The Horla
 | This articleis missing informationabout the story's development, themes, and reception.(January 2018) |
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(January 2018) |
| "The Horla" | |
|---|---|
| Short storybyGuy de Maupassant | |
| Original title | Le Horla |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
| Publication | |
| Publication date | 1887 |
"The Horla"(French:" Le Horla ") is an 1887 shorthorrorstory written in the style of a journal by the French writerGuy de Maupassant,after an initial (much shorter) version published in the newspaperGil Blas,October 26, 1886.
The story has been cited as an inspiration for Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu",which also features anextraterrestrial beingwho influences minds and who is destined to conquer humanity.[1]
The wordhorlaitself is not French, and is aneologism.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 wordshors( "outside" ), andlà( "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
[edit]In the form of a journal, the narrator, an upper-class, unmarried,bourgeoisman, 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.
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.
Influences
[edit] | This sectionmay need to be rewrittento comply with Wikipedia'squality standards.(January 2018) |
Literature
[edit]- "The Horla" is used as an extension of the plot in the short story "The Theater Upstairs" byManly Wade Wellman.In Wellman's novelSherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds(1975),Sherlock Holmessuggests toProfessor Challengerthat the events of "The Horla" might actually be true.
- TheBartimaeus Trilogy(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.
- American horror writerH. P. Lovecraft,in his survey "Supernatural Horror in Literature"(1927), provides his own interpretation of the story:
Relating the advent in France of aninvisiblebeing who lives on water and milk,sways the minds of others,and seems to be the vanguard of a horde ofextra-terrestrial organismsarrived on earth to subjugate and overwhelm mankind, this tense narrative is perhaps without peer in its particular department.
- "The Horla" is the inspiration forRobert Sheckley's short story "The New Horla" (2000) in his collectionUncanny Tales.
- Kingsley Amis's first novelLucky 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?"
In popular culture
[edit] | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification.(June 2021) |
- The movieDiary of a Madman(1963) is loosely based on "The Horla".[3]
- TheStar Trekepisode "Wolf in the Fold"(1967) features a Horla-like entity.
- Jean-Daniel Polletdirected a film adaptation calledLe Horlain 1966.[4]
- TheCBS Radio Mystery Theateradapted the story for episode 044, originally aired on February 22, 1974.
- The Hall of Fantasyradio show aired an episode on September 5, 1952, called "The Shadow People", which makes reference to the Horla.
- "The Horla" (1947) is episode 8 ofPeter Lorre's radio serialMystery in the Air.[5]
- "The Horla" was adapted for the syndicated radio programThe Weird Circle.
- Horlas are mentioned or featured in several stories from theTales of the Shadowmenseries, including one story where a Horla is encountered bySolomon Kane.
- Tim Lucashas argued that "The Horla" is also an influence on Mario Bava's story "Telephone", featured in his filmBlack Sabbath(1963).[6]
- "The Horla" is the title of a song from the Britishheavy metalbandAngel Witch,appearing on their 2012 albumAs Above, So Below.
- The concept albumD'Après Le Horla De Maupassantby Canadian progressive rock bandThe Boxis based on "The Horla".
- The third track of French hip-hop artistNekfeu's debut album,Feu,is entitled "Le Horla".
- Le Horla,a 2023 television film directed by Marion Desseigne-Ravel and starringBastien Bouillonin the primary role, first broadcast onArteon 2 June 2023. Freely inspired by Maupassant's story, the film is transposed to the modern day.[7]
References
[edit]- ^S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, "Call of Cthulhu, The",An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia,p. 28.
- ^de Maupassant, Guy (2005).The Horla.The Art of the Novella. Melville House.ISBN978-0-9761407-4-0.
- ^Parkinson, David."Retro Review: Diary of a Madman – Vincent Price at his brutal best".Reader's Digest UK.RetrievedJune 13,2021.
- ^"Yvan Attal haunted by" Le Horla "".AlloCiné.November 17, 2010.RetrievedSeptember 14,2021.
- ^Chandler II, Dixon H. (2010), "Horror Programs",The Concise Encyclopedia of American Radio,Taylor & Francis,p. 372,ISBN9781135176846
- ^Talbot, Rob (August 26, 2018)."An Englishman's Guide to Italian Gothic: Black Sabbath (1963)".Diabolique Magazine.RetrievedJune 13,2021.
- ^Vidal, Lucie (May 25, 2023)."Une version moderne duHorlasur Arte, entre Maupassant et confinement ".La Voix du Nord(in French).RetrievedNovember 6,2023.
External links
[edit]
- Omnibus collection of Maupassant's short fictionatStandard Ebooks
- Full English text of "The Horla" second version (University of Virginia Electronic Text Center)(archived link)
- Full English text of "The Horla" (from East of the Web)
- Full French text of "Le Horla" (Project Gutenberg)
- Free audiobook: Le Horla (in French)
- The HorlastarringPeter Lorre,Mystery in the Air, NBC radio, August 21, 1947
The Horlapublic domain audiobook atLibriVox- Le Horlaseries listing at theInternet Speculative Fiction Database
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