What do you think?
Rate this book
Day and Night Stories
Day and Night Stories by British author Algernon Blackwood is a collection of short fiction first published in 1917.
“When common objects in this way be come charged with the suggestion of horror, they stimulate the imagination far more than things of unusual appearance; and these bushes, crowding huddled about us, assumed for me in the darkness a bizarre grotesquerie of appearance that lent to them somehow the aspect of purposeful and living creatures. Their very ordinariness, I felt, masked what was malignant and hostile to us.”
A superbly balanced combination of mystery, suspense, and the supernatural, Day and Night Stories is an outstanding collection of fifteen short stories that take the reader on a journey through the mystical realms of fantasy where the lines between the real and the imagined blur and dissolve. Blackwood skilfully explores themes which focus on the existence of unseen forces that defy human understanding, delves into the darker aspects of our human nature, and examines the way we perceive the past.
Uncanny, eerie, and compelling, this anthology is sure to thrill and entertain. A founding father of contemporary ghost stories, Algernon Blackwood influenced generations of authors, including H. P. Lovecraft, who said of Blackwood, "He is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere."
Contents:
- The Tryst
- The Touch of Pan
- The Wings of Horus
- Initiation
- A Desert Episode
- The Other Wing
- The Occupant of the Room
- Cain’s Atonement
- An Egyptian Hornet
- By Water
- H. S. H.
- A Bit of Wood
- A Victim of Higher Space
- Transition
- The Tradition.
“When common objects in this way be come charged with the suggestion of horror, they stimulate the imagination far more than things of unusual appearance; and these bushes, crowding huddled about us, assumed for me in the darkness a bizarre grotesquerie of appearance that lent to them somehow the aspect of purposeful and living creatures. Their very ordinariness, I felt, masked what was malignant and hostile to us.”
A superbly balanced combination of mystery, suspense, and the supernatural, Day and Night Stories is an outstanding collection of fifteen short stories that take the reader on a journey through the mystical realms of fantasy where the lines between the real and the imagined blur and dissolve. Blackwood skilfully explores themes which focus on the existence of unseen forces that defy human understanding, delves into the darker aspects of our human nature, and examines the way we perceive the past.
Uncanny, eerie, and compelling, this anthology is sure to thrill and entertain. A founding father of contemporary ghost stories, Algernon Blackwood influenced generations of authors, including H. P. Lovecraft, who said of Blackwood, "He is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere."
Contents:
- The Tryst
- The Touch of Pan
- The Wings of Horus
- Initiation
- A Desert Episode
- The Other Wing
- The Occupant of the Room
- Cain’s Atonement
- An Egyptian Hornet
- By Water
- H. S. H.
- A Bit of Wood
- A Victim of Higher Space
- Transition
- The Tradition.
214 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1917
3 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Algernon Blackwood
1,337 books1,176 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 10, 2016
Some of Blackwood's better, and more well-known works, in this collection. I love his blend of the real-world and the supernatural. His stories lack the more formal traditions of older ghost stories, and while almost all touch on the supernatural, very few of them strictly vilify it. These are transformative encounters, touchstones of the beauty and power of the otherworldly. A strong recommendation for those exploring the roots of the supernatural and weird fiction traditions in literature.
October 18, 2021
The first Halloween book for this year, and my first time reading Algernon Blackwood. I can't say I was bowled over at all. Some of the stories - The Other Wing, The Occupant of the Room - were decent enough. Some of them were entirely unnoteworthy though. Probably this isn't the most popular of Blackwood's work. Nothing really all that scary or even creepy here, and a bit too much focus on pagan themes which just got boring to me. Since I didn't love this, I have decided to read another book for Halloween in addition to this. I guess I feel inclined to give it two stars, but since I think I would have enjoyed it more in print (I listened to it on audio, and not even with full attention some of the time), and because the writing was perfectly decent.
December 20, 2021
Great, but with fifteen stories there's inevitably going to be some that are not as good as others. As always with Blackwood there are many phenomenal horror tales, but also some fantasy stories, which I'm not as big of a fan of. Still, this showcases Blackwood at his best and is a great compilation.
March 20, 2014
Certainly not one of his best collections although, personally, I liked the pathos of A DESERT EPISODE. Anyway, as a Blackwood fan I'd recommend to a newbie that one starts with JOHN SILENCE, PAN'S GARDEN, THE LISTENER, THE LOST VALLEY, INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES, etc.--all of which are superb collections of unusual/spiritual/weird literature.
“Toys in the world are plentiful, Sire, and you may
have them for your masterpiece of play. But you must
seek them where they still survive; in the churches,
and in isolated lands where thought lies unawakened.
For they are the children’s blocks of make-believe
whose palaces, like your once tremendous kingdom,
have no true existence for the thinking mind.”
H.S.H.
eBooks: https://archive.org/search.php?query=...
“Toys in the world are plentiful, Sire, and you may
have them for your masterpiece of play. But you must
seek them where they still survive; in the churches,
and in isolated lands where thought lies unawakened.
For they are the children’s blocks of make-believe
whose palaces, like your once tremendous kingdom,
have no true existence for the thinking mind.”
H.S.H.
eBooks: https://archive.org/search.php?query=...
December 21, 2016
Another middling collection by Blackwood. Tradition, Tryst, and Transition get 4 stars (despite their total predictability) because they were alright. The rest, no so much.
October 4, 2021
Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) was one of the all-time great supernatural writers, who sought less to horrify than to awe the reader. This volume of fifteen short stories includes "The Tryst" and "A Victim of Higher Space."
All of this are very subtle, at least for today's standard, and it feels like a blueprint for modern horror. Supernatural is ever present here, blended very well with the mundane, yet the supernatural is never really seen as a villain.
All of this are very subtle, at least for today's standard, and it feels like a blueprint for modern horror. Supernatural is ever present here, blended very well with the mundane, yet the supernatural is never really seen as a villain.
January 9, 2025
3.72⭐
The Tryst 3.5⭐
The Touch of Pan 4⭐
The Wings of Horus • (1914) 3.25⭐
Initiation 4.25⭐
A Desert Episode 3⭐
The Other Wing• (1915) 4.5⭐
The Occupant of the Room • (1909) 4.5⭐
Cain's Atonement 3.25⭐
An Egyptian Hornet • (1915) 4⭐
By Water • (1914) 4.25⭐
H.S.H. 3⭐
A Bit of Wood 3.5⭐
A Victim of Higher Space • [John Silence] • (1914) 4.25⭐
Transition • (1913) 3.25⭐
The Tradition • (1913) 3.25⭐
The Tryst 3.5⭐
The Touch of Pan 4⭐
The Wings of Horus • (1914) 3.25⭐
Initiation 4.25⭐
A Desert Episode 3⭐
The Other Wing• (1915) 4.5⭐
The Occupant of the Room • (1909) 4.5⭐
Cain's Atonement 3.25⭐
An Egyptian Hornet • (1915) 4⭐
By Water • (1914) 4.25⭐
H.S.H. 3⭐
A Bit of Wood 3.5⭐
A Victim of Higher Space • [John Silence] • (1914) 4.25⭐
Transition • (1913) 3.25⭐
The Tradition • (1913) 3.25⭐
September 26, 2017
Decent collection of the macabre, ghastly, and psychological horror.
December 30, 2019
None of the stories really stood out as funny, creepy, or moving. None of them stood out as boring or uninteresting either.
November 8, 2016
Algernon Blackwood is remembered today primarily for his ghost stories. Previously I had only read one of his novels, The Promise of Air, an Age of Aquarius bird-dream which stretched its insubstantial wings over a tedious distance and would have been better shrunk to short story length.
Because of that disappointing experience I had to think twice before bothering to read Blackwood again, but why not give him a chance with what he was best known for? I'm glad I did.
Blackwood's ghosts reside in worlds which coexist with our own but can only be conjured up by sympathetic imaginations. Sometimes they show us a wilder, better place where we can relive our Pagan ancestry and get closer to Nature, sometimes they show us portents of danger or death.
Of the former type, second story 'The Touch of Pan' is a consummate example of how a feral nature can crossover into that pagan place and escape the cynicism of the modern world. In 'Initiation' a businessman is taken to a similar place by his nephew while holidaying in the Alps, where he learns firsthand that “Beauty is imperishable”.
Of the later type, in 'The Other Wing' (my favourite story) danger is averted years in advance when a boy's curiosity shepherds him behind a green baize door in the deserted wing of his country home to discover the place where 'Sleep taught and trained her flock of feathered Dreams.'
The final two stories are of a piece, called 'Transition' and 'The Tradition' respectively, compact little harbingers of death in the guise of a party of welcoming friends and a spectral white horse.
Of the other stories, 'The Wings of Horace' was another birdman rhapsody, all the better for its shorter length, and 'A Victim of Higher Space' has Dr. Silence (a recurring figure, though this is his only story in this collection) try to cure a patient who has learnt how to live in the fourth dimension.
On this evidence, brevity suited Blackwood.
Because of that disappointing experience I had to think twice before bothering to read Blackwood again, but why not give him a chance with what he was best known for? I'm glad I did.
Blackwood's ghosts reside in worlds which coexist with our own but can only be conjured up by sympathetic imaginations. Sometimes they show us a wilder, better place where we can relive our Pagan ancestry and get closer to Nature, sometimes they show us portents of danger or death.
Of the former type, second story 'The Touch of Pan' is a consummate example of how a feral nature can crossover into that pagan place and escape the cynicism of the modern world. In 'Initiation' a businessman is taken to a similar place by his nephew while holidaying in the Alps, where he learns firsthand that “Beauty is imperishable”.
Of the later type, in 'The Other Wing' (my favourite story) danger is averted years in advance when a boy's curiosity shepherds him behind a green baize door in the deserted wing of his country home to discover the place where 'Sleep taught and trained her flock of feathered Dreams.'
The final two stories are of a piece, called 'Transition' and 'The Tradition' respectively, compact little harbingers of death in the guise of a party of welcoming friends and a spectral white horse.
Of the other stories, 'The Wings of Horace' was another birdman rhapsody, all the better for its shorter length, and 'A Victim of Higher Space' has Dr. Silence (a recurring figure, though this is his only story in this collection) try to cure a patient who has learnt how to live in the fourth dimension.
On this evidence, brevity suited Blackwood.
March 9, 2015
A good book and good read. Certainly would have been much better. This is my first read of Algernon Blackwood. As I have read and understood the writings are more on the subject of supernatural and the effects on mind and human psychology to some extent. Taking this as granted and as i have heard a lot about the author expected something more as thoroughly enjoyable jerk free read throughout the reading. Taking that way it's a bit negative.
The book however started with "The Tryst" with excellent pace as the lover runs to see his fiance after 15 years. The story runs in the same pace as his mind and ends with the same pace.
Several other stories namely, "The Desert Episode," "By Water" I should give a perfect 5 star. The last one is presented so nicely where "He is died by drowning, yet he did not know he drowned." Couple of other Stories would follow the same line, "Victim of The Higher Space," here the victim gets stuck up in the fourth dimension and does not come out.
The last two stories are shorter but equally worth reading "The Tradition" and "Transition," where a person dies and as he dies he passes on from the world to another world, yet he did not understand the transition and understands late that he is dead.
Overall other stories made things a little jerky and hampered the flowof reading.
The book however started with "The Tryst" with excellent pace as the lover runs to see his fiance after 15 years. The story runs in the same pace as his mind and ends with the same pace.
Several other stories namely, "The Desert Episode," "By Water" I should give a perfect 5 star. The last one is presented so nicely where "He is died by drowning, yet he did not know he drowned." Couple of other Stories would follow the same line, "Victim of The Higher Space," here the victim gets stuck up in the fourth dimension and does not come out.
The last two stories are shorter but equally worth reading "The Tradition" and "Transition," where a person dies and as he dies he passes on from the world to another world, yet he did not understand the transition and understands late that he is dead.
Overall other stories made things a little jerky and hampered the flowof reading.
September 13, 2015
This volume contains 3 of my favorite Algernon Blackwood stories, "The Egyptian Hornet", "The Occupant of the Room", and "The Wings of Horus".
Blackwood's novels can be daunting to read if you have never read books from his time and are not used to his style. His short story collections are a good place to get exposure to his work.
Blackwood's novels can be daunting to read if you have never read books from his time and are not used to his style. His short story collections are a good place to get exposure to his work.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews