House of the Hatchet

by Robert Bloch

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer. He was the son of Raphael "Ray" Bloch (1884, Chicago-1952, Chicago), a bank cashier, and his wife Stella Loeb (1880, Attica, Indiana-1944, Milwaukee, WI), a social worker, both of German-Jewish descent.

Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over twenty novels, usually crime fiction, science fiction, and, perhaps most influentially, horror fiction (Psycho). He was one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle; Lovecraft was Bloch's mentor and one of the first to seriously encourage his talent.

He was a contributor to pulp magazines such as Weird Tales in his early career, and was also a prolific screenwriter. He was the recipient of the Hugo Award (for his story "That Hell-Bound Train"), the Bram Stoker Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Robert Bloch was also a major contributor to science fiction fanzines and fandom in general. In the 1940s, he created the humorous character Lefty Feep in a story for Fantastic Adventures. He also worked for a time in local vaudeville, and tried to break into writing for nationally-known performers. He was a good friend of the science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum. In the 1960's, he wrote 3 stories for Star Trek.

Reviews

[Steve Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A patchy collection which nevertheless contains two of the very best from Bloch - the much anthologised 'Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper' - a very atmospheric tale of two men who go in search of the infamous murderer; and 'The Dream Makers' - if you love your old films (we're talking silents here), there's a lot of genial pleasure to be had in the unusual story, setting, and inclusion of familiar names from the period. There's a real sense of nostalgia as a wistful writer discovers a group of silent film stars who have not aged in twenty-five years. Sadly for me, 'The Manikin' (in which a man has a strange little creature growing on his back) is the only other story of note amongst the tally of nine here.

There are a few too many ancient Egyptian mummy stories here - which bore me rigid; and given Bloch's high productivity rate, the expected lack of consistency I have seen in other collections of his work is very much in evidence.

[Vasilis St. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two anthologies with similar titles but different contents.

Panther editon with the title"House of the Hatchet" (1976) contains the following stories:
House of the Hatchet (1941)
Return to the Sabbath (1938)
The Mandarin's Canaries (1938)
Waxworks (1939)
The Feast in the Abbey (1935)
Slave of the Flames (1938)
The Shambler from the Stars (1935)
Mother of Serpents (1936)
The Secret of Sebek (1937)
The Eyes of the Mummy (1938)
One Way to Mars (1945)

Tandem edition with the title"The House of the Hatchet and Other Tales of Horror" (1965) contains the following stories:
Sweets to the Sweet (1947)
The Dream-Makers (1960)
Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper (1943)
The Eyes of the Mummy (1938)
The Manikin (1937)
House of the Hatchet (1941)
The Cloak (1939)
Beetles (1938)
The Faceless God (1936)

[Todd Charlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early Bloch gives us international locations; myths and horror. Contains beautiful if not outmoded prose with the odd story being a touch predicable after 70 or 80 years, but the tales still stand up well.

[Mark H · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Bloch collection not to be confused with THE House of the Hatchet.

All the stories are reprints of some of his Weird Tales from the 1930s and 40s.

I’m not so keen on his historical or Lovecraft homages, and they don’t work well when alternating with his signature style of more chatty, contemporary tales with varying amounts of dark humour.

The other problem is the frequent overlap of repeated stories through all his anthologies. It’s hard to find a collection that doesn’t include a few stories that you’ve already read elsewhere.

For newcomers, this is a good spread of his different styles of stories. For me, the best tale was the first. The House of the Hatchet, which skilfully takes you into a murderer’s thought processes.

[Alex Budris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of horror stories by the author of Psycho. Aside from the grim titular tale, there are a handful of early 'Lovecraftian' Egyptological stories, notably 'The Faceless God', which is a dossier of sorts on Nyarlathotep of Cthulhu Mythos fame. 'The Cloak' is a sardonic vampire story, and 'Yours Truly Jack the Ripper' is an oft reprinted classic that everybody should read.

What really makes this edition (Tandem, 1971) special is the weird 'nude skull-dancing' cover art. It's a striking image. Also, this paperback is fairly scarce.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.02⭐

House of the Hatchet (1941) 5⭐
Return to the Sabbath (1938) 4.25⭐
The Mandarin's Canaries (1938) 5⭐
Waxworks (1939) 4.5⭐
The Feast in the Abbey (1935) 4⭐
Slave of the Flames (1938) 3.25⭐
The Shambler from the Stars (1935) 3⭐
Mother of Serpents (1936) 3⭐
The Secret of Sebek (1937) 3.25⭐
The Eyes of the Mummy (1938) 4.5⭐
One Way to Mars (1945) 4.5⭐