I am a big fan of Horror, including the classics, but I feel like massive POSER having just now experienced for the first time Algernon Blackwood’s inspiring novella of otherworldly dread. This is simply such a superbly crafted tale that it is not hard to see why H.P. Lovecraft (whose work I love) called this the best supernatural tale in the English language. As HPL himself put it: 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. Um, uh...yeah, what he said.While I would certainly include Lovecraft’s own work in the discussion of English Lit’s finest dread delivery systems, this atmospheric corker certainly makes the short list. He made my manliness sweat. The Willows opens with two friends on a canoe trip down the Danube River between Vienna and Budapest where they enter an area described by our narrator as “a region of singular loneliness and desolation...covered by a vast sea of low willow-bushes.” In the very first sentence of the story, Blackwood has given us the characters, the set up and already begun to imbue the story with a sense of dread. That’s quite an impressive opening. The pair are eventually forced onto a sandy island by rough waters and here begins an ordeal that absolutely defines the slow, steady creation of increasing dread and horror through subtlety and understated language. If you will forgive the reference, it reminded me a bit of the method used in “The Blair Witch Project” (which I greatly enjoyed) in so far as the events are never entirely clear....BUT YOU KNOW SOMETHING’S VERY WRONG!!One of the many things Blackwood does so very effectively is his infusion of almost human-like qualities into his description of the environmental features existing in the story. For example, early on he describes the Danube as follows: Sleepy at first, but later developing violent desires as it became conscious of its deep soul, it rolled, like some huge fluid being, through all the countries we had passed, holding our little craft on its mighty shoulders, playing roughly with us sometimes, yet always friendly and well-meaning, till at length we had come inevitably to regard it as a Great Personage. That is just deliciously epic prose spilling onto the page. Once stranded, everything surrounding the pair of increasingly nervous adventurers begins to display a sort of anthropomorphic character and very little of it is friendly. Blackwood is particularly effective when describing the titular object of the story: The [Willows] kept up a sort of independent movement of their own, rustling among themselves when no wind stirred, and shaking oddly from the roots upwards. 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. The forces of the region drew nearer with the coming of night. They were focusing upon our island, and more particularly upon ourselves. For thus, somehow, in the terms of the imagination, did my really indescribable sensations in this extraordinary place present themselves.We are talking about Willows here...WILLOWS...and yet Blackwood has me in full on creep out at this point. By this time, my goosebumps had gone condo and I had basically resigned myself that some nameless horror was going to ice me before the end of the story.Eventually the two become convinced that the place they have been “brought” is a nexus between our world and the world of nameless, immensely powerful beings the likes of which mankind has no conception. Apparitions, strange occurrences, unusual tracks in the sand and bizarre noises that seem to register not in the ear but deep inside the brain. All of this creates tension that is palpable and it made even my brain shiver. Algernon handles all of this tension and build up beautifully and steers the narrative to a climax that is perfectly suited to the story and leaves the reader very satisfied (if you consider a sack of tear-stained jelly satisfied). I thought it was a tremendous piece of literature and showed Blackwood as a master of language, pace and narrative tension. I am looking forward to devouring more of his work in the very near future. 4.5 to 5.0 stars. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!
This review and more over at The Bibliophile Chronicles!A wonderful supernatural tale that will fill you with dread, every time you read it! Synopsis:Two companions set out on a canoeing trip down the Danube river. They laugh and enjoy their time travelling and admiring the scenery. The friends camp for the night on a small island where mysterious things begin to happen. One of their paddles disappear, strange funnels appear in the sand and is it their imagination or have the willow bushes that surround the island moved closer? The two friends must find a way off the island before disaster strikes. Review:I absolutely love this book, I've read it before and it is no less creepy and wonderful the second time around. Personally I think that horror novels/films are most effective when you don’t actually see anything. That eerie sense of not knowing what is there seems to result in such a strong feeling of discomfort. That is very much at play in The Willows. Previously I had never heard of Algernon Blackwood, but this is one of his most popular stories, and part of the reason for that is the complete horror and the story instils. HP Lovecraft stated his belief that it is the finest supernatural tale in English literature. This is a must read for fans of horror and weird fiction.The story is a fairly simple one, but it’s amazingly executed. The two try to deny all that they have seen and the narrator in true human fashion, attempts to find explanations for the various fantastic things that happen, but as their lives become threatened, they admit to all they have seen and find a way off the tiny island they've inhabited. It’s dark, compelling and a truly fascinating read.“When common objects in this way become 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.”The novel makes an interesting study of psychology, and how things that are so ordinary to us, willow bushes, otters and the wind, can turn into something truly monstrous. There is also the question of the reliability of the story, did these haunting things happen to the companions, or is the story simply a hallucination of two people exhausted from travelling?It is easy to see the effect such a story would have on master horror writer HP Lovecraft. It’s a truly wonderful story and if you’re a fan of weird fiction, definitely stick this one on your wish list.
Do You like book The Willows (2002)?
"After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest, the Danube enters a region of singular loneliness and desolation, where its waters spread away on all sides regardless of a main channel, and the country becomes a swamp for miles upon miles, covered by a vast sea of low willow-bushes. On the big maps this deserted area is painted in a fluffy blue, growing fainter in color as it leaves the banks, and across it may be seen in large straggling letters the word Sumpfe, meaning marches.In high flood this great acreage of sand, shingle-beds, and willow-grown islands is almost topped by the water, but in normal seasons the bushes bend and rustle in the free winds, showing their silver leaves to the sunshine in an ever-moving plain of bewildering beauty. These willows never attain to the dignity of trees; they have no rigid trunks; they remain humble bushes, with rounded tops and soft outlines, swaying on slender stems that answer to the least pressure of the wind; supple as grasses, and so continually shifting that they somehow give the impression that the entire plain is moving and alive. For the wind sends waves rising and falling over the whole surface, waves of leaves instead of waves of water, green swells like the sea, too, until the branches turn and lift, and then silvery white as their underside turns to the sun.Happy to slip beyond the control of the stern banks, the Danube here wanders about at will among the intricate network of channels intersecting the islands everywhere with broad avenues down which the waters pour with a shouting sound; making whirlpools, eddies, and foaming rapids; tearing at the sandy banks; carrying away masses of shore and willow-clumps; and forming new islands innumerably which shift daily in size and shape and possess at best an impermanent life, since the flood-time obliterates their very existence."And thus begins The Willows written by Algernon Blackwood, a prolific ghost story writer who wrote primarily during the early to mid 1900s. Too long to be considered a short story but too short to be considered a novel, The Willows is best classified as a novelette and as such can be easily enjoyed during one sitting.It only takes reading the first few pages to see why Algernon Blackwood was included as a "Modern Master" in H.P. Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature." It also proves that a good tale of the supernatural with horror elements does not preclude it from also being quality literature.Blackwood was a genius at using the awesomeness, vastness, and loneliness of nature to create a foreboding conducive to a "ghost/supernatural" story.In this work an alien or ancient supernatural force is encountered by two unsuspecting explorers who must make camp on a deserted piece of dwindling island as they wait out a storm and fret over rising water levels. I couldn't help but think of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. For that reason I would recommend to fans of Lovecraft's work, specifically the Cthulhu mythos and/or anyone who enjoys a well-written tale with supernatural elements.A few more quotes: The sense of remoteness from the world of humankind, the utter isolation, the fascination of this singular world of willows, winds, and waters, instantly laid its spell upon us both...Mountains overawe and oceans terrify, while the mystery of great forest exercises a spell peculiarly its own.The loneliness of the place had entered our very bones, and silence seemed natural, for after a bit the sound of our voices became a trifle unreal and forced; whispering would have been the fitting mode of communication, I felt, and the human voice, always rather absurd amid the roar of the elements, now carried with it something almost illegitimate. It was like talking out loud in church, or in some place where it was not lawful perhaps not quite safe, to be overheard.An explanation of some kind was an absolute necessity, just as some working explanation of the universe is necessary--however absurd--to the happiness of every individual who seeks to do his duty in the world and face the problems.
—Shaun
The Willows is the most suspenseful 50 pages I have ever read. This ghost story about two men canoeing down the Danube River really struck a nerve in me because it really hits upon the heart of man’s fear. It conveys the same sense of dread and distress that every person has experienced at some point in their lives. Whether it is taking a wrong turn into a bad neighborhood, a noise in your house that wakes you in the middle of the night, or that strange shadow you see when you are alone in a parking lot at night. This story contains that same emotion of apprehension that everyone feels when they are somewhere that they do not belong or in a situation that just does not seem right. The Willows is that uneasy situation and it is told in a way that sucks the reader into the tension and makes them want to run away and never look back.
—Sean
I always like to think about the transgressions of the protagonists in horror stories. Something has to cause/invite the horror. In The Willows, the narrator and the Swede eschew human civilization and in doing so, they unwittingly enter into a forbidden territory: "we allowed laughingly to one another that we ought by rights to have held some special kind of passport to admit us, and that we had, somewhat audaciously, come without asking leave into a separate little kingdom of wonder and magic--a kingdom that was reserved for the use of others who had a right to it, with everywhere unwritten warnings to trespassers..."As is usual in horror, despite the many warnings the protagonists receive, they arrogantly or naively persist in their journey. The narrator's dismissive tone soon changes. The moral of this story appears to be that man has his place in the world, but there are some spaces/places that are not meant for him. The narrator and the Swede stumble onto what appears to be a conduit to another universe or realm. The forces of man and of alien cannot co-exist: one of them must be destroyed. Clearly, there must be areas left on earth that are unsullied by the human race: there must be some room allotted to The Other. This is a masterly, chilling tale. It'll certainly be considered a bit slow in its pacing by modern audiences; however, if they have the patience, they'll certainly be rewarded.
—Lisa Dee
