Rating: 
Summary: SCARY!
Review: A very well written book involving stories that will take your heart and run. Can be long but well worth the effort and pain
Rating: 
Summary: A few thoughts on Algernon Blackwood
Review: Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) was a fascinating writer. Although he wrote in other forms-novels, children stories, and an autobiography, for example-it is his horror/supernatural stories that have most endured. His "The Willows" (included in this anthology) is often singled out as the best English-language supernatural story. His writing career was long, spanning about 1905-1945, with peak productivity about 1910. Because of this long career, his earlier and later works have a noticeably different "feel," the earlier works having a decidedly Edwardian cast. Taking 1910 as the benchmark, Blackwood's writing falls about halfway between the pioneers in the horror/supernatural genre (Mary Shelley, John Polidori, et al) and the present. Blackwood lived for extended periods in the US and Canada, but most of his writing occurred in England, his birthplace. He left no stylistic direct descendant, though Lovecraft is often mentioned. If there is a single theme connecting Blackwood's supernatural writings, it is the Platonic idea that "ordinary" reality is but a façade. Behind this façade lie other realities, awesome, but imperfectly accessible to the human mind. Of course many religions share this idea. But whereas their "other reality" is vastly superior to the one we know, Blackwood's is grimmer and darker. Blackwood serves up this idea in several flavors: 1) alien creatures from another dimension (The Willows), 2) elementals or animistic spirits (Glamour of the Snow, The Transfer, Ancient Lights), 3) devil-worshiping monks (Secret Worship), 4) people and entire towns with secret lives (Ancient Sorceries), 5) conventional ghost stories (The Empty House, The Other Wing, Keeping His Promise), 6) Jekyll/Hyde duality (Max Hensig). A few stories, such as The Wendigo, are hard to characterize, seemingly falling into several of the above. To what extent must a writer actually believe his/her ideas to be effective? Does a ghost-story writer need to believe in ghosts? Not consciously perhaps, but on some level almost certainly. Apropos of this, much has been made of Blackwood's Sandemanian background. An extreme Calvanistic sect, the Sandemanians place great emphasis on sin and perdition. In adult life Blackwood appeared to reject these teachings, and turn to other religions. (In fairness to that religion: the great Michael Faraday appeared to be a contented life-long Sandemanian.) Yet, it is probable that highly emotional ideas, learned early in childhood, can never be completely expunged. Such ideas, in one form or another, appear to become permanent dwellers of the persons psyche. Attempts to expunge them only result in the temporary breaking of the bonds these ideas have with other parts of the mind. The ideas themselves however refuse to stay isolated, and constantly strive to form new meaningful connections. It is possible that this striving can become a great source of creativity. This ceaseless striving may also explain some inconsistencies in Blackwood's works. Consider: the effectiveness of his masterpiece, The Willows, lies in its premise of an intelligence so utterly alien that "it has nothing to do with us." Vastly powerful and amoral, this intelligence cares nothing about mankind and mankind's affairs. While it is not expressly hostile, neither can it be propitiated in any known way. As a result, humans are reduced to utter insignificance. Yet toward the end of the story this intelligence is seemingly "propitiated" by a human "sacrifice." How so? If human lives are nothing to this intelligence, why not 10,000 victims - or none at all? Could Old Testament ideas of sacrifices and burnt-offerings be intruding? Does this anthology really contain all the best ghost stories of Blackwood? Yes, by and large, it does! However, Blackwood was quite prolific, so it would be very easy to compile a second anthology nearly as good as the first. (Perhaps Dover can be convinced of the merits of this.) Two personal favorites that I would like to see included in such a collection are "The Strange Adventures of a Private Secretary in New York," a kind of werewolf story in which the lycanthropy appears to be induced by chemical experiments - and "The Doll," quite possibly the inspiration for Chucky. (Rev. A, Feb. 2004)
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: Algernon Blackwood is a master at writing suspensful thrillers and bone chillers. If you're into scary tales...check this book out. His works are classics.
Rating:
Summary: Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood
Review: Algernon Blackwood ranks with M.R. James and Sheridan LeFanu as one of the three best writers of ghost stories in the English Language. In the Dover collection under review the stories " The Willows " and the " Wendigo " best illustrate Blackwood's talent for taking an ordinary event i.e., a canoe trip in " The Willows " and a hunting expedition in " The Wendigo " and gradually revealing the supernatural landscape into which the characters have unwittingly trespassed. Implicit in Blackwood's work is a notion akin to Melville's " mask of appearance " that ordinary experience is a mere crust beneath which lies the truly supernatural and terrible reality that is human existence. In " The Willows " Blackwood's characters discover a rent in the fabric of ordinary experience that is truly terrifying and in " The Wendigo " Blackwood demonstrates what happens when one tries to return from a fall through that crust. Blackwood is a metaphysician in the same sense that Melville and Hawthorne and Dostoevsky are metaphysicians. These writers show us the depths beneath ordinary experience which we seldom visit, and as Blackwood shows us, for good reason.
Rating:
Summary: Bone Chilling Tales of the Strange
Review: Algernon Blackwood writes some very creepy stories. Born in 1869 to a ruling class family in Kent, England, Blackwood failed to live up to the expectations of his ultra religious parents. After attending the University of Edinburgh, the young man headed to Canada, then a part of the British Empire. In Canada Blackwood failed at several different endeavors, including an attempt at journalism, running a milk farm, and managing a bar. Algernon then went to New York City where he lived in penniless isolation. It was here that the future novelist encountered the seedy side of humanity, including dangerous criminals, con men, and other assorted unsavory types. Most people, when confronted with such a bleak atmosphere, would give up in frustration. Blackwood did not; he caught a break when a wealthy individual hired him as a private secretary. His eventual return to England led to the start of his writing career, a career as the premier author of supernatural fiction. This compilation of Blackwood stories, compiled by E.F. Bleiler in the early 1970s, contains several of Blackwood's most lauded tales. The stories vary in length from fifty pages to less than ten pages. The title of Bleiler's collection, 'Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood,' is more than a little misleading. There are only three stories dealing with spirits from beyond the grave here, and only one of those, 'The Listener,' is truly creepy. The best stories in this book, without a doubt, are two of the lengthier contributions: 'The Willows' and 'The Wendigo,' which must rank as the eeriest stories ever written. Blackwood has the amazing ability to introduce not only deep sensations of terror, but to sustain and build that terror throughout the story. Every fan of horror must read Algernon Blackwood at some point. The first story, 'The Willows,' sets the tone for the book. Two men sailing down the Danube River become trapped on an island during a flood. Immediately, strangeness rears its ugly head. The men sense that all is not right in their surroundings. Huge winds buffet the island, followed by unexplainable internal sensations of deep fear. Supplies start to disappear and the willow trees in the area seem to move of their own accord. A mysterious hole in the canoe means the men will have to stay on the island longer than planned. Blackwood never explains exactly what plagues the two travelers, but he does hint at dark forces that are attempting to force themselves into our world. This yarn ranks high on the shudder meter. The second story that makes this collection worth owning is 'The Wendigo.' There are no ghosts rattling chains in this tale. Blackwood instead introduces the reader to a group of men on a hunting trip in the remoteness of backwoods Canada. Two of the men head out to a region that local Indians claim is haunted by a Wendigo, a creature who lifts men right off the ground and feeds off of them. This story is fantastic, arguably one of the best horror stories ever written. If you have ever gone out into the woods at night, far from the safety of home, you will instantly recognize the dark terror suffered by Simpson as he looks for the vanished guide Defago. I get chills just thinking about this story. A third story worth noting is 'The Listener,' a ghost yarn set in a rundown house in London. A struggling writer rents a room in this old residence, but slowly realizes something is amiss in his new digs. He gets intense headaches, becomes aware of strange footsteps in the house, and notices that someone (or something) is watching him while he sleeps. There are great scenes in this story, and the final line uttered by one of this man's friends is about as unsettling as things get in this genre. For those who enjoy a great ghost story, 'The Listener' promises to deliver the goods. Blackwood tells the story through journal entries jotted down by the protagonist, allowing the reader of the story to get a sense of passing time and increasing weirdness. These three stories are the best of the lot, but by no means the only effective chillers chosen for inclusion by Bleiler. For example, 'Max Hensig' is about a murderer hunting down a journalist who had the gall to make disparaging comments about him in the city paper. There is nothing supernatural about 'Max Hensig,' but it is a great story well worth reading. Other stories deal with nature run amuck or the appearance of devils and demons. There is something for everybody in this great book. Every story in the book starts the same way. One of the main characters quickly realizes that something is terribly wrong, usually through what we recognize as a 'sixth sense' or a 'gut feeling,' an extrasensory perception that tells us we are in big trouble. Having his characters recognize the 'wrongness' of a situation is exactly what Blackwood set out to do. His interest was not in Wendigos or ghosts as much as it was in how man perceives these unknowns. Blackwood often ends his stories with no firm resolutions, with nothing more than speculation about what happened. This adds to the general sense of uneasiness. Blackwood must have influenced later writers like H.P. Lovecraft. Unfortunately, there are no clear successors to Algernon Blackwood alive today. Modern horror relies on gruesome scenes and neat plotlines that wrap up as neatly as a Christmas gift. Gore is not necessarily a bad thing, but when it is a substitute for suspense and clever writing there is a big hole that needs filling. This English author neatly closes that gap with great stories full of suspense and eeriness. More Blackwood, I say!
Rating:
Summary: unearthly powers & ancient presences
Review: Algernon Blackwood's stories capture an elemental and unearthly atmosphere of ancient presences and powers and are pervaded with a subtle and potent mysticism. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Terror
Review: Blackwood wrote a lot, and some of it is mediocre, but there are two magnificent stories in this collection that every aficionado of classic ghost stories should have: "The Willows" and "The Wendigo." No other writer of supernatural fiction ever conveyed the horror of isolation in nature as well as Blackwood in these stories (at least to my knowledge). Enjoy
Rating:
Summary: Classic Terror
Review: Blackwood wrote a lot, and some of it is mediocre, but there are two magnificent stories in this collection that every aficionado of classic ghost stories should have: "The Willows" and "The Wendigo." No other writer of supernatural fiction ever conveyed the horror of isolation in nature as well as Blackwood in these stories (at least to my knowledge). Enjoy
Rating:
Summary: THE Master of the short horror story
Review: Blackwood's tales are some of the most terrifying stories I have ever encountered (in a lifetime spent hunting good horror fiction), and his ability to sustain that feeling of dread throughout the entire tale is amazing. In this collection readers will find The Wendigo, which I can honestly say is the most disturbing horror tale I have ever read. In addition, The Willows and The Listener are two others that will chill you to the bone and make you sleep with the lights on, no matter how old you are.
Rating:
Summary: Move over Stephen King
Review: Creepy. I discovered this author's works after reading too much H.P. Lovecraft as a kid. Some stories are better than others, but on the whole, a very good read. I recommend two stories a night before bedtime until finished. (Sorry, no refills.)
|
