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The Willows
The Willows is a novella by English author Algernon Blackwood, originally published as part of his 1907 collection The Listener and Other Stories. Two friends are taking a break from a canoe trip down the snaking, sinuous Danube River when they discover the corpse of a peasant in the woods. When they return to their canoe the oars are missing. As night sets in, a general creeping sense of unease permeates the wild and rural setting...
It is one of Blackwood's best known works and has been influential on a number of later writers. 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.
It is one of Blackwood's best known works and has been influential on a number of later writers. 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.
- GenresHorror
71 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2024
9 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Algernon Blackwood
1,359 books1,179 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 15, 2025
This book is not loud, not sudden, but slow and porous, like something seeping through the fibers of the world you thought you knew. I read it with growing unease, not from monsters or gore, but from the way Blackwood lets the landscape itself turn against you.
It’s just willows. Ordinary, wind-whipped, rustling things. But the writing makes them feel alive in a way that isn’t comforting. Alive, but in the wrong way. And that’s the genius of it. The horror here is in how the unexplainable unravels you. The more the characters try to understand, the further they fall from sense. There's no hand to grasp, no shape to blame. Just presence. Just wrongness.
The writing hums: lyrical, almost hypnotic, never quite slipping into full poetry but always brushing against it. The prose holds your wrist and leads you deeper willingly, even when your instincts scream to turn back. This is nature as an unknowable force, not pastoral calm. The universe, not as empty, but as full of things we can’t see, and maybe shouldn’t.
I enjoyed it immensely. And the whisper of leaves I couldn't stop hearing even after the story ended.
It’s just willows. Ordinary, wind-whipped, rustling things. But the writing makes them feel alive in a way that isn’t comforting. Alive, but in the wrong way. And that’s the genius of it. The horror here is in how the unexplainable unravels you. The more the characters try to understand, the further they fall from sense. There's no hand to grasp, no shape to blame. Just presence. Just wrongness.
The writing hums: lyrical, almost hypnotic, never quite slipping into full poetry but always brushing against it. The prose holds your wrist and leads you deeper willingly, even when your instincts scream to turn back. This is nature as an unknowable force, not pastoral calm. The universe, not as empty, but as full of things we can’t see, and maybe shouldn’t.
I enjoyed it immensely. And the whisper of leaves I couldn't stop hearing even after the story ended.
January 20, 2026
First finished book of the year: Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows, first published in 1907.
A folky cosmic horror tale about two friends traveling down a river and camping on small islands as waters steadily rise. As the river consumes the land, the willows begin to close in—accompanied by a droning hum and winged creatures spiraling into the sky like a dark column.
The dread doesn’t come solely from unseen entities, but from the natural world itself. Blackwood’s vivid, oppressive descriptions turn the landscape into a living, breathing presence—steeped in folk horror, ancient forces, and the suggestion of old gods.
Written decades before Lovecraft, The Willows helped shape what we now recognize as cosmic horror, instilling a quiet, overwhelming sense of human insignificance in the face of something vast, ancient, and unknowable.
A folky cosmic horror tale about two friends traveling down a river and camping on small islands as waters steadily rise. As the river consumes the land, the willows begin to close in—accompanied by a droning hum and winged creatures spiraling into the sky like a dark column.
The dread doesn’t come solely from unseen entities, but from the natural world itself. Blackwood’s vivid, oppressive descriptions turn the landscape into a living, breathing presence—steeped in folk horror, ancient forces, and the suggestion of old gods.
Written decades before Lovecraft, The Willows helped shape what we now recognize as cosmic horror, instilling a quiet, overwhelming sense of human insignificance in the face of something vast, ancient, and unknowable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 23, 2025
great story, love it
sony-or-android
November 16, 2025Is avl. on openlibrary.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews