The House of the Wolf

by Basil Copper

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870540955
• ISBN13: 9780870540950
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Arkham House Pub
• Length: 298 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 1.3" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Simply the best Gothic horror I've ever read.

In The House of the Wolf, Basil Copper has created the ultimate fusion of modern literary style with the traditional Gothic-horror novel. That is, it presents all the elements of the best of the classic 19th-century Gothics in terms of plot and atmosphere, but written with a modern sensibility. The classic features are all there: the snowbound Hungarian village, the exotic and towering Homolky Castle with its rearing towers and secret cellars, the noble family with secrets to hide, the gathering of men of science. The choice of a werewolf as the adversary is actually fairly unusual--in the traditional Gothic the role would more likely fall to a ghost or vampire, and the creature is presented strictly in classic vein without any of the present-day tropes that have grown up around them in the World of Darkness/Laurell Hamilton/Underworld sense. Each page all but drips atmosphere: Copper is a master wordsmith and purely in his element here; each setting is brought to vivid life with an attention to detail that makes the horror seem all the more real. The danger to the characters is intimate and personal rather than distant and alien, the aura of mystery and fear is built carefully from chapter to chapter and builds to a conclusion that is both exciting and logical. A thread of dry, ironic humor also threads through the book (the name of the village; the fact that the gathering of scientists is actually one of experts in folklore, witchcraft, and so on; an offhand reference to the events of Copper's previous novel, Necropolis, in a newspaper headline read in one chapter) without breaking the mood. The cover and internal illustrations by Stephen Fabian are also worth noting; this is some of his finest work and help bring the story to life without being intrusive. I cannot recommend this book enough to any fan of the classic horror story. If you're the kind of person whose shelf already contains Dracula, Frankenstein, the works of Poe, or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The House of the Wolf is a must-read.

Utterly superb. Old-school gothic tale of the highest order.

Much of my enjoyment of this book comes from my love of the classic, traditional Romantic-gothic, particularly those written or set in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This fantastic book by Basil Copper fits the bill *beautifully.*A group of folklorists at a meeting in 19th century Hungary (we can assume in the Translyvania area as part of Transylvania is in Hungary) end up trapped inside the Homolky Castle due to weather, which stands menacingly above a village as you might imagine. The castle is appropriately huge and lonely, with many dark and unexplored passages. It's located in a forbidding landscape of forests and mountains. The Homolky clan is a bit strange and mysterious, but the clincher is that they and their castle have a history of being haunted by a werewolf. Indeed, as the folklorists stay on in the castle, it appears they are all being stalked, and gruesome murders turn up evidence pointing to the werewolf. Now one of the men has to get to the bottom of what's going on and unearth the secrets behind the hauntings and attacks.It may sound like a cliched set-up, but that's the beauty - I love set-ups like these, but since they're seen as so cliched, it turns out there are very few serious books you can name that are structured in this way. It's a story in the vein of the classic gothic tales - late night supernatural encounters in the castle, shadowed castle corridors, a beautiful and haunted young woman in peril, mysterious murder, long-buried family secrets... this story has it all, and Basil Copper executes it in a flawlessly haunting and atmospheric way. By now I think you should know whether this book is for you or not. It's intelligently written, and perhaps the cynics would call this book "cheesy," but I am a big fan of the classic gothic atmosphere... frankly we need more books written for adults in which a character has to play supernatural detective in a forbidding 19th century castle. If you're a fan of this type of book, then I can't recommend it enough.