The Willows

by Algernon Blackwood

Overview

East of Vienna, a canoe trip down the length of the Danube River turns strange and horrifying. The two men traveling find it bad enough when they are forced to camp on an isolated island in the middle of nowhere while gale-force winds howl and waters rise. But soon, the threats take on a supernatural tinge. Wild sounds and visions in the night convince the men that they’re being hunted by beings from another dimension, who are not so much malicious as vastly, cosmically indifferent to their welfare–and hungry.

Algernon Blackwood has influenced weird fiction and horror writers down to the present day, with H.P. Lovecraft naming him among the modern masters of the genre. The Willows, which first appeared in The Listener and Other Stories (1907), is one of his best-known tales. Noted weird fiction writer Ruthanna Emrys enlivens the text with sprightly commentary and traces the streams of story to their headwaters in a poetic and penetrating introduction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783962721947
Publisher:	Otbebookpublishing
Publication date:	12/31/2017
Series:	Classics To Go
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	105
File size:	360 KB

About the Author

Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English short story writer and novelist, one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator. S. T. Joshi has stated that "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”. (Wikipedia)

Editorial Reviews

Emrys' masterful annotations and enlightening introduction provide fine insights into how the weird casts its spell in Blackwood's classic story.”—David Sandner, editor of The Afterlife of Frankenstein

“Emrys sketches the work’s historical, ecological, and literary context in sharply written and insightful notes that are an absolute pleasure to read.” —Rebecca Campbell, Ursula K. Le Guin Prize–winning author of Arboreality

"This is where slow-burn horror originated.” —Brian Evenson, Shirley Jackson Award–winning author of Song for the Unraveling of the World

From the Publisher