Take a photo of a barcode or cover
fictionfan 's review for:
The Willows
by Algernon Blackwood
Worse than whomping...
Our unnamed narrator and his friend, known only as the Swede, have travelled far along the Danube on a pleasure excursion in a little canoe. They have reached a place where the river splits into three branches, and know that a high flood is due. They decide to continue anyway, both being experienced rivermen and having done many journeys together before. Driven forward by the fast waters and a howling wind, they have some difficulty landing for the night on one of the small temporary islands that spring up in this swampy stretch of the river, but finally they manage it. At first all seems well, but as night draws in, a strange feeling of dread begins to fall over the travellers. The willows seem to give off a threatening air...
Well, this is a classic for a reason! The descriptive writing is fabulous, and Blackwood gradually builds up an air of creepy menace guaranteed to send shivers down the stoutest spine. Apparently Lovecraft hailed this as the greatest supernatural tale of all, and it's very clear to see how it influenced his own later weird tales. There is the same suggestion of ancient and malign alien beings, with man caught up as irrelevant victims of a power at which they can only vaguely guess. But, unlike Lovecraft, this doesn't get bogged down in endless repetitive description – it is novella length but it keeps going at a good pace and builds up to an excellently chilling climax. Nature is used brilliantly, at first as something for man to admire and revel in, and then, gradually, as something immense and uncontrollable, reducing man to tiny insignificance, fumbling to make sense of forces so great that they are incomprehensible to his limited mind. Great stuff – highly recommended!
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Our unnamed narrator and his friend, known only as the Swede, have travelled far along the Danube on a pleasure excursion in a little canoe. They have reached a place where the river splits into three branches, and know that a high flood is due. They decide to continue anyway, both being experienced rivermen and having done many journeys together before. Driven forward by the fast waters and a howling wind, they have some difficulty landing for the night on one of the small temporary islands that spring up in this swampy stretch of the river, but finally they manage it. At first all seems well, but as night draws in, a strange feeling of dread begins to fall over the travellers. The willows seem to give off a threatening air...
Well, this is a classic for a reason! The descriptive writing is fabulous, and Blackwood gradually builds up an air of creepy menace guaranteed to send shivers down the stoutest spine. Apparently Lovecraft hailed this as the greatest supernatural tale of all, and it's very clear to see how it influenced his own later weird tales. There is the same suggestion of ancient and malign alien beings, with man caught up as irrelevant victims of a power at which they can only vaguely guess. But, unlike Lovecraft, this doesn't get bogged down in endless repetitive description – it is novella length but it keeps going at a good pace and builds up to an excellently chilling climax. Nature is used brilliantly, at first as something for man to admire and revel in, and then, gradually, as something immense and uncontrollable, reducing man to tiny insignificance, fumbling to make sense of forces so great that they are incomprehensible to his limited mind. Great stuff – highly recommended!
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com