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The Willows
Two friends are midway on a canoe trip down the Danube River. Throughout the story Blackwood personifies the surrounding environment—river, sun, wind—and imbues them with a powerful and ultimately threatening character. Most ominous are the masses of dense, desultory, menacing willows, which "moved of their own will as though alive, and they touched, by some incalculable method, my own keen sense of the horrible."
"The Willows" is one of Algernon Blackwood's best known short stories. American horror author H.P. Lovecraft considered it to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature. "The Willows" is an example of early modern horror and is connected within the literary tradition of weird fiction.
"The Willows" is one of Algernon Blackwood's best known short stories. American horror author H.P. Lovecraft considered it to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature. "The Willows" is an example of early modern horror and is connected within the literary tradition of weird fiction.
105 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1907
About the author
Algernon Blackwood
1,069 books1,068 followersAlgernon Henry Blackwood (1869–1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary critic S. T. Joshi stated, "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's" and that his short story collection Incredible Adventures (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century".
Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (today part of south-east London, but then part of northwest Kent) and educated at Wellington College. His father was a Post Office administrator who, according to Peter Penzoldt, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas." Blackwood had a varied career, farming in Canada, operating a hotel, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, and, throughout his adult life, an occasional essayist for various periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural. He was very successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and eventually appearing on both radio and television to tell them. He also wrote fourteen novels, several children's books, and a number of plays, most of which were produced but not published. He was an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, and many of his stories reflect this.
H.P. Lovecraft wrote of Blackwood: "He is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere." His powerful story "The Willows," which effectively describes another dimension impinging upon our own, was reckoned by Lovecraft to be not only "foremost of all" Blackwood's tales but the best "weird tale" of all time.
Among his thirty-odd books, Blackwood wrote a series of stories and short novels published as John Silence, Physician Extraordinary (1908), which featured a "psychic detective" who combined the skills of a Sherlock Holmes and a psychic medium. Blackwood also wrote light fantasy and juvenile books.
Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (today part of south-east London, but then part of northwest Kent) and educated at Wellington College. His father was a Post Office administrator who, according to Peter Penzoldt, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas." Blackwood had a varied career, farming in Canada, operating a hotel, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, and, throughout his adult life, an occasional essayist for various periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural. He was very successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and eventually appearing on both radio and television to tell them. He also wrote fourteen novels, several children's books, and a number of plays, most of which were produced but not published. He was an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, and many of his stories reflect this.
H.P. Lovecraft wrote of Blackwood: "He is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere." His powerful story "The Willows," which effectively describes another dimension impinging upon our own, was reckoned by Lovecraft to be not only "foremost of all" Blackwood's tales but the best "weird tale" of all time.
Among his thirty-odd books, Blackwood wrote a series of stories and short novels published as John Silence, Physician Extraordinary (1908), which featured a "psychic detective" who combined the skills of a Sherlock Holmes and a psychic medium. Blackwood also wrote light fantasy and juvenile books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,606 reviews
August 20, 2024
Psychological Horror!
Two friends who enjoy traveling on rivers, decide to spend a summer traveling the Black Danube.
They are having a leisurely time of it, and pitch their tent wherever the river takes them.
They run into a strong, tempestuous run off and gratefully land on a small island.
When they arrive, the island is about an acre, but the violent water from the river is tearing large clumps away.
That doesn’t appear to be their only problem, for though they have not seen anyone else on the tiny island, strange happenings make it appear that they are not alone.
Highly recommended.
Five beautiful stars. ✨✨✨✨✨
Two friends who enjoy traveling on rivers, decide to spend a summer traveling the Black Danube.
They are having a leisurely time of it, and pitch their tent wherever the river takes them.
They run into a strong, tempestuous run off and gratefully land on a small island.
When they arrive, the island is about an acre, but the violent water from the river is tearing large clumps away.
That doesn’t appear to be their only problem, for though they have not seen anyone else on the tiny island, strange happenings make it appear that they are not alone.
Highly recommended.
Five beautiful stars. ✨✨✨✨✨
March 12, 2024
Two friends are going down Danube in a canoe… The river is in flood… It is excruciatingly hot an the strong wind is blowing… They find themselves in an unpopulated area of swamps…
They camp for a night on a small isle covered with the thickets of willows… The twilight brings along inexplicable anxiety and subconscious fear… The night is full of suspense and surreal manifestations…
Ever since the primordial times the unknown lurking in the darkness of night is an enemy of human reason.
We entered the land of desolation on wings, and in less than half an hour there was neither boat nor fishing-hut nor red roof, nor any single sign of human habitation and civilization within sight. The sense of remoteness from the world of humankind, the utter isolation, the fascination of this singular world of willows, winds, and waters, instantly laid its spell upon us both…
They camp for a night on a small isle covered with the thickets of willows… The twilight brings along inexplicable anxiety and subconscious fear… The night is full of suspense and surreal manifestations…
I searched everywhere for a proof of reality, when all the while I understood quite well that the standard of reality had changed. For the longer I looked the more certain I became that these figures were real and living, though perhaps not according to the standards that the camera and the biologist would insist upon.
Ever since the primordial times the unknown lurking in the darkness of night is an enemy of human reason.
March 16, 2024
H. P. Lovecraft called "The Willows", by Algernon Blackwood a great name by the way the "best weird tale of all time", you be the judge ... In the early part of the Twentieth Century two experienced young adventurers decided to take a canoe trip, down the famous Danube River during the summer how glorious. Starting from its beginning in the Black Forest to the end, when the river reaches the Black Sea (a distant 2,000 miles away). The "Swede" and the narrator remain anonymous throughout the book. They have gone on similar adventures together often, at first going everything's a lot of fun, camping outside eating over a hot fire living under a cozy tent, seeing the beautiful calm river flow by. Until they are between the cities of Vienna and Budapest, a swampy area full of willow bushes sticking their heads above the flooding stream as the friends travel through. No people but themselves there, watching the Danube rising over both banks landing on an island after a vigorous effort, the two plan to rest on overnight. Slowly the unnamed narrator begins to feel uneasy, something alarming the power of nature how little we can do against it ... And the willow bushes everywhere, mile after mile always moving like animals ready to attack, sucking the mighty river dry. But even more a different world exists, a hidden area an evil place where we can't get to but know it's there. Doomed, both men see in their eyes yet don't say a word to each other, they know nothing will save them in this remote isle. Are those dark shapes ... going over the willow shrubs? And disappearing ...
The wind blows hard an inhuman sound arrives, gets closer above and around the friends the island is sinking as the river rises. The canoe somehow is found with a hole in the bottom, they have crossed the forbidden zone. In the night the fire is dying...Something is coming for them soon....
The wind blows hard an inhuman sound arrives, gets closer above and around the friends the island is sinking as the river rises. The canoe somehow is found with a hole in the bottom, they have crossed the forbidden zone. In the night the fire is dying...Something is coming for them soon....
May 15, 2024
Read in The Weird Anthology. This Anthology proved to contain some very good short stories. All weird, obviously.
Algernon Blackwood is an English writer of paranormal short fiction. Lovecraft wrote of him "He is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere." and called The Willows the best story of that type.
This short story was creepy and atmospheric. Two men are on a trip on the Danube river. Somewhere between Wien and Budapest, they are forced to camp in a swampy area full of willow bushes. The place is full of hidden menace, the willows seem to be alive and the two man are full of dread, even though they suffer it in silence. bohoohoo
Algernon Blackwood is an English writer of paranormal short fiction. Lovecraft wrote of him "He is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere." and called The Willows the best story of that type.
This short story was creepy and atmospheric. Two men are on a trip on the Danube river. Somewhere between Wien and Budapest, they are forced to camp in a swampy area full of willow bushes. The place is full of hidden menace, the willows seem to be alive and the two man are full of dread, even though they suffer it in silence. bohoohoo
June 17, 2022
“We had “strayed,” as the Swede put it, into some region or some set of conditions where the risks were great, yet unintelligible to us; where the frontiers of some unknown world lay close about us."
Loved Algernon Blackwood's The Willows! Everything about the wilderness the protagonists travel through exudes creepiness. This wilderness infects those who travel through it with dread and a sense of foreboding. For those who are paranoid that the world is out to get them, this story will confirm all your fears! I highly recommend this novella!
Loved Algernon Blackwood's The Willows! Everything about the wilderness the protagonists travel through exudes creepiness. This wilderness infects those who travel through it with dread and a sense of foreboding. For those who are paranoid that the world is out to get them, this story will confirm all your fears! I highly recommend this novella!
May 13, 2018
What a beautifully written atmospheric and creepy story this was. Timeless in the quality of the eerie telling of this fine strange tale. It is a short story yet it leaves you satisfied without the need for a lengthy book. Very imaginative writing weaves a slow and steady building of a foreboding element of fear that the characters are experiencing, which transfers over to the reader.
This is a story not to be missed if you enjoy a classic eerie and creepy type of horror read.
I highly recommend this great tale and have rated it 4 1/2 🌟🌟🌟🌟✴ Scary Stars!!
This is a story not to be missed if you enjoy a classic eerie and creepy type of horror read.
I highly recommend this great tale and have rated it 4 1/2 🌟🌟🌟🌟✴ Scary Stars!!
September 19, 2017
Published in the early 1900s as part of a collection of stories, H.P. Lovecraft felt that Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows was simply the greatest tale of the supernatural in English literature. It is a novella, and has a bare minimum of dialog between the narrator and his good friend, the Swede. It lacks the blood and gore and violence so endemic of horror today, and yet despite what some would consider handicaps, The Willows is one of the most atmospheric books in the genre you will ever read. I had heard of this author but never read him, now I can’t imagine not reading some of his other work, and very soon.
The tale begins with two men on a canoe trip down the Danube. Their destination barely comes into play in this most elegantly written masterpiece of sustained atmosphere. The farther they get along the rising river as a storm approaches, they each begin to realize something is wrong. In these remote wilds, an eerie foreboding sets in that the protagonist conveys to the reader in elegant prose. The willows along the river manifest strange movements, independent of the fierce winds assaulting the small island where he and the Swede have camped for the night. The howls are sounds outside of humanity, and the protagonist fights the feeling that they have somehow stumbled into a border between the known world, and one which is unaware of them — as yet.
This is so fabulous it is difficult to give readers a sense of how good it is. Nor do I want to give away some of the surprises or the ending. While the Swede is painted as practical and perhaps not as bright as his companion at first, eventually their roles become reversed. The narrator discovers the Swede has accepted the supernatural circumstances they’ve found themselves in, and knows they must not be discovered, lest they become a sacrifice. Truly a tale of the supernatural, and the boundary between this world and another, you’ll probably never read anything else like The Willows. I would not say that The Willows is scary, nor does it contain any shocking moments, rather it is a quiet and meticulously crafted tale of being alone and isolated, cut off from the rest of the world, and finding something in the darkness, in the surroundings, that is alive.
I can’t recommend this highly enough. I suspect many modern readers might not enjoy it as much as I did, its horror unseen and merely suggested. But those who love elegant writing and a memorable, atmospheric tale certainly will. A masterpiece.
The tale begins with two men on a canoe trip down the Danube. Their destination barely comes into play in this most elegantly written masterpiece of sustained atmosphere. The farther they get along the rising river as a storm approaches, they each begin to realize something is wrong. In these remote wilds, an eerie foreboding sets in that the protagonist conveys to the reader in elegant prose. The willows along the river manifest strange movements, independent of the fierce winds assaulting the small island where he and the Swede have camped for the night. The howls are sounds outside of humanity, and the protagonist fights the feeling that they have somehow stumbled into a border between the known world, and one which is unaware of them — as yet.
This is so fabulous it is difficult to give readers a sense of how good it is. Nor do I want to give away some of the surprises or the ending. While the Swede is painted as practical and perhaps not as bright as his companion at first, eventually their roles become reversed. The narrator discovers the Swede has accepted the supernatural circumstances they’ve found themselves in, and knows they must not be discovered, lest they become a sacrifice. Truly a tale of the supernatural, and the boundary between this world and another, you’ll probably never read anything else like The Willows. I would not say that The Willows is scary, nor does it contain any shocking moments, rather it is a quiet and meticulously crafted tale of being alone and isolated, cut off from the rest of the world, and finding something in the darkness, in the surroundings, that is alive.
I can’t recommend this highly enough. I suspect many modern readers might not enjoy it as much as I did, its horror unseen and merely suggested. But those who love elegant writing and a memorable, atmospheric tale certainly will. A masterpiece.
July 16, 2011
I am a big fan of Horror, including the classics, but I feel like massive POSER having just now experienced for the first time Algernon Blackwood’s inspiring novella of otherworldly dread. This is simply such a superbly crafted tale that it is not hard to see why H.P. Lovecraft (whose work I love) called this the best supernatural tale in the English language. As HPL himself put it:
Here art and restraint in narrative reach their very highest development, and an impression of lasting poignancy is produced without a single strained passage or a single false note.Um, uh...yeah, what he said.
While I would certainly include Lovecraft’s own work in the discussion of English Lit’s finest dread delivery systems, this atmospheric corker certainly makes the short list. He made my manliness sweat.
The Willows opens with two friends on a canoe trip down the Danube River between Vienna and Budapest where they enter an area described by our narrator as “a region of singular loneliness and desolation...covered by a vast sea of low willow-bushes.” In the very first sentence of the story, Blackwood has given us the characters, the set up and already begun to imbue the story with a sense of dread. That’s quite an impressive opening.
The pair are eventually forced onto a sandy island by rough waters and here begins an ordeal that absolutely defines the slow, steady creation of increasing dread and horror through subtlety and understated language. If you will forgive the reference, it reminded me a bit of the method used in “The Blair Witch Project” (which I greatly enjoyed) in so far as the events are never entirely clear....BUT YOU KNOW SOMETHING’S VERY WRONG!!
One of the many things Blackwood does so very effectively is his infusion of almost human-like qualities into his description of the environmental features existing in the story. For example, early on he describes the Danube as follows:
Sleepy at first, but later developing violent desires as it became conscious of its deep soul, it rolled, like some huge fluid being, through all the countries we had passed, holding our little craft on its mighty shoulders, playing roughly with us sometimes, yet always friendly and well-meaning, till at length we had come inevitably to regard it as a Great Personage.That is just deliciously epic prose spilling onto the page.
Once stranded, everything surrounding the pair of increasingly nervous adventurers begins to display a sort of anthropomorphic character and very little of it is friendly. Blackwood is particularly effective when describing the titular object of the story:
The [Willows] kept up a sort of independent movement of their own, rustling among themselves when no wind stirred, and shaking oddly from the roots upwards. When common objects in this way be come charged with the suggestion of horror, they stimulate the imagination far more than things of unusual appearance; and these bushes, crowding huddled about us, assumed for me in the darkness a bizarre grotesquerie of appearance that lent to them somehow the aspect of purposeful and living creatures. Their very ordinariness, I felt, masked what was malignant and hostile to us. The forces of the region drew nearer with the coming of night. They were focusing upon our island, and more particularly upon ourselves. For thus, somehow, in the terms of the imagination, did my really indescribable sensations in this extraordinary place present themselves.We are talking about Willows here...WILLOWS...and yet Blackwood has me in full on creep out at this point. By this time, my goosebumps had gone condo and I had basically resigned myself that some nameless horror was going to ice me before the end of the story.
Eventually the two become convinced that the place they have been “brought” is a nexus between our world and the world of nameless, immensely powerful beings the likes of which mankind has no conception. Apparitions, strange occurrences, unusual tracks in the sand and bizarre noises that seem to register not in the ear but deep inside the brain. All of this creates tension that is palpable and it made even my brain shiver.
Algernon handles all of this tension and build up beautifully and steers the narrative to a climax that is perfectly suited to the story and leaves the reader very satisfied (if you consider a sack of tear-stained jelly satisfied). I thought it was a tremendous piece of literature and showed Blackwood as a master of language, pace and narrative tension. I am looking forward to devouring more of his work in the very near future.
4.5 to 5.0 stars. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!
July 13, 2024
Looking for a victim...
THE WILLOWS
by Algernon Blackwood
No spoilers. 5 stars. If you are a camper, you'll appreciate and enjoy this creepy little horror story...
Have you ever...
... sat around a campfire at night and thought you saw things rising from the smoke and flames... making it appear as if something lurked in the swaying treetops?...
Our Narrator and his canoeing companion The Swede were traveling down the Danube heading for the Black Sea...
They were miles downriver from the nearest village and decided to make camp for the night on the sandy bank of a small island surrounded by marsh willows...
They pitched their tent, gathered driftwood for a fire, and cooked their dinner... afterward, they went into their tent to sleep...
During the night, the winds whipped up, the willows swayed and clattered together...
Narrator left the tent to look at the willows...
And...
... saw them furiously bending in the wind... he suddenly felt unwelcome on the little island... the willows seemed to be watching him, waiting, listening, unfriendly...
The next morning, The Swede told Narrator that he felt the same way, and the two decided it was time to leave the island ...
Gathering their gear, they found strange funnels in the sand...
And...
One of their paddles was missing...
And...
Their canoe had a mysterious hole scratched in its bottom, and some of their food provisions had been taken...
Their courage had been reduced to zero... they realized that it's deliberate: the paddle, the canoe, the lessening of food...
It seemed...
The willows were looking for a victim. They know the campers are on the island. They just haven't found them yet...
This was a very creepy tale. I was so scared reading it into the night that I ended up sleeping with the lights on. Try reading this story on Halloween night.
THE WILLOWS
by Algernon Blackwood
No spoilers. 5 stars. If you are a camper, you'll appreciate and enjoy this creepy little horror story...
Have you ever...
... sat around a campfire at night and thought you saw things rising from the smoke and flames... making it appear as if something lurked in the swaying treetops?...
Our Narrator and his canoeing companion The Swede were traveling down the Danube heading for the Black Sea...
They were miles downriver from the nearest village and decided to make camp for the night on the sandy bank of a small island surrounded by marsh willows...
They pitched their tent, gathered driftwood for a fire, and cooked their dinner... afterward, they went into their tent to sleep...
During the night, the winds whipped up, the willows swayed and clattered together...
Narrator left the tent to look at the willows...
And...
... saw them furiously bending in the wind... he suddenly felt unwelcome on the little island... the willows seemed to be watching him, waiting, listening, unfriendly...
The next morning, The Swede told Narrator that he felt the same way, and the two decided it was time to leave the island ...
Gathering their gear, they found strange funnels in the sand...
And...
One of their paddles was missing...
And...
Their canoe had a mysterious hole scratched in its bottom, and some of their food provisions had been taken...
Their courage had been reduced to zero... they realized that it's deliberate: the paddle, the canoe, the lessening of food...
It seemed...
The willows were looking for a victim. They know the campers are on the island. They just haven't found them yet...
This was a very creepy tale. I was so scared reading it into the night that I ended up sleeping with the lights on. Try reading this story on Halloween night.
August 22, 2021
...something so big and yet immaterial, out of reach and yet reaching for you; two men on a canoe trip down the Danube - what wonders! what beauty! what bliss! - find there are worlds and things beyond us, terrible and awe-inspiring things, inexplicable things, things that rise from the willows, things that bore spiraled holes in sand and flesh; Blackwood an author who embraces nature, its wonders and beauty, its terrible terrors; Blackwood an author who searches for new dimensions, places beyond reach and yet reaching for us; Blackwood an author, a poet, like a Thoreau, hallucinating; two men quivering in their tent, one striving for rationality and finding hollow reasons and imperfect logic, the other understanding - but understanding what? - and with that understanding, that knowledge, comes its own terrible logic: the need for a sacrifice; things that amaze, that mystify and strike fear and cause worship, things that rend your canoe, that take your possessions, things that patter around your tent and touch its surface and press invisibly upon you, things that search for the little humans that have wandered in their midst...
September 26, 2019
A very special story, unfortunately there is no italian version and the English used by Blackwood has not been for me really of immediate and easy understanding( many words by now obsolete).
What I love about Blackwood is his ability to get you into a psychological strain during the reading that very few other writers have been able to get me to experience.
The dreamlike descriptions but at the same time supernatural and demonic are unforgettable, in this story nothing special happens, but the book is closed with a knot in the throat created by these thousand descriptions so delicate but at the same time glacial and extreme.
What a talent!!!
Una storia veramente particolare, purtroppo non esiste una versione in italiano e l'inglese utilizzato da Blackwood non è stato per me propriamente di immediata comprensione( molti vocaboli ormai desueti).
Ciò che adoro di Blackwood è la sua capacità di farti arrivare ad una tensione psicologica durante la lettura che ben pochi altri scrittori sono riusciti a farmi provare..
Le descrizioni oniriche ma nello stesso tempo sovrannaturali e demoniache sono indimenticabili, in questa storia non succede niente di particolare, ma si chiude il libro con un nodo alla gola creato da queste mille descrizioni cosi delicate ma allo stesso tempo glaciali ed estreme.
Che talento!!!
What I love about Blackwood is his ability to get you into a psychological strain during the reading that very few other writers have been able to get me to experience.
The dreamlike descriptions but at the same time supernatural and demonic are unforgettable, in this story nothing special happens, but the book is closed with a knot in the throat created by these thousand descriptions so delicate but at the same time glacial and extreme.
What a talent!!!
Una storia veramente particolare, purtroppo non esiste una versione in italiano e l'inglese utilizzato da Blackwood non è stato per me propriamente di immediata comprensione( molti vocaboli ormai desueti).
Ciò che adoro di Blackwood è la sua capacità di farti arrivare ad una tensione psicologica durante la lettura che ben pochi altri scrittori sono riusciti a farmi provare..
Le descrizioni oniriche ma nello stesso tempo sovrannaturali e demoniache sono indimenticabili, in questa storia non succede niente di particolare, ma si chiude il libro con un nodo alla gola creato da queste mille descrizioni cosi delicate ma allo stesso tempo glaciali ed estreme.
Che talento!!!
October 23, 2020
Such a splendid and unnerving short novel! One of the best examples of tense, inescapable atmosphere infused with otherworldly dread. Blackwood's well-honed literary style is more akin to Machen than Lovecraft, but the chills are deep and violating in this prime example of his brilliance. The ultimate Halloween scare, wrapped up in a 100-page (one-sitting) package. Read no synopses, experience it for yourself without preamble, uninterrupted, especially if you are disenchanted by modern horror cliches.
Beauty and terror are inextricable in this adventurous tale. When immersed in nature, when confronted with the inhuman bleakness of a starry sky, how insignificant does a human being appear?
Settle in to this tightly woven daymare-fuel, terror-hypodermic in your comfiest chair. It is one of the greatest stories in this genre.
Beauty and terror are inextricable in this adventurous tale. When immersed in nature, when confronted with the inhuman bleakness of a starry sky, how insignificant does a human being appear?
Settle in to this tightly woven daymare-fuel, terror-hypodermic in your comfiest chair. It is one of the greatest stories in this genre.
June 9, 2016
Blackwood was a master of setting and intimate characterization.
Using a minimalistic approach to casting and dialogue, he nonetheless was able to create a scene of almost photographic understanding and omniscience.
Like The Wendigo, The Willows personifies elements of nature to create a chilling, supernatural tale of gothic, psychological horror. This story delved more deeply into weird fiction and readers of H.P. Lovecraft will recognize themes present.
This is a very good story by itself and an exceptional tale for this genre, modern writers would do well to find inspiration in Blackwood's style.
Using a minimalistic approach to casting and dialogue, he nonetheless was able to create a scene of almost photographic understanding and omniscience.
Like The Wendigo, The Willows personifies elements of nature to create a chilling, supernatural tale of gothic, psychological horror. This story delved more deeply into weird fiction and readers of H.P. Lovecraft will recognize themes present.
This is a very good story by itself and an exceptional tale for this genre, modern writers would do well to find inspiration in Blackwood's style.
January 15, 2017
Compelling read. Like everything I read from Blackwood a fantastic story. You don't want to end up in those willows and think about that story everytime you see willows. Promised!
June 30, 2018
“Έψαξα παντού για μια απόδειξη της πραγματικότητας, όταν καθόλη τη διάρκεια, κατάλαβα πολύ καλά ότι το επίπεδο πραγματικότητας είχε αλλάξει»
Η ιστορία δυο φίλων που ταξιδεύουν με κανό, διασχίζοντας τον ποταμό Δούναβη, αναζητώντας μια περιπετειώδη εμπειρία στην Ευρώπη.
Μπαίνοντας στην Ουγγαρία, τα λασπώδη νερά του ορμητικού ποταμού τους οδηγούν προς έναν λαβύρινθο νησίδων και βάλτων.
Ένα μέρος ερημικό,απόμακρο και παράξενο.
Το βασίλειο των ιτιών...
Η κοινή ιτιά θεωρείται το δέντρο του διαβόλου και σχετίζεται με τη θλίψη, το θάνατο και τις σκοτεινές μαγικές τελετές.
Σε αυτόν τον Παράξενο Τόπο,που είναι πύλη πρόσβασης προς κάποια άλλη πραγματικότητα, εγκλωβίζονται οι ταξιδιώτες μας και ξεφεύγουν απο την συμβατική λογική.
Η ιστορία μας,που περιγράφεται σε πρώτο πρόσωπο δεν είναι τρομακτική, αν και υπάρχουν αρκετές στιγμές σιωπηρής φρίκης.
Είναι περισσότερο μια ιστορία αγωνίας που δημιουργεί έντονα την αίσθηση του αποπροσανατολισμού, του απόκοσμου, του απροσδιόριστου φόβου.
«Οι ιτιές» έχουν τις ρίζες τους στη γη μα η βάση τους ανήκει σε άλλον κόσμο μακριά ή και πολύ κοντά απο τον γήινο.
Επομένως οι καταστάσεις και τα γεγονότα που δημιουργούνται στο βασίλειο τους οδηγούν στην παράνοια.
Επικρατεί ο απόλυτος τρόμος, αλλά προέρχεται απο άλλη πραγματικότητα.
Δεν υπάρχει δυνατότητα εντοπισμού και αντιμετώπισης. Η αίσθηση του απόλυτου κινδύνου είναι έντονη και άμεση αλλά δεν υπάρχει η παραμικρή ιδέα στο ανθρώπινο μυαλό για το τι πρόκειται να συμβεί και πως θα το αντιμετωπίσει.
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.
Η ιστορία δυο φίλων που ταξιδεύουν με κανό, διασχίζοντας τον ποταμό Δούναβη, αναζητώντας μια περιπετειώδη εμπειρία στην Ευρώπη.
Μπαίνοντας στην Ουγγαρία, τα λασπώδη νερά του ορμητικού ποταμού τους οδηγούν προς έναν λαβύρινθο νησίδων και βάλτων.
Ένα μέρος ερημικό,απόμακρο και παράξενο.
Το βασίλειο των ιτιών...
Η κοινή ιτιά θεωρείται το δέντρο του διαβόλου και σχετίζεται με τη θλίψη, το θάνατο και τις σκοτεινές μαγικές τελετές.
Σε αυτόν τον Παράξενο Τόπο,που είναι πύλη πρόσβασης προς κάποια άλλη πραγματικότητα, εγκλωβίζονται οι ταξιδιώτες μας και ξεφεύγουν απο την συμβατική λογική.
Η ιστορία μας,που περιγράφεται σε πρώτο πρόσωπο δεν είναι τρομακτική, αν και υπάρχουν αρκετές στιγμές σιωπηρής φρίκης.
Είναι περισσότερο μια ιστορία αγωνίας που δημιουργεί έντονα την αίσθηση του αποπροσανατολισμού, του απόκοσμου, του απροσδιόριστου φόβου.
«Οι ιτιές» έχουν τις ρίζες τους στη γη μα η βάση τους ανήκει σε άλλον κόσμο μακριά ή και πολύ κοντά απο τον γήινο.
Επομένως οι καταστάσεις και τα γεγονότα που δημιουργούνται στο βασίλειο τους οδηγούν στην παράνοια.
Επικρατεί ο απόλυτος τρόμος, αλλά προέρχεται απο άλλη πραγματικότητα.
Δεν υπάρχει δυνατότητα εντοπισμού και αντιμετώπισης. Η αίσθηση του απόλυτου κινδύνου είναι έντονη και άμεση αλλά δεν υπάρχει η παραμικρή ιδέα στο ανθρώπινο μυαλό για το τι πρόκειται να συμβεί και πως θα το αντιμετωπίσει.
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.
June 12, 2012
I began the long journey from my computer desk to my futon/couch/bed in order to partake in reading the next story from the devilish collection of unspeakable horrors that some have dared call The Weird, but which I will not even give name to in fear of invoking the ire of the those powers beyond the imagination of man. I dreaded the walk. The dirty clothes on the floor screamed out in soundless horror at me, and even though I knew it was just my Spazz t-shirt and some dirty socks, and I told myself, dirty Spazz t-shirts do not scream soundless terror, it must just be the stench rising up from the cotton making vibrations on my ear that make me hear these noises but I began to fear in the depths of my soul, in the spot all men carry the despair of unknown terrors that my state of the art scientific explanations would be no good here.
It didn't help my composure one bit when my faithful traveling companion Mooncheese got bored with my long walk of four feet and went to slumber with the devious dreams that only nature can provide and that man can only stare wide-eyed in horror at even a thought about what they might contain. I rested on my arduous journey and found myself urinating in my pants, something we can not call fear, for all men would urinate themselves, and some even do worse if they heard the rumbling noise of the passing 7 train outside their window. I am no believer in ghosts, but how else can I explain the train's sudden arrival at this moment when all sort of unspeakable horrors were conspiring to drive me mad?
I near gave up hope. I considered shooting myself in the face with the small pistol I carry on journeys like this one. I should have, but my fear that those which I can not understand would capture my fleeing soul, and make for a fate worse than death caused me to carry on.
And I sat on my cheap piece of shit furniture, a tailsman I believe can ward off anything living or dead from joining me. I thought I was safe as I opened the massive tome and I read the words in front of me, but to my horror I found myself trying to pry myself from the grips of madness and I found myself shrieking out loud in a laughter the most hideous banshees would never stoop to make. "They have gone and done it again! They have changed all the words from story I've read and left me with something that I can sort of barely tolerate but doesn't have any of the awesomeness that other reviewers and readers must see! Damn you Lovecraft and your elder gods who will never let me enjoy the stories that you let everyone else enjoy. Damn you!"
And that's the story of me reading this story.
It didn't help my composure one bit when my faithful traveling companion Mooncheese got bored with my long walk of four feet and went to slumber with the devious dreams that only nature can provide and that man can only stare wide-eyed in horror at even a thought about what they might contain. I rested on my arduous journey and found myself urinating in my pants, something we can not call fear, for all men would urinate themselves, and some even do worse if they heard the rumbling noise of the passing 7 train outside their window. I am no believer in ghosts, but how else can I explain the train's sudden arrival at this moment when all sort of unspeakable horrors were conspiring to drive me mad?
I near gave up hope. I considered shooting myself in the face with the small pistol I carry on journeys like this one. I should have, but my fear that those which I can not understand would capture my fleeing soul, and make for a fate worse than death caused me to carry on.
And I sat on my cheap piece of shit furniture, a tailsman I believe can ward off anything living or dead from joining me. I thought I was safe as I opened the massive tome and I read the words in front of me, but to my horror I found myself trying to pry myself from the grips of madness and I found myself shrieking out loud in a laughter the most hideous banshees would never stoop to make. "They have gone and done it again! They have changed all the words from story I've read and left me with something that I can sort of barely tolerate but doesn't have any of the awesomeness that other reviewers and readers must see! Damn you Lovecraft and your elder gods who will never let me enjoy the stories that you let everyone else enjoy. Damn you!"
And that's the story of me reading this story.
August 25, 2024
This was exceptional! I can't believe it was written in 1907, it pre-dates Lovecraft and this novella is identifiably cosmic horror. I can also see why it is often categorized as folk horror...
"All folk horror is unified by a central theme:
That contemporary society is a crust over something dark, inexplicable, other.
Folk horror, like the old ways, will find you before you find it."
The Swede mentions an ancient power, old gods and ritualistic sacrifice. But the way their existential threat is described also gives me big cosmic vibes.
Anyhoo,
I loved this! Foundational horror
"All folk horror is unified by a central theme:
That contemporary society is a crust over something dark, inexplicable, other.
Folk horror, like the old ways, will find you before you find it."
The Swede mentions an ancient power, old gods and ritualistic sacrifice. But the way their existential threat is described also gives me big cosmic vibes.
Anyhoo,
I loved this! Foundational horror
February 26, 2021
4.5*
"Con esta multitud de sauces, sentía yo, era completamente diferente. Emanaba de ellos una especie de esencia que asediaba al corazón. Despertaban un sentimiento de reverencia, es verdad, pero una reverencia tocada en algún punto por un vago terror. Sus apretadas filas; que se hacían cada vez más oscuras a mi alrededor mientras las sombras se hacían más profundas, moviéndose furiosamente, y sin embargo de una manera suave, en el viento; despertaban en mí la extraña e importuna sugestión de que nosotros habíamos irrumpido aquí traspasando los límites de un mundo ajeno, un mundo en el que éramos intrusos, un mundo en el que no éramos requeridos, ni invitados a permanecer"
la sensación de ser un intruso ante la naturaleza, y de no ser bienvenido.
¿ abrumados ante la inmensidad y la desolación? ¿es la sugestión ante historias de hadas, elementales y demonios ? ¿o es realmente la naturaleza cobrando vida y manifestando su poder e ira ante nuestra intromisión?
Esta es la ambigüedad que se nos plantea, y en la que los protagonistas deben debatirse entre la vida y la muerte. la locura o la cordura.
"Con esta multitud de sauces, sentía yo, era completamente diferente. Emanaba de ellos una especie de esencia que asediaba al corazón. Despertaban un sentimiento de reverencia, es verdad, pero una reverencia tocada en algún punto por un vago terror. Sus apretadas filas; que se hacían cada vez más oscuras a mi alrededor mientras las sombras se hacían más profundas, moviéndose furiosamente, y sin embargo de una manera suave, en el viento; despertaban en mí la extraña e importuna sugestión de que nosotros habíamos irrumpido aquí traspasando los límites de un mundo ajeno, un mundo en el que éramos intrusos, un mundo en el que no éramos requeridos, ni invitados a permanecer"
la sensación de ser un intruso ante la naturaleza, y de no ser bienvenido.
¿ abrumados ante la inmensidad y la desolación? ¿es la sugestión ante historias de hadas, elementales y demonios ? ¿o es realmente la naturaleza cobrando vida y manifestando su poder e ira ante nuestra intromisión?
Esta es la ambigüedad que se nos plantea, y en la que los protagonistas deben debatirse entre la vida y la muerte. la locura o la cordura.
November 9, 2022
4.5 stars rounded down
I got a review slump. Yes, you read it right, a review slump; not a reading slump since I'm enjoying my current readings and reading basically what I want, what makes me feel comfortable and in my element, but a review slump. Honestly, I hate when I become a passive reader: I always tend to take notes while reading books, sometimes I highlight some passages that I find fascinating—clips and bookmarks when it comes to audiobooks—and other times it's just about me scribbling my thoughts, writing down some ideas, and the like. After collecting my thoughts for a short time, I just start typing my reviews, and this happens almost immediately after I finished the book I want to review. Some meaningful parts just come to mind, everything seems to be clear and I just start talking about my feelings, my thoughts, and finally, my own conclusions. Whether or not I recommend the book in question is literally what I plan to say in the end, but recently this hasn't been working for me.
When I tried to type my review of The Willows I just couldn't, for any reason I was unable to express myself and say something coherent, without rambling a lot, and that was really worth it. So, in order for me to review this book, and after so many attempts that did not succeed, I'm going to make a list of the five things that I loved while reading it (hopefully this time goes well):
a) The atmosphere. Hands down the best part of the entire book. A gloomy, ominous, and vivid atmosphere is everything you need when it comes to horror novels, and this is definitely one of the best books where the characters seem to get overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the place where they happen to be that I have read so far, and also where the atmosphere is so well depicted that even you, as a reader, feel as if you were 'trapped' inside this world along with the characters.
b) The characters. Only two characters, two men on a canoe traveling down the River Danube, where one of them is also the narrator of the story. Basically you are a witness to every scary, mysterious thing that is happening to the characters, and because of the environment, you always have the feeling that something really bad is about to happen. If you care for them, you will have to wait until the end to breathe again.
c) The story. The novel goes up to the point, and everything is happening so fast that yo don't even know what's going to happen next (in my view, this works pretty well when it comes to a horror story). The plot is simple, yet boundless since you can imagine a lot of possible scenarios and get different conclusions about what is going on with the characters and the story from beginning to end.
d) The prose. The prose is really good, very descriptive and compelling. There is almost no dialogue, but it is not necessary for the sake of the story since the descriptions are actually the essence of it. According to Wikipedia, Lovecraft considered The Willows to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature, so why not take that for granted?
e) The audiobook. This is an important one, probably what made me love this novel even beyond my expectations. When it comes to audiobooks, the tone and the pace of the narrator are the most important things to consider in my view (I also consider the accent to be quite important though, since I'm more familiar with the American accent, and those are usually my favorite ones). In this case, I came across one that is narrated by Phil Chenevert, and if you are familiar with LibriVox, you will know he is one of the best narrators over there. He does an incredible job bringing this story to life and only for that reason I would highly recommend giving it a listen. For the record, listening to this tale one day before The Day of the Dead (we don't usually celebrate Halloween in Mexico) was the best decision ever due to the environment around me at that moment.
Sadly, the ending wasn't completely for me, and please don't get me wrong, I liked it, but when I think of the whole story the only part I can't remember very well—I'm typing my review eight days after reading the book and I barely took notes at the time—is the ending. It's kind of funny though, because I do remember what I felt when finishing up the story, the feeling that you have just read a masterpiece of the genre.
All in all, The Willows is definitely a story that everyone who is into horror novels must read, trust me, you won't regret it.
The psychology of places, for some imaginations at least, is very vivid; for the wanderer, especially, camps have their "note" either of welcome or rejection.
I got a review slump. Yes, you read it right, a review slump; not a reading slump since I'm enjoying my current readings and reading basically what I want, what makes me feel comfortable and in my element, but a review slump. Honestly, I hate when I become a passive reader: I always tend to take notes while reading books, sometimes I highlight some passages that I find fascinating—clips and bookmarks when it comes to audiobooks—and other times it's just about me scribbling my thoughts, writing down some ideas, and the like. After collecting my thoughts for a short time, I just start typing my reviews, and this happens almost immediately after I finished the book I want to review. Some meaningful parts just come to mind, everything seems to be clear and I just start talking about my feelings, my thoughts, and finally, my own conclusions. Whether or not I recommend the book in question is literally what I plan to say in the end, but recently this hasn't been working for me.
When I tried to type my review of The Willows I just couldn't, for any reason I was unable to express myself and say something coherent, without rambling a lot, and that was really worth it. So, in order for me to review this book, and after so many attempts that did not succeed, I'm going to make a list of the five things that I loved while reading it (hopefully this time goes well):
a) The atmosphere. Hands down the best part of the entire book. A gloomy, ominous, and vivid atmosphere is everything you need when it comes to horror novels, and this is definitely one of the best books where the characters seem to get overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the place where they happen to be that I have read so far, and also where the atmosphere is so well depicted that even you, as a reader, feel as if you were 'trapped' inside this world along with the characters.
b) The characters. Only two characters, two men on a canoe traveling down the River Danube, where one of them is also the narrator of the story. Basically you are a witness to every scary, mysterious thing that is happening to the characters, and because of the environment, you always have the feeling that something really bad is about to happen. If you care for them, you will have to wait until the end to breathe again.
c) The story. The novel goes up to the point, and everything is happening so fast that yo don't even know what's going to happen next (in my view, this works pretty well when it comes to a horror story). The plot is simple, yet boundless since you can imagine a lot of possible scenarios and get different conclusions about what is going on with the characters and the story from beginning to end.
d) The prose. The prose is really good, very descriptive and compelling. There is almost no dialogue, but it is not necessary for the sake of the story since the descriptions are actually the essence of it. According to Wikipedia, Lovecraft considered The Willows to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature, so why not take that for granted?
e) The audiobook. This is an important one, probably what made me love this novel even beyond my expectations. When it comes to audiobooks, the tone and the pace of the narrator are the most important things to consider in my view (I also consider the accent to be quite important though, since I'm more familiar with the American accent, and those are usually my favorite ones). In this case, I came across one that is narrated by Phil Chenevert, and if you are familiar with LibriVox, you will know he is one of the best narrators over there. He does an incredible job bringing this story to life and only for that reason I would highly recommend giving it a listen. For the record, listening to this tale one day before The Day of the Dead (we don't usually celebrate Halloween in Mexico) was the best decision ever due to the environment around me at that moment.
Sadly, the ending wasn't completely for me, and please don't get me wrong, I liked it, but when I think of the whole story the only part I can't remember very well—I'm typing my review eight days after reading the book and I barely took notes at the time—is the ending. It's kind of funny though, because I do remember what I felt when finishing up the story, the feeling that you have just read a masterpiece of the genre.
All in all, The Willows is definitely a story that everyone who is into horror novels must read, trust me, you won't regret it.
The psychology of places, for some imaginations at least, is very vivid; for the wanderer, especially, camps have their "note" either of welcome or rejection.
November 1, 2020
Lectura super cortita pero genial para estas fechas, muy descriptiva y minuciosa, cosigue envolverte con su atmósfera hasta resultar enormemente inquietante.
Claro precursor de Lovecraft, si os gusta ese autor esta historia os va a encantar.
Lo mejor es el desenlace con esos seres, dioses o entes que pueblan lugares concretos del mundo siempre al acecho.....
Claro precursor de Lovecraft, si os gusta ese autor esta historia os va a encantar.
Lo mejor es el desenlace con esos seres, dioses o entes que pueblan lugares concretos del mundo siempre al acecho.....
March 9, 2023
অনন্য এক অতিপ্রাকৃত গল্প "দ্য উইলোস।"এই গল্পের অতিপ্রাকৃত শক্তিকে দেখা যায় না,শুধু অনুভব করা যায়।সরাসরি কোনো ভূত বা দানব নেই,দানবের সাথে আক্ষরিক অর্থে যুদ্ধও নেই।এক দুর্জ্ঞেয়, বর্ণনাতীত, রহস্যময় অতিপ্রাকৃত শক্তির মুখোমুখি হয় দানিয়ুব নদীর উইলো গাছময় দ্বীপে ভ্রমণরত দুই বন্ধু।সেই শক্তি এতোই প্রবল,এতোই সর্বগ্রাসী যে,তার বিরুদ্ধে মানুষ নিতান্তই অসহায়।লেখক যে সুনিপুণ, রক্ত হিম করা বর্ণনা দিয়েছেন তাতে সেই অদৃশ্য শক্তির উপস্থিতি হাড়ে হাড়ে টের পাওয়া যায়।গল্পটি পড়লে বোঝা যায় লাভক্র্যাফট কেন একে ইংরেজি সাহিত্যের সেরা অতিপ্রাকৃত গল্প বলেছেন।
"দ্য উইলোস" এর সাবলীল ও অসাধারণ অনুবাদ করেছেন লুৎফুল কায়সার।তানজীম রহমানের ভূমিকা তথ্যবহুল ও পাঠসহায়ক।
(বইটা সবার জন্য নয়।যারা প্রথাগত হরর পছন্দ করেন,তাদের না পড়াই উত্তম।)
(১০ মে,২০২১)
"দ্য উইলোস" এর সাবলীল ও অসাধারণ অনুবাদ করেছেন লুৎফুল কায়সার।তানজীম রহমানের ভূমিকা তথ্যবহুল ও পাঠসহায়ক।
(বইটা সবার জন্য নয়।যারা প্রথাগত হরর পছন্দ করেন,তাদের না পড়াই উত্তম।)
(১০ মে,২০২১)
June 30, 2024
For a book written in 1907, this was amazing!
I tend to struggle with some classics due to wordiness and getting to the point.
The Willows is a classic that I had to read regardless of my track record.
Earlier in the month, I read The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher and she based the portal in that book to The Willows.
I can see why she did along with her love for this book.
Algernon Blackwood turned an ordinary canoe and camping trip along the Danube River into a horror induced nightmare.
It’s a twisted tale of willows creeping closer in the dark.
It’s a place in where the spiritual and physical dimension is thin and malevolent forces are all around.
Forces become stronger when you’re scared and is that pattering footsteps outside of your tent?
I’m glad I picked this one up and I’m definitely reading more by Blackwood in the future.
What an imagination this guy had!!
Looking at a willow tree is going to be a whole new experience for me! 👀😂
I tend to struggle with some classics due to wordiness and getting to the point.
The Willows is a classic that I had to read regardless of my track record.
Earlier in the month, I read The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher and she based the portal in that book to The Willows.
I can see why she did along with her love for this book.
Algernon Blackwood turned an ordinary canoe and camping trip along the Danube River into a horror induced nightmare.
It’s a twisted tale of willows creeping closer in the dark.
It’s a place in where the spiritual and physical dimension is thin and malevolent forces are all around.
Forces become stronger when you’re scared and is that pattering footsteps outside of your tent?
I’m glad I picked this one up and I’m definitely reading more by Blackwood in the future.
What an imagination this guy had!!
Looking at a willow tree is going to be a whole new experience for me! 👀😂
January 13, 2021
This review and the rest of the crap I write can be seen @ my blog Bark's Book Nonsense . Stop by and say hey.
Reading for HA's December Group Read. Actually, I'll be listening. The book was free @ Amazon and the audio add-on only $2.99. Bargain!
I decided to read this on audio since it was cheap and I have too many Netgalley books that I should be reading. If you follow my reviews, you probably know I have very little patience for slow starters and this is most definitely a slow starter. Fortunately when it comes to audio, I can and will usually stick it out. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. This time it did and its given me one more reason to add to my “Why I’ll Never Go Camping Again” list.
The beginning is filled with an abundance of descriptive prose. The first hour basically sets the scene for the nightmarish dreamlike conclusion.
Two friends head out on a canoeing adventure ignoring, and slightly oblivious to, all of the warning signs that they should go ANYWHERE but where they’re headed. They set up camp somewhere on a small island. Unfortunately they’ve chosen the wrong location. As the eeriness continues to settle in, I found it absorbing and a little terrifying and even slightly humorous as one of our protagonists attempts to make excuses for everything happening to them – even though we know he doesn’t really believe any of his own words.
It’s worth a listen. The narrator is very proper and keeps things moving despite the sometimes slow pace of the narrative and though it ends too abruptly for my liking it did give me a decent case of the creeps.
Reading for HA's December Group Read. Actually, I'll be listening. The book was free @ Amazon and the audio add-on only $2.99. Bargain!
I decided to read this on audio since it was cheap and I have too many Netgalley books that I should be reading. If you follow my reviews, you probably know I have very little patience for slow starters and this is most definitely a slow starter. Fortunately when it comes to audio, I can and will usually stick it out. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. This time it did and its given me one more reason to add to my “Why I’ll Never Go Camping Again” list.
The beginning is filled with an abundance of descriptive prose. The first hour basically sets the scene for the nightmarish dreamlike conclusion.
Two friends head out on a canoeing adventure ignoring, and slightly oblivious to, all of the warning signs that they should go ANYWHERE but where they’re headed. They set up camp somewhere on a small island. Unfortunately they’ve chosen the wrong location. As the eeriness continues to settle in, I found it absorbing and a little terrifying and even slightly humorous as one of our protagonists attempts to make excuses for everything happening to them – even though we know he doesn’t really believe any of his own words.
It’s worth a listen. The narrator is very proper and keeps things moving despite the sometimes slow pace of the narrative and though it ends too abruptly for my liking it did give me a decent case of the creeps.
October 22, 2014
This most famous work of Blackwood's is one of those classic short stories of weird horror mentioned alongside pieces by Lovecraft, Howard, Machen, Bierce, and Chambers as worthy of even a discerning reader. Like many such stories, it starts somewhat slowly, establishing first that picture of normal life from which we must soon, and by gradations, deviate beyond recall. I grew to feel it may have been a bit too slow--though it is always difficult to strike such a balance. So much of the story was carried on the particular delivery of the concept, so I'm not convinced that quite so much preparation was really necessary.
But then, Blackwood does sometimes struggle with delivery, falling back on repetition to ensure that his points come across, which makes sense for an author writing in an experimental genre for a wide serial audience and who may be concerned about coming off as too obscure--but whether it was a bit of long-windedness on his part or editorial preference I cannot say.
In any event, after the setup is complete and we start descending into the otherworldly, the story starts to pick up pace, and by the time the concept is laid before us, I was deeply impressed by the insight and imagination with which the thing is handled. The presentation of the uncanny is so complete, so infectious, and so grand in its implications that I am hard-pressed to compare it to any other contemporary author but Dunsany, who achieved a similar effect in fairy tale.
Indeed, it's difficult to name another author who so subtly depicted the cosmology of shifting worlds until Moorcock (who did it in a rather rough style) or the Strugatskys, who took on the same event and expanded it until it dwarfed the entire world of man. It is no wonder that this work is so influential, because it asks many difficult questions of the reader, and invites us to expand upon it, to sit and dwell and try to produce our own understanding of just what is actually going on, and what it means for the insignificant people caught in the middle.
It has certainly altered the way that I think about the writing of horror, and it goes to show that the particular treatment an author gives their idea can make or break a story.
But then, Blackwood does sometimes struggle with delivery, falling back on repetition to ensure that his points come across, which makes sense for an author writing in an experimental genre for a wide serial audience and who may be concerned about coming off as too obscure--but whether it was a bit of long-windedness on his part or editorial preference I cannot say.
In any event, after the setup is complete and we start descending into the otherworldly, the story starts to pick up pace, and by the time the concept is laid before us, I was deeply impressed by the insight and imagination with which the thing is handled. The presentation of the uncanny is so complete, so infectious, and so grand in its implications that I am hard-pressed to compare it to any other contemporary author but Dunsany, who achieved a similar effect in fairy tale.
Indeed, it's difficult to name another author who so subtly depicted the cosmology of shifting worlds until Moorcock (who did it in a rather rough style) or the Strugatskys, who took on the same event and expanded it until it dwarfed the entire world of man. It is no wonder that this work is so influential, because it asks many difficult questions of the reader, and invites us to expand upon it, to sit and dwell and try to produce our own understanding of just what is actually going on, and what it means for the insignificant people caught in the middle.
It has certainly altered the way that I think about the writing of horror, and it goes to show that the particular treatment an author gives their idea can make or break a story.
November 18, 2019
One day, not so long ago, two stoners went camping and smoked one bowl too many. They forgot that in the wilderness what seems idyllic during the day...
...will look differently at night.
Every sound a dreadful otherworldly whisper, every bush a demon: oh yes, they are tripping hard. But manfully they attempt to ignore it by talking about other things. Too bad one friend chooses this moment to confess his psychic ability to sense trans dimensional demons.
What the hell do you say to that? Clearly late night forest confessions are a violation of Guy Code. The man dam of fear has broken leaving the two guys like...
It's not a pretty site.
This classic short story started off slow as molasses in January but picked up speed. It's good to remember the old adage that just because you're paranoid does not mean they're not out to get you! :)
October 28, 2019
Blackwoods Geschichte von der Kanufahrt zweier Freunde auf der Donau ist wirklich ein Meilenstein der Horrorliteratur. Der Ich-Erzähler beginnt seine Erzählung ungefähr zu dem Zeitpunkt, wo sie Pressburg, also das heutige Bratislava verlassen und die Grenze nach Ungarn passieren. Die Donau wird zu diesem Zeitpunkt ursprünglicher, von Weiden gesäumt, ein Sturm zieht auf und der Flusspegel steigt. Blackwoods kann hervorragend die Stimmung in Worte fassen, wenn diese besonderen Bäume im Wind rauschen und ständig die Illusion vorgeben, dass Gestalten sich im Geäst befinden. Langezeit sind es einfach nur die Urängste von den Elementen der Natur, das Ausgeliefertsein in der Wildnis und die Unmöglichkeit für das menschliche Ohr, die Geräusche in einem aufkommenden Unwetter richtig zu deuten. Die beiden Kameraden lagern dann auf der einer kleinen Insel im Flusslauf, die Ängste vergrößern sich, das Misstrauen gegenüber dem Freund steigt und der Sturm nimmt zu. Am Ende bleibt es nicht bei den Schrecken eines Unwetters, da Blackwood mystische Elemente in die Geschichte einbaut, was für mich aber in der Ausgestaltung absolut passend war. Sprachlich und atmosphärisch ein Hochgenuss.
October 22, 2014
The Willows is Algernon Blackwood's most famous story, and one which H.P. Lovecraft listed as his personal favorite of all weird tales.
Two men - the unnamed narrator and his friend, known only as "The Swede" - travel on a canoe across the Danube. The river begins somewhere in the German Black Forest and stretches across the continent, before finally emptying into the Black Sea. The two adventurous men plan to traverse through its whole length, following the steps of the ancient Roman emperors, but their plans go awry; somewhere at the end of Austria the river floods, and the current carries them deep into Hungary, to uninhabited wilderness. They decide to not risk further travel across the bursting river, and outwait the flood on a small, sandy island. There's nothing and no one to be seen anywhere, except for acres and acres of willow bushes - the sheer amount of which strikes the narrator as sinister. Both the narrator and the Swede see a strange otter-like creature floating down the river, turning over and over; shortly afterwards they see what looks like a boat being carried down the river at enormous speed, with a man inside who seems to be shouting at them and making the sign of the cross. The narrator becomes more and more disquieted as he observes the willows all around him; he senses them closing in, as if organizes as a unknown, hostile force.
It's not difficult to see why Lovecraft would pick this particular story as his favorite - the theme that he would later explore in his fiction is right here: the sense of something infinitely strange just beyond the border of our comprehension, and its hostility towards us. Borders between these worlds, and we might stumble upon them by accident and be sucked in. Characters in The Willows have no idea what is affecting them, as all they see are the endless willow bushes - and therefore have no way of effectively resisting the terror, something which they perceive to be truly out of this world.
This is a classic story and a must read for anyone interested in the development of horror and weird-fiction. Although it's considered by many to be Blackwood's best and is easily his most known, if I had to choose I'd pick his other important story - The Wendigo, purely because of my personal preference. The two stories are short, and both can be read in a single sitting - and like The Wendigo, The Willows is in public domain and available via legal download. Grab an excellent copy from Feedbooks and indulge:
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1065/th...
Two men - the unnamed narrator and his friend, known only as "The Swede" - travel on a canoe across the Danube. The river begins somewhere in the German Black Forest and stretches across the continent, before finally emptying into the Black Sea. The two adventurous men plan to traverse through its whole length, following the steps of the ancient Roman emperors, but their plans go awry; somewhere at the end of Austria the river floods, and the current carries them deep into Hungary, to uninhabited wilderness. They decide to not risk further travel across the bursting river, and outwait the flood on a small, sandy island. There's nothing and no one to be seen anywhere, except for acres and acres of willow bushes - the sheer amount of which strikes the narrator as sinister. Both the narrator and the Swede see a strange otter-like creature floating down the river, turning over and over; shortly afterwards they see what looks like a boat being carried down the river at enormous speed, with a man inside who seems to be shouting at them and making the sign of the cross. The narrator becomes more and more disquieted as he observes the willows all around him; he senses them closing in, as if organizes as a unknown, hostile force.
It's not difficult to see why Lovecraft would pick this particular story as his favorite - the theme that he would later explore in his fiction is right here: the sense of something infinitely strange just beyond the border of our comprehension, and its hostility towards us. Borders between these worlds, and we might stumble upon them by accident and be sucked in. Characters in The Willows have no idea what is affecting them, as all they see are the endless willow bushes - and therefore have no way of effectively resisting the terror, something which they perceive to be truly out of this world.
This is a classic story and a must read for anyone interested in the development of horror and weird-fiction. Although it's considered by many to be Blackwood's best and is easily his most known, if I had to choose I'd pick his other important story - The Wendigo, purely because of my personal preference. The two stories are short, and both can be read in a single sitting - and like The Wendigo, The Willows is in public domain and available via legal download. Grab an excellent copy from Feedbooks and indulge:
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1065/th...
November 9, 2019
My Half-Banarcled Son highly recommended I DO NOT read this story, so of course I did. Goes to show how bloody shrimping moronic nefarious overlords can be sometimes. And it also goes to show that crossbreed invertebrate offspring can be uncharacteristically and most surprisingly wise once in a century or so sometimes.
Oh, and also, this story made me feel kinda sorta like this =
Oh, and also, this story made me feel kinda sorta like this =
April 3, 2017
Strange. Dreamy. Chilling. Vivid imagination. Creepy at times. Kind of story that would make you keep looking over your shoulder from time to time to check if there was someone looking at you from distance or the sound that you heard just now was real or part of your imagination. Excellent!
May 28, 2022
Fantastic classic horror. Beautifully written, imaginative, and unique.
The eeriness of this lonely island, set among a million willows, swept by a hurricane, and surrounded by hurrying deep waters, touched us both, I fancy. Untrodden by man, almost unknown to man, it lay there beneath the moon, remote from human influence, on the frontier of another world, an alien world, a world tenanted by willows only and the souls of willows. And we, in our rashness, had dared to invade it, even to make use of it
I can't wait to read from Blackwood. I think I'll try the Wendigo next.
The eeriness of this lonely island, set among a million willows, swept by a hurricane, and surrounded by hurrying deep waters, touched us both, I fancy. Untrodden by man, almost unknown to man, it lay there beneath the moon, remote from human influence, on the frontier of another world, an alien world, a world tenanted by willows only and the souls of willows. And we, in our rashness, had dared to invade it, even to make use of it
I can't wait to read from Blackwood. I think I'll try the Wendigo next.
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