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Gilded Nightmares – Timeless British Library Books
The Whisperers and Other Stories: A Lifetime of the Supernatural
'Back from the shouting floor and ceiling came the chorus of images that stormed and clamoured for expression. Jones lay still and listened; he let them come. There was nothing else to do.'
Algernon Blackwood was one of the most influential writers of twentieth-century weird and supernatural fiction. He once told a correspondent that every story he wrote was based on either a personal experience or that of someone he knew, and thus the vast collection of short stories and novels published in his lifetime can be seen to form a kind of autobiography.
In this collection of his most atmospheric and uneasy tales, Mike Ashley provides the facts of Blackwood’s life which inspired each story – including experiences as an intelligence agent in the First World War and adventures in New York – to tell the parallel tale of the author’s lifetime of the supernatural.
Algernon Blackwood was one of the most influential writers of twentieth-century weird and supernatural fiction. He once told a correspondent that every story he wrote was based on either a personal experience or that of someone he knew, and thus the vast collection of short stories and novels published in his lifetime can be seen to form a kind of autobiography.
In this collection of his most atmospheric and uneasy tales, Mike Ashley provides the facts of Blackwood’s life which inspired each story – including experiences as an intelligence agent in the First World War and adventures in New York – to tell the parallel tale of the author’s lifetime of the supernatural.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2022
12 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
Algernon Blackwood
1,393 books1,193 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 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 11, 2022
Mike Ashley is a fantastic anthologist and archaeologist of weird fiction. All sorts of writers have come back into the light (or semi-darkness) as a result of his sterling efforts over the years. He's had a particular interest in Algernon Blackwood, publishing an interesting biography of him ('Starlight Man') and including his work in numerous collections. This latest one is an attractive hardback from the British Library, and Ashley's introduction and brief notes to the stories are filled with revealing details about Blackwood's life (at last I know who the alter ego is in 'Onandonandon'). Unfortunately, quite a few of the stories themselves are very minor ones, with pieces such as 'A Desert Episode' filled with the sort of sentimental mysticism that the author always lapsed into when dealing with relationships between men and women. If you've not read Blackwood before, don't start here. Read his greatest hits, e.g., 'The Willows', 'The Wendigo', 'Ancient Sorceries', and the early (pre-1914) ghost stories. There are some worthy tales in it ('Onandonandon', the very late 'Roman Remains', 'The Empty House'), but the collection as a whole doesn't show him at his best, despite Ashley's appealing advocacy.
August 23, 2023
A fascinating collection of turn-of-the-last-century tales from a voice I'd never heard of prior to seeing and then checking out the book at the library.
Blackwood clearly had substantial influence on many of the great horror writers of his era, and the lush prose of his horror vignettes is perfectly Edwardian in flavor. Ornate, claustrophobic, and darkly mystic, I found the writing flowed well. The tales...sometimes little more than vignettes...do vary in quality and focus, but the best of them are both many and well worth it, and the worst you can simply skip over. One of the joys of a short story collection is that you aren't obliged to read them all, and I didn't.
One peculiarity: this edition noted that it would be modifying Blackwood's text, censoring out terms that offended modern sensibilities. I only noted that on a few occasions, when the word "negro" was rendered "n---o." Wasn't aware that was an offensive term, unless it was filling in for a more racist N word.
A fine collection. Glad I picked it up.
Blackwood clearly had substantial influence on many of the great horror writers of his era, and the lush prose of his horror vignettes is perfectly Edwardian in flavor. Ornate, claustrophobic, and darkly mystic, I found the writing flowed well. The tales...sometimes little more than vignettes...do vary in quality and focus, but the best of them are both many and well worth it, and the worst you can simply skip over. One of the joys of a short story collection is that you aren't obliged to read them all, and I didn't.
One peculiarity: this edition noted that it would be modifying Blackwood's text, censoring out terms that offended modern sensibilities. I only noted that on a few occasions, when the word "negro" was rendered "n---o." Wasn't aware that was an offensive term, unless it was filling in for a more racist N word.
A fine collection. Glad I picked it up.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews