The Horla

Last updated

"The Horla"
Short story by Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant le Horla-edition1908.jpg
Cover of the 1908 edition, illustrated by William Julian-Damazy
Wikiversity-Mooc-Icon-Further-readings.svg Text available at Wikisource
Original titleLe Horla
TranslatorJonathan Sturges
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Genre(s) Horror short story
Publication
Publication date1887
Published in English1890

"The Horla" (French: "Le Horla") is an 1887 short horror story written in the style of a journal by the French writer Guy de Maupassant, after an initial (much shorter) version published in the newspaper Gil Blas , October 26, 1886.

Contents

The story has been cited as an inspiration for Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu", which also features an extraterrestrial being who influences minds and who is destined to conquer humanity. [1]

The word horla itself is not French, and is a neologism. Charlotte Mandell, who has translated "The Horla" for publisher Melville House, suggests in an afterword that the word "horla" is a portmanteau of the French words hors ("outside"), and là ("there") and that "le horla" sounds like "the Outsider, the outer, the one Out There", and can be transliterally interpreted as "the 'what's out there'". [2]

Summary

In the form of a journal, the narrator, an upper-class, unmarried, bourgeois man, conveys his troubled thoughts and feelings of anguish. This anguish occurs for four days after he sees a "superb three-mast" Brazilian ship and impulsively waves to it, unconsciously inviting the supernatural being aboard the boat to haunt his home.

Horla-Apparition.png

All around him, he senses the presence of a being that he calls the "Horla". The torment that the Horla causes is first manifested physically: The narrator complains that he suffers from "an atrocious fever", and that he has trouble sleeping. He wakes up from nightmares with the chilling feeling that someone is watching him and "kneeling on [his] chest".

Throughout the short story, the main character's sanity, or rather, his feelings of alienation, are put into question as the Horla progressively dominates his thoughts. Initially, the narrator himself questions his sanity, exclaiming "Am I going mad?" after having found his glass of water empty, despite not having drunk from it. He later decides that he is not, in fact, going mad, since he is fully "conscious" of his "state" and that he could indeed "analyze it with the most complete lucidity." The presence of the Horla becomes more and more intolerable to the protagonist, as it is "watching ... looking at ... [and] dominating" him.

After reading about a large number of Brazilians who fled their homes, bemoaning the fact that "they are pursued, possessed, governed like human cattle by ... a species of vampire, which feeds on their life while they are asleep ... [and] drinks water", the narrator soon realizes the Horla was aboard the Brazilian three-mast boat that he had previously greeted. He feels so "lost" and "possessed" to the point that he is ready to kill the Horla. The narrator traps the Horla in a room and sets fire to the house, but forgets his servants, who perish in the fire. In the last lines of the story, faced with the persistence of the Horla's presence, he concludes suicide to be his only liberation.

Background

While the canonical version of the text is the 1887 novella, two earlier versions of the text demonstrate Maupassant's development of the central premise. Lettre d'un fou, translated into English as "Letter of a Madman", was published in the 17th February 1885 edition of Gil Blas, under the pseudonym 'Maufrigneuse'. [3] In the short story, the narrator writes a letter to a doctor describing his disillusionment with the world and his newfound ability to perceive a parallel invisible world. A later version of the text, also entitled Le Horla, was published in the 26 October 1886 edition of the newspaper Gil Blas. This version also sees the narrator impart his account to a group of doctors; this psychiatric context was dismissed from the final version of the text, which is written in the form of a journal. [4]

Another possible prototype for "The Horla" is Maupassant's short story "Lui?", translated into English as "Him?" and published in the 3rd July 1883 edition of Gil Blas. [5] In the story, the narrator begins to see a figure who appears only when he is alone, and is only referred to as "He" or "Him". This figure inspires such terror in the protagonist that he is forced into marriage in order to resist being alone. These themes of alienation and a fear of solitude reoccur in "The Horla". [6]

It is likely that Maupassant was inspired by his own interest in hypnosis and psychiatry in writing the short story, having frequently attended the lectures of noted neurologist Dr Jean-Martin Charcot. [4] The 1880s in France were a time of great public interest in hypnotism, being used as it was both as a cure of illness and as an anaesthetic. While now dismissed as pseudoscientific, at the time the discipline was at the forefront of much medical experimentation. Simultaneously, however, hypnotism was the subject of much examples of theatre and showmanship, with many attending to witness outlandish and bizarre spectacles. This contrast in the popular perception of hypnotism between the scientific and the supernatural manifests, it has been argued, within "The Horla". [7]

Major Themes

The Horla's magnetic influence over the main character puts him in the same literary context as the double or doppelgänger, a field which had previously been explored in Adelbert von Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl (1814), Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson" (1839), and Theophile Gautier's Avatar (1856). However, while in the traditional literary form of the double the perceived threat is a physical one capable of autonomy, in "The Horla" the titular creature is instead elusive and invisible, acting as a manifestation of the main character's solitude and anxiety. [4] The Horla is characterised not as a physical being but as a "double-delusion", a means by which the narrator externalises his own depression into the physical world. It is no coincidence that he comes to the realisation that in order to destroy the Horla, he must destroy himself. [6]

The ambiguity as to whether the eponymous Horla is an actual malign entity or a symptom of the narrator's mental illness is a key element of the short story's tension. As the reader is not presented with information external to the protagonist that confirms any of the events of the short story, they are forced to reconcile with the possibility that the narrator is unreliable. Maupassant structures the short story in such a manner that the growing need for an implied reader to settle for an interpretation coincides with the vacillations of the story's protagonist; just as the narrator grows more and more mentally unstable, the ambiguity of what is occurring in the short story, and the corresponding uncertainty in a presumed reader, heightens. [8]

Legacy

Literature

Reinterpretations of Maupassant's short story occur throughout horror fiction. In the short story "The Theater Upstairs" (1936) by Manly Wade Wellman, the plot revolves around characters watching a film adaptation of "The Horla". [9] "The Horla" is the inspiration for Robert Sheckley's short story "The New Horla" (2000) in his collection Uncanny Tales . [10] The American horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft is said to have been inspired by the story, with his 1928 short story "The Call of Cthulhu" having been particularly influenced by it. [1] In his survey "Supernatural Horror in Literature" (1927), he provides his own interpretation of the story:

Relating the advent in France of an invisible being who lives on water and milk, sways the minds of others, and seems to be the vanguard of a horde of extra-terrestrial organisms arrived on earth to subjugate and overwhelm mankind, this tense narrative is perhaps without peer in its particular department. [11]

The figure of the Horla is a recurring character in Victorian pastiche fiction. In Wellman's novel Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds (1975), Sherlock Holmes suggests to Professor Challenger that the events of "The Horla" might actually be true. [12] Horlas are mentioned or featured in several stories from the Tales of the Shadowmen series, including one story where a Horla menaces occult detective Thomas Carnacki. [13]

Kingsley Amis's first novel Lucky Jim (1954, chapter 6) describes Jim Dixon, a guest lecturer at a university, waking in a guestroom owned by the senior colleague whose good will he is depending on to continue in his job the next academic year, discovering he has fallen asleep drunk, and burned holes through blankets and sheets and on a bedside table. "Had he done this all to himself? Or had a wayfarer, a burglar, camped out in his room? Or was he the victim of some Horla fond of tobacco?" [14]

The Bartimaeus Sequence (2003–2010) features horlas as powerful spirits, who appear as shadowy apparitions that cause madness in humans similar to the titular Horla of the short story. [15]

Film and Television

Radio

Maupassant's short story has had a number of different radio adaptations:

Music

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy de Maupassant</span> French writer (1850–1893)

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story, as well as a representative of the naturalist school, depicting human lives, destinies and social forces in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Call of Cthulhu</span> 1928 short story by H. P. Lovecraft

"The Call of Cthulhu" is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in the summer of 1926, it was first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in February 1928.

<i>At the Mountains of Madness</i> Novella by H. P. Lovecraft

At the Mountains of Madness is a science fiction-horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931. Rejected that year by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length, it was originally serialized in the February, March, and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories. It has been reproduced in numerous collections.

Fantastique is a French term for a literary and cinematic genre and mode that is characterized by the intrusion of supernatural elements into the realistic framework of a story, accompanied by uncertainty about their existence. The concept comes from the French literary and critical tradition, and is distinguished from the word "fantastic", which is associated with the broader term of fantasy in the English literary tradition. According to the literary theorist Tzvetan Todorov, the fantastique is distinguished from the marvellous by the hesitation it produces between the supernatural and the natural, the possible and the impossible, and sometimes between the logical and the illogical. The marvellous, on the other hand, appeals to the supernatural in which, once the presuppositions of a magical world have been accepted, things happen in an almost normal and familiar way. The genre emerged in the 18th century and knew a golden age in 19th century Europe, particularly in France and Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randolph Carter</span> Fictional character

Randolph Carter is a recurring fictional character created by H. P. Lovecraft. The character first appears in "The Statement of Randolph Carter", a short story Lovecraft wrote in 1919 based on one of his dreams. An American magazine called The Vagrant published the story in May 1920. Carter appears in seven stories written or co-written by Lovecraft, and has since appeared in stories by other authors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Nameless City</span> 1921 short story by H. P. Lovecraft

"The Nameless City" is a short horror story written by American writer H. P. Lovecraft in January 1921 and first published in the November 1921 issue of the amateur press journal The Wolverine. It is often considered the first story set in the Cthulhu Mythos world. In the story, the protagonist travels to the middle of the Arabian Desert to explore an ancient underground city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pickman's Model</span> 1927 short story by H. P. Lovecraft

"Pickman's Model" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in September 1926 and first published in the October 1927 issue of Weird Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Statement of Randolph Carter</span> 1919 short story by H. P. Lovecraft

"The Statement of Randolph Carter" is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in December 1919, it was first published in The Vagrant, May 1920. It tells of a traumatic event in the life of Randolph Carter, a student of the occult loosely representing Lovecraft himself. It is the first story in which Carter appears. Its adaptations include the film The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Outsider (short story)</span> Short story by H. P. Lovecraft

"The Outsider" is a short story by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between March and August 1921, it was first published in Weird Tales, April 1926. In this work, a mysterious individual who has been living alone in a castle for as long as he can remember decides to break free in search of human contact and light. "The Outsider" is one of Lovecraft's most commonly reprinted works and is also one of the most popular stories ever to be published in Weird Tales.

<i>The Shadow Out of Time</i> Novella by H.P. Lovecraft

The Shadow Out of Time is a novella by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between November 1934 and February 1935, it was first published in the June 1936 issue of Astounding Stories. The story describes time and space travel by mind transfer, where a person in a given place and time can switch bodies with someone who is elsewhere or elsewhen. As with other Lovecraftian works, this story features otherworldly alien beings that are not simply variations on humans or other familiar terrestrial animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Festival (short story)</span> 1923 short story by H. P. Lovecraft

"The Festival" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft written in October 1923 and published in the January 1925 issue of Weird Tales.

<i>Diary of a Madman</i> (film) 1963 film by Reginald Le Borg

Diary of a Madman is a 1963 American horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Vincent Price, Nancy Kovack, and Chris Warfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darrell Schweitzer</span> American writer, editor, and critic (born 1952)

Darrell Charles Schweitzer is an American writer, editor, and critic in the field of speculative fiction. Much of his focus has been on dark fantasy and horror, although he does also work in science fiction and fantasy. Schweitzer is also a prolific writer of literary criticism and editor of collections of essays on various writers within his preferred genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Rats in the Walls</span> 1923 short story by H. P. Lovecraft

"The Rats in the Walls" is a short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in August–September 1923, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmicism</span> Literary philosophy

Cosmicism is American author H. P. Lovecraft's name for the literary philosophy he developed and used for his fiction. Lovecraft was a writer of horror stories that involve occult phenomena like astral possession and alien miscegenation, and the themes of his fiction over time contributed to the development of this philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert A. W. Lowndes</span> American novelist

Robert Augustine Ward "Doc" Lowndes was an American science fiction author, editor and fan. He was known best as the editor of Future Science Fiction, Science Fiction, and Science Fiction Quarterly, among many other crime-fiction, western, sports-fiction, and other pulp and digest sized magazines for Columbia Publications. Among the most famous writers he was first to publish at Columbia was mystery writer Edward D. Hoch, who in turn would contribute to Lowndes's fiction magazines as long as he was editing them. Lowndes was a principal member of the Futurians. His first story, "The Outpost at Altark" for Super Science in 1940, was written in collaboration with fellow Futurian Donald A. Wollheim, uncredited.

"To Arkham and the Stars" is a short story by American writer Fritz Leiber that belongs to the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror fiction. It was written for the 1966 Arkham House anthology The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces. Set in H. P. Lovecraft's Arkham and Miskatonic University, it includes characters from and allusions to several Lovecraft stories.

"The Damned Thing" is a horror short story written by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. It first appeared in Town Topics on December 7, 1893.

<i>In the Grip of Terror</i> Horror anthology

In the Grip of Terror is an anthology of horror short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in paperback by Permabooks in 1951.

References

  1. 1 2 S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, "Call of Cthulhu, The", An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, p. 28.
  2. ↑ de Maupassant, Guy (2005). The Horla. The Art of the Novella. Melville House. ISBN   978-0-9761407-4-0.
  3. ↑ de Maupassant, Guy (July 2011). "Letter of a Madman". The White Review. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 Yampolsky, Eva (2017). "Chapter Four: Horlamil: A Figure of the Social Mass". Identity Trouble: Fragmentation and Disillusionment in the Works of Guy de Maupassant. New York: Peter Lang. pp. 95–123. ISBN   9781433121470 . Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  5. ↑ Forrestier, Louis (1974). Contes et Nouvelle. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. ISBN   9782070108053.
  6. 1 2 Rank, Otto (1971). The Double: A Psychoanalytic Study. North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press. pp. 20–22. ISBN   978-1-4696-1021-4 . Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  7. ↑ Trueman, Liz (2018). "Progression / Regression: Hypnotism and the Superstitiuous in Maupassant's Le Horla". Romance Nots. 58 (1): 5–15. doi:10.1353/rmc.2018.0001 . Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  8. ↑ Heller, Terry (1987). "Chapter Six: The Pure Fantastic Tale of Terror". The Delights of Terror: An Aesthetics of the Tale of Terror. Illinois, USA: University of Illinois. pp. 95–100. ISBN   025201412X . Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  9. ↑ Wellman, Manly Wade (December 1936). "The Theater Upstairs". Weird Tales. 28 (5). Retrieved September 28, 2024.
  10. ↑ "Title: The New Horla". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved September 28, 2024.
  11. ↑ Lovecraft, H.P. (1927). "Supernatural Horror in Literature". The Recluse. 1: 23–59.
  12. ↑ Wellman, Manly Wade; Wellman, Wade (1975). Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds. New York: Warner Books. pp. 38–39. Retrieved September 28, 2024.
  13. ↑ Legrand, Oliver (2013). "The Last Tale". In Lofficier, J.M.; Lofficier, Randy (eds.). Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 10: Esprit de Corps. Black Coat Press. pp. 219–224. ISBN   9781612272375.
  14. ↑ Amis, Kingsley (2002). Lucky Jim. London: Penguin Books. p. 62. ISBN   0140186301.
  15. ↑ Stroud, Jonathan (2003). The Amulet of Samarkand. Great Britain: Doubleday. pp. 254–256. ISBN   0552550299 . Retrieved September 28, 2024.
  16. ↑ Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew (2016). The Ashgate Encyclopaedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters. Taylor & Francis. p. 336. ISBN   9781317044260 . Retrieved November 13, 2024.
  17. ↑ Parkinson, David. "Retro Review: Diary of a Madman – Vincent Price at his brutal best". Reader's Digest UK . Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  18. ↑ Talbot, Rob (August 26, 2018). "An Englishman's Guide to Italian Gothic: Black Sabbath (1963)". Diabolique Magazine. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  19. ↑ "Yvan Attal haunted by "Le Horla"". AlloCiné . November 17, 2010. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  20. ↑ Coville, Gary; Lucanio, Patrick (2015). Jack the Ripper: His Life and Crimes in Popular Entertainment. United States: McFarland Incorporated. p. 71. ISBN   978-1476607375 . Retrieved September 28, 2024.
  21. ↑ Vidal, Lucie (May 25, 2023). "Une version moderne du Horla sur Arte, entre Maupassant et confinement". La Voix du Nord (in French). Retrieved November 6, 2023.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Hand, Richard J. (2012). Terror on the Air! Horror Radio in America, 1931-1952. McFarland Incorporated Publishers. ISBN   9780786491841 . Retrieved October 8, 2024.
  23. ↑ Chandler II, Dixon H. (2010), "Horror Programs", The Concise Encyclopedia of American Radio, Taylor & Francis, p. 372, ISBN   9781135176846
  24. ↑ Payton, Gordon; Grams Jr., Martin (2015). The CBS Radio Mystery Theater: An Episode Guide and Handbook to Nine Years of Broadcasting, 1974-1982. McFarland Incorporated Publishers. pp. 20–21. ISBN   9780786492282 . Retrieved October 8, 2024.
  25. ↑ Rivadavia, Eduardo. "As Above, So Below review". All Music. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
  26. ↑ "The Box - A Timeless Inspiration". The Music Express. 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
  27. ↑ Delpech, Margot (April 27, 2020). "Nekfeu, de Jack London à John Fante". Toute La Culture. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.