Late October 2025 The Willows > Likes and Comments
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OK. I liked the Willows a lot and will be glad for an extra discussion.
This has my attention because Blackwood has inspired me to write about humans and landscape. Giving The Willows its due now.
I have not yet read Blackwood and have been intending to do so for a few years so I am likely to participate. I have an anthology of his stories l, “Ancient Sorceries.” I am sure I will also read “The Wendigo.”
I've read The Willows more than once-it's good!
Cool, thanks Dan (I'm the one who nominated this story earlier). I'll definitely be joining in the reading here. James wrote: "I have not yet read Blackwood and have been intending to do so for a few years ...
I also haven't read any Blackwood yet, but I did listen to an old radio version of the "Ancient Sorceries" short story some time ago (from the Escape show), I liked it.
I have heard it said that this story here by Algernon Blackwood was H. P. Lovecraft's favorite. Of all time. Ever. Is this true? Can anyone find verification for me, the source of this "fact?"I personally have started to read this story before, but never finished it. When I began it the first time a couple years ago, I DNFed it intentionally. I found Blackwood's long starting description of the Danube River alone, no real characters, no real situation, completely exasperating. I wondered if I had missed something and began the story again last year. I quickly came to realize that the river is Blackwood's first character. And I absolutely love the innovation. It makes this story unique. But I DNFed it again by accident that time. This time, my third visit to it, I plan to finish it. I am so glad Dave J. suggested this story.
I've been on the lower part of the Danube on a river cruise, in 2006. For an entire day's cruising we saw nothing but nature, like in The Willows, but nothing supernatural.It was a very peaceful day.
It's nice to know that part of Hungary is still remote enough to belong to nature.I did a little more digging using A.I. and found out the following: H.P. Lovecraft expressed appreciation for Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows" in his 1927 essay, where he praised Blackwood's ability to create a powerful atmosphere and depict the extraordinary within the ordinary. Lovecraft highlighted that Blackwood's storytelling, particularly in "The Willows," exemplifies the key elements of cosmic horror, such as the intrusion of human beings into areas they should better stay out of and the juxtaposition of human insignificance and cosmic power. Lovecraft's recognition of Blackwood's genius in orchestrating eerie ambiance further underscores the influence of Blackwood's work on Lovecraft's own literary style and themes.
What 1927 essay is this? Supernatural Horror in Literature.
As I re-read The Willows I made notes:1. Blackwood's description of plants, trees, landscape, earth, rivers, geography—incredibly rich--the result of deep observation.
2. Exploring that boundary between real life and… that which we find in weird fiction and find in the landscape--amazing--the elements--existential guesswork?
3. Unseen fears on the edge of man’s knowledge of the landscape.
4. Where imagination is shocked by the real life landscape and where could I have been and where was I when imagination transformed into inspiration caused by something in the landscape?
5. “Great revelations of nature, of course, never fail to impress in one way or another, and I was no stranger to moods of the kind. Mountains overawe and oceans terrify, while the mystery of great forests exercises a spell peculiarly its own.”
Excerpt From
The Willows
Algernon Blackwood
6. Interactions with the landscape—links with humans.
7. “stirred in me this sensation of a strange distress”
Excerpt From
The Willows
Algernon Blackwood
8. Other noteworthy landscape stories by Blackwood--The Man Who Loved the Trees--Descent into Egypt
9. Were these stories how Blackwood and we use the landscape to face the existential problems of life?
Dan wrote: "What 1927 essay is this? Supernatural Horror in Literature"It certainly looks like it's based on Supernatural Horror in Literature, and you can find the 1927 edition here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Re...
The edition I've read, from 1938, reads:
The well-nigh endless array of Mr. Blackwood's fiction includes both novels and shorter tales, the latter sometimes independent and sometimes arrayed in series. Foremost of all must be reckoned The Willows, in which the nameless presences on a desolate Danube island are horribly felt and recognised by a pair of idle voyagers. Here art and restraint in narrative reach their very highest development, and an impression of lasting poignancy is produced without a, single strained passage or a single false note.
Definitely worth a read to find ideas for further reading, if nothing else.
More often than not, when I've used AI for fact checking and double checked those results by looking at other, more reliable sources, AI has tended to hallucinate/make up stuff. So, I don't put much stock in it anymore (but I do use it for brainstorming etc.), but I checked my copy of the essay too and can of course see praise of Blackwood and a mention of "The Willows" as quoted by Per.Lovecraft mentions other of his stories too, like "The Wendigo", "An Episode in a Lodging House", "The Listener", "Jimbo", "The Centaur", and the five tales in "John Silence - Physician Extraordinary". He definitely seems to have been impressed by his weird fiction!
So, for the last half of October, allow me to make good on a pledge to that member to somehow get back to this work. And let's spotlight and dig deep into this one novella in isolate for 16 days before we dig into November's group read, which is yet to be determined. This is the first Moderator Short Take selection for the group.