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A Case of Eavesdropping
A Case of Eavesdropping
Unknown Binding
About the author
Algernon Blackwood
1,437 books1,250 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 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 11, 2023
“A Case Of Eavesdropping” is from England’s “Pall Mall Magazine” of December 1900, an offshoot of “The Pall Mall Gazette” by William Waldorf Astor. Published between 1893 and 1914, it was a monthly literary magazine of poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, and general commentaries with extensive artwork. Algernon Blackwood came to my attention as a ghost story writer. I have eagerly sampled some of his hundred year-old tales, which are free. I greatly appreciate that his inspiration began with his years by Canadian woods and lakes, featured prominently in his imaginings.
I am glad his protagonists are observers, not victims. The paranormal is introduced as a fear to conquer. There are no crimes or violence. Besides authors usually suggesting that ghosts should be scary, these approximate my focus: great stories about witnessing that spirits are real. That would be a joy and relief to confirm for me and most people.
These antique stories are not too eerie for 2022 readers but I remind people that confronting Jim’s kind of abnormal event in person, especially alone, might be a whole other ball of wax. The language of a century ago and the grace of its eloquent writers, is at once beautiful and impressively witty, demonstrating a skill with words that we need to redevelop in our styles.
“With marriage, the interest of his life ceased for all but one person and his path became regular as the sun’s instead of erratic as a comet’s.”
“His horizon was bounded by boarding-houses and rooming-houses and owing to the irregularity of his meals and hours, he took the latter.”
Jim Shorthouse hears loud voices through his wall but sees no trace of the German speakers. We identify this as a “residual haunting”, an “echo”, or an “imprint”; which are a recording, not an interaction.
I am glad his protagonists are observers, not victims. The paranormal is introduced as a fear to conquer. There are no crimes or violence. Besides authors usually suggesting that ghosts should be scary, these approximate my focus: great stories about witnessing that spirits are real. That would be a joy and relief to confirm for me and most people.
These antique stories are not too eerie for 2022 readers but I remind people that confronting Jim’s kind of abnormal event in person, especially alone, might be a whole other ball of wax. The language of a century ago and the grace of its eloquent writers, is at once beautiful and impressively witty, demonstrating a skill with words that we need to redevelop in our styles.
“With marriage, the interest of his life ceased for all but one person and his path became regular as the sun’s instead of erratic as a comet’s.”
“His horizon was bounded by boarding-houses and rooming-houses and owing to the irregularity of his meals and hours, he took the latter.”
Jim Shorthouse hears loud voices through his wall but sees no trace of the German speakers. We identify this as a “residual haunting”, an “echo”, or an “imprint”; which are a recording, not an interaction.
May 4, 2024
Creepy story of a man who hears things from a room that should be empty
November 21, 2023
Lol, esa señora tan pancha y tan tranquila hablando de fantasmas con el pobre hombre hecho pis encima del miedo. A case of eavesdropping indeed.
July 12, 2023
2.5 It was ok; not Blackwood's best. There's not much surprise or suspense in this one. Available in 'HorrorBabble's Ultimate Weird Tales Collection, Volume 2'; Audible edition narrated by Ian Gordon. First published in December 1900 in Pall Mall Magazine.
November 22, 2013
lol!what a land lady!
December 29, 2024
This is Algernon Blackwood's third published story (that I know of). It appeared in the same venue as the second one published the previous year, The Pall Mall Magazine, December 1900. This is the first one to feature a character Blackwood would use a total of three times, Jim Shorthouse. Jim Shorthouse was a free-lance reporter for a New York newspaper whose ability to make a living is something between reliable, he appears to have regular work hours, and precarious, all he can afford is the rent in a room-house for a room on an undesirable top floor. A room-house is a step down from a boarding-house, which is no great digs either, but at least a boarding-house offers food, however thin. Room-houses did not.
The fact that this Shorthouse character's surname consists of two words mashed together, the first an adjective, the second a noun, suggests something authorial to me, though I can't quite place it. You know, Blackwood spent most of the 1890s living in New York. According to Encyclopedia Britannica: "After farming in Canada, operating a hotel, mining in the Alaskan goldfields, and working as a newspaper reporter in New York City, experiences that he recalled in Episodes Before Thirty (1923), Blackwood returned to England in 1899. Seven years later he published his first book of short stories, The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories (1906), and became a full-time fiction writer." That first collection is available for free via Gutenberg.org, incidentally, and thus for free for Kindle on Amazon. It's how I'm reading these stories. I wonder if Episodes Before Thirty is easily acquired. Sometimes non-fiction books by fiction authors go out of print and are not easily found. I'm becoming interested to know more about Blackwood's experiences in 1890s North America.
Anyway, I digress. This story is about conversations Blackwood, I mean Shorthouse, overhears while trying to sleep at night in this room-house room. The walls are paper-thin, and Shorthouse can hear every scandalous word, though he'd rather sleep. He tries to get the talkers to quieten, but that's when his troubles begin. The talkers apparently aren't corporal. You're going to have to read the story yourself if you want to know the rest.
I found this to be a great short story, well told with a satisfying ending. Any Blackwood fan will enjoy it too, I have no doubt. Reading early Blackwood in publication order like this is turning out to be more fun than I expected.
The fact that this Shorthouse character's surname consists of two words mashed together, the first an adjective, the second a noun, suggests something authorial to me, though I can't quite place it. You know, Blackwood spent most of the 1890s living in New York. According to Encyclopedia Britannica: "After farming in Canada, operating a hotel, mining in the Alaskan goldfields, and working as a newspaper reporter in New York City, experiences that he recalled in Episodes Before Thirty (1923), Blackwood returned to England in 1899. Seven years later he published his first book of short stories, The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories (1906), and became a full-time fiction writer." That first collection is available for free via Gutenberg.org, incidentally, and thus for free for Kindle on Amazon. It's how I'm reading these stories. I wonder if Episodes Before Thirty is easily acquired. Sometimes non-fiction books by fiction authors go out of print and are not easily found. I'm becoming interested to know more about Blackwood's experiences in 1890s North America.
Anyway, I digress. This story is about conversations Blackwood, I mean Shorthouse, overhears while trying to sleep at night in this room-house room. The walls are paper-thin, and Shorthouse can hear every scandalous word, though he'd rather sleep. He tries to get the talkers to quieten, but that's when his troubles begin. The talkers apparently aren't corporal. You're going to have to read the story yourself if you want to know the rest.
I found this to be a great short story, well told with a satisfying ending. Any Blackwood fan will enjoy it too, I have no doubt. Reading early Blackwood in publication order like this is turning out to be more fun than I expected.
June 5, 2026
Y aquí vamos con el tercer relato, donde se vuelve a tener al personaje de La Casa Vacía como protagonista.
Bien, en esta ocasión Shorthouse, cada vez más cómico, se muda a una casa de huéspedes, donde, como no podía ser de otra manera, ocurren cosas extrañas. El relato vuelve a esa atmósfera inmersiva que tanto me gusta, pero no termina de recuperar la esencia de la primera historia hasta el final, donde sí presenta cosas que de verdad llaman la atención y le hacen comprender a uno cómo es que Blackwood fue el escritor del Wendigo.
P.D. Me encanta cómo define al anciano alemán.
Bien, en esta ocasión Shorthouse, cada vez más cómico, se muda a una casa de huéspedes, donde, como no podía ser de otra manera, ocurren cosas extrañas. El relato vuelve a esa atmósfera inmersiva que tanto me gusta, pero no termina de recuperar la esencia de la primera historia hasta el final, donde sí presenta cosas que de verdad llaman la atención y le hacen comprender a uno cómo es que Blackwood fue el escritor del Wendigo.
P.D. Me encanta cómo define al anciano alemán.
August 14, 2024
A Case of Eavesdropping and The Empty House are a part of the "Jim Shorthouse Series".
Reading this one I was reminded a lot about The Dreams in the Witch House by Lovecraft. Maybe he got inspired by this story when he wrote that? Overall it was a fine story. Had some spooky moments, but nothing too special.
Reading this one I was reminded a lot about The Dreams in the Witch House by Lovecraft. Maybe he got inspired by this story when he wrote that? Overall it was a fine story. Had some spooky moments, but nothing too special.
August 16, 2023
Just the common ordinary rooming/boarding house goings on.
April 14, 2025
Short story that makes to think about what your neighbors are doing!!!
November 29, 2025
[Project Gutenberg] (26/12/2004). eBook. 28 Pages.
Originally published in “The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories” [Eveleigh Nash] (1906).
Quite well executed. Uninspired narrative.
Originally published in “The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories” [Eveleigh Nash] (1906).
Quite well executed. Uninspired narrative.
July 20, 2026
A very clever concept for a ghost story.
July 28, 2026
Simple ghost story but easy to read and eerie
February 26, 2026
Spooky but not enough
October 11, 2016
I have realized that old classics in Horror genre don't scare me At all!.. for that matter they don't even amuse me.
Thinking of scary read, what creeped me was - Hanibel Lector of Silence of the lambs.
Guess I shouldn't pick any classic horror books.
Thinking of scary read, what creeped me was - Hanibel Lector of Silence of the lambs.
Guess I shouldn't pick any classic horror books.
September 8, 2021
They were dead... that was pretty obvious
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews