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The Willows. The Wendigo
"The Willows": Two friends are midway on a canoe trip down the Danube River. Throughout the story Blackwood personifies the surrounding environment—river, sun, wind—and imbues them with a powerful and ultimately threatening character. Most ominous are the masses of dense, desultory, menacing willows, which "moved of their own will as though alive, and they touched, by some incalculable method, my own keen sense of the horrible." "The Willows" is one of Algernon Blackwood's best known short stories. American 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.
"The Wendigo" by Algernon Blackwood follows a group of adventurers venturing into the Canadian wilderness. As they delve deeper, they encounter unsettling phenomena and eerie encounters. Soon, they realize they're stalked by a malevolent force, the Wendigo, a mythical creature of Native American folklore...
"The Wendigo" by Algernon Blackwood follows a group of adventurers venturing into the Canadian wilderness. As they delve deeper, they encounter unsettling phenomena and eerie encounters. Soon, they realize they're stalked by a malevolent force, the Wendigo, a mythical creature of Native American folklore...
- GenresHorror
152 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2021
5 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Algernon Blackwood
1,334 books1,174 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 18, 2025
It’s a bit weird that the way I found out about Algernon Blackwood was via a Reddit post. I simply looked up “classic horror books to read” on Google, and among the typical suggestions of Dracula, Frankenstein, and numerous Steven King works, The Willows and the Wendigo stood out. I can see why.
Positives
Vocabulary: While larger, more obscure words are great at making your story more unique, they can have a tendency to take a reader out of the book if used too frequently. Luckily, I was reading the Heathen Edition of this book, which has a number of footnotes to quickly get the reader past strange phrases and local vernacular. There was the odd time I’d have to look a word up on my own, but it rarely distracted me for long.
Suspense: Blackwood makes the reader slightly uneasy as soon as they begin reading, putting his characters in treacherous environments that require active survival. When it’s time for the horror to set in, it begins with details that have already been described becoming more menacing; ex: the wind beginning to whisper, or the complete absence of tracks in the snow being undercut by giant unfamiliar marks. For the sake of spoilers I won’t describe more, but rest assured it just gets better.
Isolation: One of the primary themes across both of these stories is isolation. The Willows has only two characters throughout, and The Wendigo has a small group of five that quickly becomes a hunting party of two as our protagonist travels deeper into the wild. The sense of danger is increased through the emphasis of the power of nature. Islands slowly crumble into the swamp, and the trees seem to congregate and conspire against the adventurers. Expertly written.
Negatives
None that I can think of. I already covered how looking up obscure words might frustrate people, but that wasn’t really the case with me. This book is fantastic and it’s just over one hundred pages. If you like horror, you should read it.
10/10
Positives
Vocabulary: While larger, more obscure words are great at making your story more unique, they can have a tendency to take a reader out of the book if used too frequently. Luckily, I was reading the Heathen Edition of this book, which has a number of footnotes to quickly get the reader past strange phrases and local vernacular. There was the odd time I’d have to look a word up on my own, but it rarely distracted me for long.
Suspense: Blackwood makes the reader slightly uneasy as soon as they begin reading, putting his characters in treacherous environments that require active survival. When it’s time for the horror to set in, it begins with details that have already been described becoming more menacing; ex: the wind beginning to whisper, or the complete absence of tracks in the snow being undercut by giant unfamiliar marks. For the sake of spoilers I won’t describe more, but rest assured it just gets better.
Isolation: One of the primary themes across both of these stories is isolation. The Willows has only two characters throughout, and The Wendigo has a small group of five that quickly becomes a hunting party of two as our protagonist travels deeper into the wild. The sense of danger is increased through the emphasis of the power of nature. Islands slowly crumble into the swamp, and the trees seem to congregate and conspire against the adventurers. Expertly written.
Negatives
None that I can think of. I already covered how looking up obscure words might frustrate people, but that wasn’t really the case with me. This book is fantastic and it’s just over one hundred pages. If you like horror, you should read it.
10/10
October 11, 2022
Truly terrifying stories. Blackwood (besides some outdated ideas on race and nationality that seep through) wrote like he could belong to any decade, any century. These stories capture the smallness of humanity in the broad scope of the unknown better even than Lovecraft. He writes like a humble chronicler, as if he were simply recording mankind's brushes with forces larger than itself. As if pure folklore were tumbling from his fingers onto the page.
I read these stories to get myself in a spooky mood, and found myself instead sitting up in bed, afraid to turn out the lights.
As for the edition, the preceding essay was great and some of the annotations helpful, though I feel like the editing staff doesn't have the best grasp on which "antiquated" words the audience would need to have defined and which are still fairly common.
I read these stories to get myself in a spooky mood, and found myself instead sitting up in bed, afraid to turn out the lights.
As for the edition, the preceding essay was great and some of the annotations helpful, though I feel like the editing staff doesn't have the best grasp on which "antiquated" words the audience would need to have defined and which are still fairly common.
October 20, 2025
I was recommended this book for the Halloween season 🎃👻💀
The Willows was definitely the lesser of the two. I didn’t care for it.
The Wendigo was better but the ending felt really anticlimactic to me?
This could be because I read more modern stories but I wanted to see more of the monsters? More of the horror?
It always felt like we were on the cusp of being horrific, monstrous maybe even gory but then things were immediately scaled back. Like I said, that could just be me being a reader of more modern books because my brother, who suggested it, loves it.
The Willows was definitely the lesser of the two. I didn’t care for it.
The Wendigo was better but the ending felt really anticlimactic to me?
This could be because I read more modern stories but I wanted to see more of the monsters? More of the horror?
It always felt like we were on the cusp of being horrific, monstrous maybe even gory but then things were immediately scaled back. Like I said, that could just be me being a reader of more modern books because my brother, who suggested it, loves it.
April 3, 2023
"Look! By my soul!" he whispered, and for the first time in my experience I knew what it was to hear tears of terror in a human voice. He was pointing to the fire, some fifty feet away. I followed the direction of his finger, and I swear my heart missed a beat."
Both stories memorable and truly frightening. A pleasant discovery. I highly recommend.
Both stories memorable and truly frightening. A pleasant discovery. I highly recommend.
June 2, 2025
a couple of fantastic short stories
May 6, 2025
ต้นฉบับคือสนุกมากโดยเฉพาะ The Willows งานชั้นครูอย่างแท้จริง
"แต่ฉบับแปลไทย ของ สนพ. เวลา"
เหมือนใช้ Google Translate แถมไม่พิสูจน์อักษร
เสียเงินไม่ว่า อ่านไปเสียอารมณ์ไป
สุดท้ายอ่านจบต้องหยิบฉบับภาษาอังกฤษมาอ่านล้างสมองอีกรอบ
"แต่ฉบับแปลไทย ของ สนพ. เวลา"
เหมือนใช้ Google Translate แถมไม่พิสูจน์อักษร
เสียเงินไม่ว่า อ่านไปเสียอารมณ์ไป
สุดท้ายอ่านจบต้องหยิบฉบับภาษาอังกฤษมาอ่านล้างสมองอีกรอบ
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews