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grayjay's review against another edition
3.0
While at times dry and verbose, Blackwood really is the master of weird atmosphere, and is brilliant developing horror from natural settings. His personal interest in the occult is evident in many of his stories but it is in the horror of pure nature or the spirits of nature as in "The Willows" and "The Man Whom the Trees Loved" that he really excels.
thegoodmariner's review against another edition
5.0
Most of these short stories revolve around similar premises - narrator is chilled to the bone to discover his firmly held belief in material realism can't explain something supernatural and, therefore, scary. It's easy to see why Lovecraft sights Blackwood as an inspiration. I will say this, though. The Willows was possibly the most unsettling and frightening read I can remember experiencing in a very long time. It's worth picking up the collection for that story alone.
alysian_fields's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
3.5
lsoucy's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
So you’ve read M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft. Should Algernon Blackwood come next? Well, maybe. The raw spookiness of James and the appalling scale of horror in the best of Lovecraft are both missing here, which made me disappointed in the best known stories: “The Willows,” “The Wendigo,” and even “Ancient Sorceries.” But in the extended tales, “Sand” and especially “The Man Whom the Trees Loved” (which I thought by far the best in the volume), Blackwood unspools a slow-burning atmosphere of uneventful dread second to nobody.
Joshi’s notes are as pedantic and interpretively unhelpful as ever.
Joshi’s notes are as pedantic and interpretively unhelpful as ever.
emziethebookworm's review against another edition
5.0
This was a very unusual book for me to read a mean it didn't stop me from reading it as I was hooked from the first few chapters but wow very unusual and likeable in my eyes, Definately worth the read to me and I think others would love it too.
I really liked the characters throughout too as they made it all work, the plot was amazing too really liked the plot very much.
I would Definately recommend this short book to everyone, I believe it deserves to be read by many people on all platforms
I really liked the characters throughout too as they made it all work, the plot was amazing too really liked the plot very much.
I would Definately recommend this short book to everyone, I believe it deserves to be read by many people on all platforms
halibut's review against another edition
4.0
The stories set in or adjacent to nature (The Willows, The Wendigo, The Man Whom The Trees Loved, The Glamour of Snow) were for me the strongest of the collection. When they're at their best, they convey an inuitive sense of the Sublime in their settings, a difficult to capture mix of terror, awe and beauty induced the scale of the natural world. The stucture of the stories is frustratingly repetitive, our narrator gets into some unusual situation, observes some odd phenomena perhaps, and comes out a little shaken - in terms of narrative there sometimes doesn't feel much at stake, and the characters a little uninvested. I think that's what made The Man Whom The Trees Loved my favourite, the extra resonance of a well drawn old and loving relationship break down really added a emotional thread missing from the other stories I think.
npliego's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
msgtdameron's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Short Stories by Algernon Blackwood, the author himself should leave one with the heebe geebes. I love these works! I also enjoy the feeling of fear in the back of my head and brain. The Willows is AB's most recognized work and I've read it once already. Scared the daylights out of me. But in this collection are two more stories that scared me even more. The Insanity of Jones deals with reincarnation and the idea that one can take revenge for previous acts against yourself in later lives ,if the original act was especially heinous. I do believe that our actions on earth in our present lives do effect where we go in the afterlife and that can be up or down. I have a Buddhist out look on life, death, and rebirth. So the idea that one could kill or maim a previous life tormentor is taking the rebirth idea to a new higher level of crazy scary and making the top of my head tingle.
The last story that scared the living hell out of me today and will give me night mares tonight is Sand. First, 40 years ago this month I arrived at Nellis AFB Las Vegas Nevada. Since then with the exception of a year in Korea, where I breathed a load of Gobi desert yellow sand and dust. England for three years, but I spent 18 months of that three years deployed to the eastern Turkish desert, a more mid tan to brown sand and desert dust, The rest of the 36 years has been spent in deserts of Pakistan, Saudi, Nevada, West Texas, and Oman. Sand is a story of the desert. How in the desert time, geography, space, and even ones relationship with your god/God is changed and moved. The story talks of wind blowing the sand. Unless you have been in a large dust storm/sandstorm in a desert it's brilliantly written. If you have been in one of these storms that lasts for hours to days you can feel the sand again on your face, in your ears, the grit in your eyes, and the taste in your mouth. Each areas sand has a distinct taste, if you allow yourself to think on the grit in your mouth, I have many times. In these storms or just after in the peace you can hear and feel the native of that desert from long ago walking with you. At some moments, in some places the difference between life today 100 to 4000 years ago can seem slim or possibly nonexistent . I remember telling my Production Super at Incirlik back in 1991 that "It would not surprise me If we stepped out of the Tents and saw a Roman Centurion walking through the tents or around our planes." Bill didn't say a word but just gave me that your loosing it Fred look. But it would not have surprised me after or during that dust storm. Seeing a 4000 or 400 year old solider during any of these dust storms I've been through would have surprised me. SO Sand brought all those emotions and ideas back from my memory to the front of my brain. Seeing them again, feeling those dust and sand storms hitting my face and hands as I sat and read, heebe geebe time for sure.
SO if you want a good scare this work will give provide in Spades. Maybe not Willow, Sand, or Jones, but one of the works will hit you.
The last story that scared the living hell out of me today and will give me night mares tonight is Sand. First, 40 years ago this month I arrived at Nellis AFB Las Vegas Nevada. Since then with the exception of a year in Korea, where I breathed a load of Gobi desert yellow sand and dust. England for three years, but I spent 18 months of that three years deployed to the eastern Turkish desert, a more mid tan to brown sand and desert dust, The rest of the 36 years has been spent in deserts of Pakistan, Saudi, Nevada, West Texas, and Oman. Sand is a story of the desert. How in the desert time, geography, space, and even ones relationship with your god/God is changed and moved. The story talks of wind blowing the sand. Unless you have been in a large dust storm/sandstorm in a desert it's brilliantly written. If you have been in one of these storms that lasts for hours to days you can feel the sand again on your face, in your ears, the grit in your eyes, and the taste in your mouth. Each areas sand has a distinct taste, if you allow yourself to think on the grit in your mouth, I have many times. In these storms or just after in the peace you can hear and feel the native of that desert from long ago walking with you. At some moments, in some places the difference between life today 100 to 4000 years ago can seem slim or possibly nonexistent . I remember telling my Production Super at Incirlik back in 1991 that "It would not surprise me If we stepped out of the Tents and saw a Roman Centurion walking through the tents or around our planes." Bill didn't say a word but just gave me that your loosing it Fred look. But it would not have surprised me after or during that dust storm. Seeing a 4000 or 400 year old solider during any of these dust storms I've been through would have surprised me. SO Sand brought all those emotions and ideas back from my memory to the front of my brain. Seeing them again, feeling those dust and sand storms hitting my face and hands as I sat and read, heebe geebe time for sure.
SO if you want a good scare this work will give provide in Spades. Maybe not Willow, Sand, or Jones, but one of the works will hit you.
sayless's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
cmcrockford's review against another edition
4.0
A huge influence on Lovecraft and its great to compare and contrast the two of them. Where Lovecraft is much more about physical presences and monstrous gods, Blackwood writes often about ethreal, vast forces at work often in the natural world. It's easy to see Blackwood's English background and occult interests as the key to his work, as well as his wanderlust (which Lovecraft sometimes shared); many of his stories feature travellers compelled by mysterious women and the natural world, seduced by their secret knowledge of dark and cosmic things.
All of this was written in 1892 so take it with a big grain of salt in terms of "woke" content, I guess - sexism, racism, and other isms pervade the work, especially "The Wendigo". But Blackwood's writings range from good to superb, and in something like "The Willows", he absolutely originates the awestruck, terrified headspace of the Weird that I love so much.
All of this was written in 1892 so take it with a big grain of salt in terms of "woke" content, I guess - sexism, racism, and other isms pervade the work, especially "The Wendigo". But Blackwood's writings range from good to superb, and in something like "The Willows", he absolutely originates the awestruck, terrified headspace of the Weird that I love so much.