16, 2020
"Era un noche oscura y sin estrellas. La falta de viento nos ten铆a detenidos en el Pac铆fico Norte. No s茅 cu谩l era nuestra posici贸n exacta, pues durante un semana fatigosa y jadeante el sol hab铆a permanecido oculto detr谩s de un tenue neblina que parec铆a flotar sobre nosotros, aunque a veces descend铆a para envolver el mar que nos rodeaba(...)
Una voz curiosamente gutural e inhumana nos llamaba desde alguna parte del mar tenebroso, por el lado de babor"
Las historias y leyendas mar铆timas son tan antiguas como la primer embarcaci贸n, probablemente anteriores. Y esta en particular, sale un poco fuera de ciertos par谩metros y arquetipos; mas aun siendo de 1907, pero a su vez manteni茅ndose muy vigente.
Una voz curiosamente gutural e inhumana nos llamaba desde alguna parte del mar tenebroso, por el lado de babor"
Las historias y leyendas mar铆timas son tan antiguas como la primer embarcaci贸n, probablemente anteriores. Y esta en particular, sale un poco fuera de ciertos par谩metros y arquetipos; mas aun siendo de 1907, pero a su vez manteni茅ndose muy vigente.
September 23, 2024
I LOVE this story! it's great, creepy, haunting. all of it! Bravo Mr. Hodgson! you did a great job. the story is about some sailors that one night, hear a voice in the darkness calling for help. this story is in the public domain so it's free and isn't very long. you should read it!
sept 2024-
Listened to an audio version on YouTube. Love this story!
sept 2024-
Listened to an audio version on YouTube. Love this story!
May 4, 2019
While reading this story it made me wonder if it inspired H.P. Lovecraft and Big Steve.
July 2, 2024
Fans of Japanese horror may know this story better as "Matango," the loose Toho film adaptation from the 1960s. But the original 1907 masterpiece by literature's most buff poet, William Hope Hodgson, should be experienced by everyone.
Because it is so short, I can't reveal much about the plot. Let's just say that this is top notch weird fiction, an A-grade in mystery and in all-around eldritch creepiness.
Fun fact, Hodgson could be a real hard ass. During a bet that he could shackle Harry Houdini so that even the famous escape artist could not wriggle free, Hodgson personally restrained him during a public spectacle in multiple cuffs with tampered locks, and wouldn't even release him after doctors announced that Houdini's hands had turned blue due to lost circulation. Houdini still managed to get free, but by almost degloving himself. Jesus, these guys were METAL!
But whatever you think of Hodgson the man, he was a brilliant writer, and this dark tale of the Pacific is a great way to whet your appetite for the kind of mind-blowing fantasies that came from his haunted pen.
SCORE: 5 disembodied voices out of 5
Because it is so short, I can't reveal much about the plot. Let's just say that this is top notch weird fiction, an A-grade in mystery and in all-around eldritch creepiness.
Fun fact, Hodgson could be a real hard ass. During a bet that he could shackle Harry Houdini so that even the famous escape artist could not wriggle free, Hodgson personally restrained him during a public spectacle in multiple cuffs with tampered locks, and wouldn't even release him after doctors announced that Houdini's hands had turned blue due to lost circulation. Houdini still managed to get free, but by almost degloving himself. Jesus, these guys were METAL!
But whatever you think of Hodgson the man, he was a brilliant writer, and this dark tale of the Pacific is a great way to whet your appetite for the kind of mind-blowing fantasies that came from his haunted pen.
SCORE: 5 disembodied voices out of 5
August 15, 2020
Es un cuento que me ha gustado sobre todo por lo atmosf茅rico y ese terror que puede sobrevenir de ese algo desconocido en la noche. Me gusta m谩s esa primera mitad del cuento donde todo son sensaciones y esa especie de anticipaci贸n del terror que viene de la voz desconocida que se esconde en la noche que toda esa parte final con expliaciones, pero ya digo que es un cuento estupendo por el terror que se mantiene vivo sobre todo en la mente del lector.
May 29, 2018
A classic and immersive horror story with elements of survival, body and science fiction. Story opens with a fishing vessel in the 'blessed' Pacific being approached by a small rowboat, by the middle of night, for help. With the pace and composition of his prose, Hodgson made me feel like one of the listener up the deck.
I couldn't help but see this as a spooky origin story for Swamp Thing or a less weird version of Blackwood's Willows. Its also hard to unsee the influence this story might have had on the genres that followed, whether its literature, movies, games or comics; from Triffids to Aliens to Obscure to Venom.
Recommend.
I couldn't help but see this as a spooky origin story for Swamp Thing or a less weird version of Blackwood's Willows. Its also hard to unsee the influence this story might have had on the genres that followed, whether its literature, movies, games or comics; from Triffids to Aliens to Obscure to Venom.
Recommend.
June 13, 2018
Narration listened to on 'Abyss' on YouTube.
For any horror aficionado, these classics should be compulsory listening. I'd never heard of this, but after hearing it, I believe I can accurately pick a plethora of writers AND film makers who have been influenced by stories like this one. Beautiful, heartbreaking, and quietly gruesome. I'll be going back for more W.H.H.
For any horror aficionado, these classics should be compulsory listening. I'd never heard of this, but after hearing it, I believe I can accurately pick a plethora of writers AND film makers who have been influenced by stories like this one. Beautiful, heartbreaking, and quietly gruesome. I'll be going back for more W.H.H.
January 14, 2018
A nice, creepy gem, and hugely influential. No twists, just dread as the inevitable slinks into sight. Huge recommendation, reads modern enough not to put you off despite the age.
March 7, 2024
I wasn't expecting for this story to be a reflective recounting the way that it was, but I absolutely loved the subtle unravelling of the horrific nature of the story. It begins making you think one way about the voice - a bit confused, skeptical, unsure - but eventually makes you come around to a state of surprising sympathy, horror, and honestly, just depression.
That was great.
That was great.
October 14, 2023
I think fans of weird horror will like this. Hodgson's prose flows and keeps the reader engaged. The story is fairly standard for the genre. Some weird fiction focuses on mood and atmosphere with an ambiguous ending. This one was a bit more concrete in describing events, causes, outcomes with the supernatural playing a major role.
I'm open to reading more Hodgson. He was an interesting person.
I'm open to reading more Hodgson. He was an interesting person.
January 28, 2022
Very short and simple but I'm kinda taken back by how gripping and terrifying this story is.
June 17, 2023
In the story, a small boat approaches a schooner at night and a mysterious voice asks the sailors for food. Although clearly desperate, the Voice refuses to come closer into the light. Suspicion quickly turns into sympathy for the schooner's captain when the Voice reveals that he has a starving female companion waiting on a nearby island. A few hours after gratefully departing with the provisions, the Voice returns to tell his story about the horrifying fate of a shipwrecked couple stranded on a strange island.
August 10, 2023
I really enjoyed the first part of that but once the old man's testimony began it got rather boring.
December 15, 2021
This is a fun little fungal monster story. It鈥檚 a clear precursor to many current-day stories, though this one never feels like real 鈥渉orror鈥�- it鈥檚 more of a travelogue-esque description of an encounter.
3.5, rounded down to a 3.
Read as part of the "Voices from the Radium Age" anthology.
3.5, rounded down to a 3.
Read as part of the "Voices from the Radium Age" anthology.
June 19, 2024
Colonial anxiety鈥攖o be invaded and consumed by nature itself, its seeming passivity irrupting into a teeming mass of lifeforms too small and dispersed to see, let alone defend against. Reverse colonisation leading not to a nationalist cry of triumphant resistance (Campbell, Heinlein), but degradation, resignation, and self-cannibalism (Wells, Ballard, Disch). The fall of empire, bequeathed from the soil itself.
鈥�
More thoughts on reverse colonisation in the third paragraph here. An addendum to that review: War of the Worlds also deals with the theme of reverse colonisation, however, it posits entropy and the decimation of an ecosystem's carrying capacity as the impetus for colonisation, naturalising an otherwise historically-specific economic system (capitalism). Despite the alien horror of Wells' aliens, they operates under human logics, but logics that have been generalised and naturalised across intelligent life. Hodgson posits the nonhuman (fungi) against the human, and while he uses ecology to disrupt human logics, he doesn't generalise the specifics of it, even though consumption and reproduction are general principles of life. Disch, finally, disrupts human logics by historicising them. Reverse colonisation is distinctly tied to the creation of an alien colony, whose purpose is to generate profit. The dehumanisation of its original human inhabitants is driven by the alienating need for productivity, a move that distinctly ties alienation to capitalism. Themes the new weird develops on, especially in the works of VanderMeer and Mieville.
鈥�
More thoughts on reverse colonisation in the third paragraph here. An addendum to that review: War of the Worlds also deals with the theme of reverse colonisation, however, it posits entropy and the decimation of an ecosystem's carrying capacity as the impetus for colonisation, naturalising an otherwise historically-specific economic system (capitalism). Despite the alien horror of Wells' aliens, they operates under human logics, but logics that have been generalised and naturalised across intelligent life. Hodgson posits the nonhuman (fungi) against the human, and while he uses ecology to disrupt human logics, he doesn't generalise the specifics of it, even though consumption and reproduction are general principles of life. Disch, finally, disrupts human logics by historicising them. Reverse colonisation is distinctly tied to the creation of an alien colony, whose purpose is to generate profit. The dehumanisation of its original human inhabitants is driven by the alienating need for productivity, a move that distinctly ties alienation to capitalism. Themes the new weird develops on, especially in the works of VanderMeer and Mieville.
December 19, 2021
Being both creepy and intense, The Voice in the Night is an excellent horror tale. Although short and with no considerable twist to its plot, the story is rich and can be read from multiple perspectives.
One plausible interpretation of its events alludes to the ever increasing alienation which had marred the early years of the 20th century like a crawling monster that poisoned with its venom all it had touched.
The couple, at the heart of the story, had been abandoned by the crew of their ship when the latter was sinking in a symbolic representation of the state of England by the turn of the century. The bonds of compassion and harmony held no more when the former regime collapsed. Morality and religion gave way, and human beings became estranged from one another to the extent of abandoning their fellow creatures with neither hesitation nor remorse.
The fungus that plagued the pair with its parasitic growth wherever they turned alludes to the corruption that reigned the English society and even the world's population at the time. The intense temptation which governed the couple and made them partake, against their will and inclination, of such a dreadful repast is equally symbolic of the wave of hostility which swept the people shortly before the war. As it was, people were thrown into a hostile atmosphere from which they could not break free, and which had ultimately culminated in the First World War.
One plausible interpretation of its events alludes to the ever increasing alienation which had marred the early years of the 20th century like a crawling monster that poisoned with its venom all it had touched.
The couple, at the heart of the story, had been abandoned by the crew of their ship when the latter was sinking in a symbolic representation of the state of England by the turn of the century. The bonds of compassion and harmony held no more when the former regime collapsed. Morality and religion gave way, and human beings became estranged from one another to the extent of abandoning their fellow creatures with neither hesitation nor remorse.
The fungus that plagued the pair with its parasitic growth wherever they turned alludes to the corruption that reigned the English society and even the world's population at the time. The intense temptation which governed the couple and made them partake, against their will and inclination, of such a dreadful repast is equally symbolic of the wave of hostility which swept the people shortly before the war. As it was, people were thrown into a hostile atmosphere from which they could not break free, and which had ultimately culminated in the First World War.
February 11, 2018
A very fine short story. Said to be Hodgson's most creepy. I read it many years ago ans recently thought of it and wanted to reread it. It was quite hard to find from just a vague memory about the plot. Still a fine story eventhough I knew the end.
May 18, 2024
Boring and archaic, told in that typical recount/dialogue style instead of in medias res.
April 17, 2021
William Hope Hodgson - Una voz en la noche
El misterio y el terror desarrollado en altamar cobra fuerza con un relato corto de W. H. Hodgson. En medio del mar, en una noche m谩s oscura que de costumbre, William y George escuchan una voz gutural que s煤plica por ayuda.
El personaje ignoto a los ojos de los marinos, impregnado con un horror profundo a la luz, poco a poco va revelando su historia de martirio debido a un encuentro fat铆dico con un ente viscoso en un barco abandonado.
Los senderos de supuesta salvaci贸n, que son relatados por el ser, se van llenado de una sustancia gris que albergan formas inhumanas, viejos recuerdos de seres que fueron hombre y doncella, un par de pobres almas proscritas..
En conclusi贸n, es un buen cuento corto, en donde se describe un entorno de eterno castigo, en donde el escape es imposible.
El misterio y el terror desarrollado en altamar cobra fuerza con un relato corto de W. H. Hodgson. En medio del mar, en una noche m谩s oscura que de costumbre, William y George escuchan una voz gutural que s煤plica por ayuda.
El personaje ignoto a los ojos de los marinos, impregnado con un horror profundo a la luz, poco a poco va revelando su historia de martirio debido a un encuentro fat铆dico con un ente viscoso en un barco abandonado.
Los senderos de supuesta salvaci贸n, que son relatados por el ser, se van llenado de una sustancia gris que albergan formas inhumanas, viejos recuerdos de seres que fueron hombre y doncella, un par de pobres almas proscritas..
En conclusi贸n, es un buen cuento corto, en donde se describe un entorno de eterno castigo, en donde el escape es imposible.
February 11, 2025
Trevor Henderson made a wonderful of this short story, which led me to read it. You can read The Voice in the Night !
January 27, 2019
I'm sad that it took me this long to discover the writing of William Hope Hodgson. I happened upon this story after Amazon suggested an anthology inspired by his writings. I'm going make an effort to read more of his longer works.
October 27, 2021
Brushed up my knowledge regarding this all-time classic today. It was an n-th read probably. But the pathos, suspense and horror remained fresh even today!
If you haven't read it yet, please rectify the mistake ASAP.
If you haven't read it yet, please rectify the mistake ASAP.
April 8, 2022
An interesting short story. It really held my attention all the way through. I think it falls comfortably into the category of Weird Fiction, but also Horror and Sci-fi.
January 3, 2023
4/5 estrellas.
Primera lectura del 2023 y fue esta maravilla.
No dej贸 de parecerme siniestro todo el tema del barco y lo fungi. Cada parte encaj贸 a la perfecci贸n.
Lo recomiendo mucho.
Primera lectura del 2023 y fue esta maravilla.
No dej贸 de parecerme siniestro todo el tema del barco y lo fungi. Cada parte encaj贸 a la perfecci贸n.
Lo recomiendo mucho.
June 17, 2020
I'd first read this, as a kid. The subtlety was something that I could not understand, and I wanted ghosts or vampires. Rereading this as a grown up, was a sure treat. A classic horror story by all means.
July 29, 2016
An dark eerie tale.. Two sailors hear a stranger calling out to them in the dark Pacific and are eventually told about a strange shipwreck...
August 18, 2014
spooky. Like an old version of Tales of the Unexpected..
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