The Horla - Guy de Maupassant Book Review

Enter a review
of your own!

Other books by
author Guy de Maupassant

"The Horla"
Message Board

Guy de Maupassant Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR: Daniel Staebler

SCHOLARS:

Would you like to be a scholar and make five dollars per review? Click here to submit a review!

Review Summaries

"THE HORLA (Le Horla) has been first published in 1887. This eerie story describes the thoughts of a man convinced that an invisible creature is trying to take control of his mind. This creature would have come all the way from Brazil aboard a commercial boat and would have been attracted by the man's white house situated near the Seine river. A few days after the passage of the boat, our hero starts to feel unhappy without any good reasons at all and one morning, he notices that, while he was sleeping, someone has drunk the water on the night table. He leaves for Paris where his depressing thoughts soon disappear. When he comes back home, the nightmares reappear and the creature takes control of his body more and more often. Soon, he's unable to decide anymore to leave the region in order to escape from this invisible monster. "
Daniel Staebler, Resident Guy de Maupassant Scholar

Click above for the new Obama Girl Parody video!

Overall Review

Our unique search engine breaks down books and movies into dozens of literary elements, all of which are searchable.

Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 60%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 10%

Tone of book - scarey (primal ax-wielding fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Horror story? Yes
Horror plotlets - the bodysnatchers are coming!

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Eccentric: Yes - obsessed
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - healthy but a geeky weakling

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male Alien
Has magical powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main antagonist: - Invisibility
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a substantial amount
Intelligence - Average intelligence

Setting
Earth setting: - 19th century
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only) - some scientific explanation
How much dialogue? - little dialog

Most similar books by Gordonator ranking
Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
Crawlers by John Shirley
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
Stasis by Kelly Steed & Colleen Elliott
Stinger by Robert R. McCammon

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

Try our new Star Wars & Star Trek puzzle pictures! Click here

Advertise with us
Feedback
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith plot spoilers
Hobbits
The politics game
The lawyer game

3 Book search options!
1) Simple lookup
(title or author)

or
2) Detailed book search
(click here) or

3) One-click plot searches! Simply click on a plot below!

Animal Story

Clones

Coming of age

Cultural problems, alien culture

Explore/1st contact/ enviro story

Family relations

GIANT monster(s)

Horror story?

Inner Struggle

Lifeform altered?

Mental/magical powers focus

Parody

Political power play

Religious overtones?

Repressive society story

Robots, Computers, VR

Romance

Spying & Investigations

Tech./$$$/Info hunt

Time Travel story?

Training/Apprent.

War or Invasion

Games:
Trivia Masters!

Rescue your favorite
scifi characters from
slavery!

Talk to your favorite
scifi characters!

Eating New Yorkers
Computer Game

Pomeranians

Most recent TV & Movie discussions:

Clash of the Titans: Clash of the Titans 9/7/2008 3:53:28 AM

Blade Runner: Blade Runner 9/6/2008 12:13:28 PM

Star Trek Enterprise: T'Pol shows her nude butt on Enterprise! 9/2/2008 3:20:24 AM

Star Trek Enterprise: Jolene Blalock on T'Pol and Star Trek Enterprise 9/2/2008 3:12:39 AM

Star Trek Enterprise: Is T'Pol supposed to be a Vulcan lesbian? 9/2/2008 3:02:45 AM

A Boy and His Dog: A Boy and His Dog 8/31/2008 1:47:59 AM

Charmed: How can Phoebe Halliwell get an abortion? 8/29/2008 10:02:34 PM

Alien Hunter : Alien Hunter 8/28/2008 1:25:23 PM

Charmed: What's wrong with Rose McGowan's chin? 8/26/2008 8:21:36 AM

Charmed: What kind of name is Piper for a girl? 8/20/2008 5:34:24 PM

Newest slaves:
Donovan 2:01:11 AM
Elektra 1:48:33 AM
Apollo 1:44:53 AM
Heather Graham 1:42:29 AM
Timothy Dalton Bond 1:37:39 AM
Jennifer Lopez 1:37:20 AM
Ginger (Gilligans Island) 1:37:16 AM
Uma Thurman 1:37:11 AM
Jenny Garth (Beverly Hills 90210) 1:36:26 AM
Susan Dey (LA Law) 1:36:22 AM
All slaves
(click here)

Celebrity interviews:
President George W. Bush 6:32:00 PM
Jan-Michael Vincent 2:16:51 PM
Captain Kathryn Janeway 3:47:46 PM
Jack ONeill (Richard Dean Anderson) 1:39:22 PM
Jennifer Aniston (Friends) 5:01:07 PM
All celebrities
(click here)