The Algernon Blackwood Collection (Annotated): The Empty House, The Damned, The Willows and The Wendigo

by Algernon Blackwood

The Algernon Blackwood Collection includes four of Blackwood's The Empty House, The Damned, The Willows and The Wendigo.

195 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 17, 2020

About the author

Algernon 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.

Reviews

[Natasha Van Duser · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tricky one to review. Algernon Blackwood is a major influence on some of the great gothic and cosmic horror writers, but not all of his stories were hits for me.

I'll start off by saying that both "The Wendigo" and "The Willows" deserve all the love and praise they constantly get, "The Wendigo," though, being the superior. However, I found both "The Empty House" and "The Damned" to be incredibly boring. There's a large contrast between these two sets of stories--the former take place in the unknown wilderness, while the latter take place in standard homes. The unknown of the outdoors becomes infinitely more horrific than the uncanny of inside, as there is only so much one can do with traditional ghosts stories.

All of that being said, Blackwood is a master of atmosphere and unease, allowing the reader to descend into uncertainty alongside the protagonists, creating an effective, yet uncomfortable collection of stories that have stood the test of time.

[Steampunk Pagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the atmosphere created in each of the stories but I just couldn't find myself getting invested into the characters. For my character development is a keystone of any story telling. If you are looking for a fantastic example of atmospheric writing then these stories are a fine example though.