 | This article is missing information about the story's development, themes, and reception. (January 2018) |
| "The Horla" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Guy de Maupassant | |
 Cover of the 1908 edition, illustrated by William Julian-Damazy | |
 Text available at Wikisource | |
| Original title | Le Horla |
| Translator | Jonathan Sturges |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre(s) | Horror short story |
| Publication | |
| Publication date | 1887 |
| Published in English | 1890 |
"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.
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]
- ^ 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. ISBN 978-0-9761407-4-0.