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Four Weird Tales
Originally compiled as a collection of four Algernon Blackwood stories for Project Gutenberg and released on the Gutenberg website on September 20, 2005.
INCLUDING:
The Insanity of Jones
The Man Who Found Out
The Glamour of the Snow
Sand
A NOTE ON THE TEXT:
These stories first appeared in Blackwood's story collections: "The Insanity of Jones" in The Listener and Other Stories (1907); "The Man Who Found Out" in The Wolves of God and Other Fey Stories (1921); "The Glamour of the Snow," and "Sand" in Pan's Garden (1912).
INCLUDING:
The Insanity of Jones
The Man Who Found Out
The Glamour of the Snow
Sand
A NOTE ON THE TEXT:
These stories first appeared in Blackwood's story collections: "The Insanity of Jones" in The Listener and Other Stories (1907); "The Man Who Found Out" in The Wolves of God and Other Fey Stories (1921); "The Glamour of the Snow," and "Sand" in Pan's Garden (1912).
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1907
83 people are currently reading
414 people want to read
About the author
Algernon Blackwood
1,336 books1,176 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 - 30 of 66 reviews
August 19, 2013
Such efforts have been put in the first three of the stories to pull us into their substance(at some times only). But SAND that is the largest, driest and overwritten of all neutralizes the other three stories by making the book dull as a whole.
And I had to try my hard best to complete it.
THE INSANITY OF JONES is understandably weird..a decent one.
THE GLAMOUR OF THE SNOW, I found equally well as the very first one.
Whereas THE MAN WHO FOUND OUT served as a page turner (to me)..an engaging piece of a horror story with a philosophical touch.
All the stories, though, do come up to the title of the boook and a concept common to all of them is
"OCCULT" ..
And I had to try my hard best to complete it.
THE INSANITY OF JONES is understandably weird..a decent one.
THE GLAMOUR OF THE SNOW, I found equally well as the very first one.
Whereas THE MAN WHO FOUND OUT served as a page turner (to me)..an engaging piece of a horror story with a philosophical touch.
All the stories, though, do come up to the title of the boook and a concept common to all of them is
"OCCULT" ..
August 12, 2016
The Insanity of Jones - its theme is either mental illness or revenge and reincarnation. Either way a good story. Whatever you chose to think, you'll still get an interesting story of obsession. (3)
The Man Who Found Out ends abruptly. A scholar has to watch his long time friend and mentor's life decline after a discovery of stone tablets which hold the secret of meaning of life. (2.5)
The Glamour of the Snow is my favourite. Old legends still live in remoter parts of the world and they don't love humans. (3.5)
Sand is the slowest of the four stories. I didn't really like this one. Some say it was too slow at places, others say the author was right to write it like that. I simply didn't enjoy all the spirituality. (2)
You can download it from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16726.
The Man Who Found Out ends abruptly. A scholar has to watch his long time friend and mentor's life decline after a discovery of stone tablets which hold the secret of meaning of life. (2.5)
The Glamour of the Snow is my favourite. Old legends still live in remoter parts of the world and they don't love humans. (3.5)
Sand is the slowest of the four stories. I didn't really like this one. Some say it was too slow at places, others say the author was right to write it like that. I simply didn't enjoy all the spirituality. (2)
You can download it from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16726.
September 14, 2014
Classic horror (and by classic I mean old, which oddly enough seems to be the main criteria for such things) for the most part fails to wow me. This book was no exception. I've read Wendigo by Blackwood before, so I had a fairly decent idea of what to expect (mainly exhaustive abundantly verbose descriptiveness), but wherein one story on a subject of interest worked well enough, four stories here, weird as they were, did not. Blackwood's writing seems to be something that I can appreciate more so than enjoy. His command of the language is admirable and his renditions of characters and settings are detailed and vivid (very much so, too much for me in fact), but, for all the words, there is barely any dialogue or action, which doesn't really make for a particularly engaging reading experience. More like a very slow,laborious and plodding one.
February 23, 2016
The best of all writing, to me, is the sort that makes you lose track of the words and begin to experience the story with your senses. Even better still, when those sensual experiences trigger half buried memories and wake parts of the mind that have long been sleeping and ask them to think, really think, again. That is what Algernon Blackwood's writing does for me. Complete mastery.
July 8, 2021
The Insanity of Jones - 3 stars. Reincarnation revenge.
The Man Who Found Out - 3 stars. Forbidden knowledge.
The Glamour of the Snow - 4 stars. Pagan snow spirit.
Sand - 2 stars. Summoning Egyptian gods.
The Man Who Found Out - 3 stars. Forbidden knowledge.
The Glamour of the Snow - 4 stars. Pagan snow spirit.
Sand - 2 stars. Summoning Egyptian gods.
March 26, 2023
2,5 ⭐
Unfortunately it is not one of Algernon's best works.
I liked the first two stories and I believe that the fourth one, Sand , is long and dragging and therefore the reader / listener gets bored.
Unfortunately it is not one of Algernon's best works.
I liked the first two stories and I believe that the fourth one, Sand , is long and dragging and therefore the reader / listener gets bored.
September 16, 2020
Algernon Blackwood (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English novelist and short-story writer best known for his stories of the supernatural. Many of his stories are in the public domain and online. I have previously read The Willows and The Man Whom the Trees Loved (online and as Librivox audio recordings). This is another Librivox recording: https://librivox.org/four-weird-tales... I started the John Silence stories but decided not to finish that collection at least for now and picked up this one instead; maybe I will try it some other time.) The readers are pretty much professional quality and I highly recommend it. All four stories are variations on a theme: the protagonist sets out to discover the secrets of the universe.
The Insanity of Jones -- A man seeks revenge for injustices suffered in a past life. or maybe he's just crazy; take your pick.
The Glamour of the Snow -- My favorite! A fine ghost story. Like The Willows this story deals with the terror and awe of the natural world. one of my favorite bits:
The world lay smothered in snow. The châlet roofs shone white beneath the moon, and pitch-black shadows gathered against the walls of the church. His eye rested a moment on the square stone tower with its frosted cross that pointed to the sky: then travelled with a leap of many thousand feet to the enormous mountains that brushed the brilliant stars. Like a forest rose the huge peaks above the slumbering village, measuring the night and heavens. They beckoned him. And something born of the snowy desolation, born of the midnight and the silent grandeur, born of the great listening hollows of the night, something that lay 'twixt terror and wonder, dropped from the vast wintry spaces down into his heart—and called him. Very softly, unrecorded in any word or thought his brain could compass, it laid its spell upon him. Fingers of snow brushed the surface of his heart. The power and quiet majesty of the winter's night appalled him...
The Man Who Found out -- A man discovers the secrets of the universe and then wishes he hadn't. This one fell a bit flat for me. But there's a good post about it as part of The Lovecraft Reread, a project at Tor.com about HP Lovecraft, writers (like Blackwood) who inspired him, and writers who were inspired by him.
https://www.tor.com/2018/02/21/you-wi...
Sand -- The protagonist travels to Egypt and joins two other travelers exploring the desert. This is the longest story in the collection. I liked the beginning, but I think this one is a bit too long and slow. It drags a bit.
The Insanity of Jones -- A man seeks revenge for injustices suffered in a past life. or maybe he's just crazy; take your pick.
The Glamour of the Snow -- My favorite! A fine ghost story. Like The Willows this story deals with the terror and awe of the natural world. one of my favorite bits:
The world lay smothered in snow. The châlet roofs shone white beneath the moon, and pitch-black shadows gathered against the walls of the church. His eye rested a moment on the square stone tower with its frosted cross that pointed to the sky: then travelled with a leap of many thousand feet to the enormous mountains that brushed the brilliant stars. Like a forest rose the huge peaks above the slumbering village, measuring the night and heavens. They beckoned him. And something born of the snowy desolation, born of the midnight and the silent grandeur, born of the great listening hollows of the night, something that lay 'twixt terror and wonder, dropped from the vast wintry spaces down into his heart—and called him. Very softly, unrecorded in any word or thought his brain could compass, it laid its spell upon him. Fingers of snow brushed the surface of his heart. The power and quiet majesty of the winter's night appalled him...
The Man Who Found out -- A man discovers the secrets of the universe and then wishes he hadn't. This one fell a bit flat for me. But there's a good post about it as part of The Lovecraft Reread, a project at Tor.com about HP Lovecraft, writers (like Blackwood) who inspired him, and writers who were inspired by him.
https://www.tor.com/2018/02/21/you-wi...
Sand -- The protagonist travels to Egypt and joins two other travelers exploring the desert. This is the longest story in the collection. I liked the beginning, but I think this one is a bit too long and slow. It drags a bit.
October 1, 2019
Ol' Algernon is always enjoyable, if a bit hit-or-miss with his offerings.
The Insanity of Jones - A man seeks revenge for a wrong done to him in a previous life. Or he's crazy; take your pick.
The Man Who Found Out - What if there is a meaning to life, and it turns out to be depressing? Part of the Cosmic Joke school of thought.
The Glamour of Snow - A guy falls in love with nature and, surprise, nature doesn't care that much for him.
Sand - Well over half of the length of the book. Evidently an attempt to portray the inner landscape of a man who witnesses a ritual for summoning dark beings or whatnot. Algernon doesn't quite pull it off.
The Insanity of Jones - A man seeks revenge for a wrong done to him in a previous life. Or he's crazy; take your pick.
The Man Who Found Out - What if there is a meaning to life, and it turns out to be depressing? Part of the Cosmic Joke school of thought.
The Glamour of Snow - A guy falls in love with nature and, surprise, nature doesn't care that much for him.
Sand - Well over half of the length of the book. Evidently an attempt to portray the inner landscape of a man who witnesses a ritual for summoning dark beings or whatnot. Algernon doesn't quite pull it off.
November 20, 2015
A very talented master of weird, with an uncanny gift for bringing landcapes to life. The novella about Egypt is on a par with The Willows, if a little wordy at times.
February 27, 2019
The Insanity of Jones - 4/5
The Man Who Found Out - 3/5
The Glamour of the Snow - 3.5/5
Sand - 1.5/5
Se è vero che Algernon Blackwood è il mio autore horror preferito e uno dei miei autori preferiti in generale, è vero pure che non consiglierei affatto questo libro per iniziare a conoscere questo autore.
Come dice il titolo sono 4 racconti, e come in tutte le raccolte la qualità varia da un racconto all'altro.
Il primo, "The Insanity of Jones", è il mio preferito: a seconda dei punti di vista può narrare una storia di reincarnazione (che è poi il sottotitolo del racconto), ma anche una storia di dissociazione nel senso di patologia mentale. Scritto bene, ricco di suspense, soprannaturale quanto basta, insomma Blackwood al meglio.
Il secondo, "The Man Who Found Out", è molto bello ma finisce in maniera bruschissima e sinceramente mi sarebbe piaciuto che proseguisse a svelare il segreto. Ok, l'uomo che ha scoperto... che cosa? Dunque, buono, ma con riserva.
Il terzo, "The Glamour of the Snow", è un gran bel racconto folkloristico e soprannaturale. Molti recensori dicono che sia il migliore della raccolta, io non sono d'accordo ma comunque mi è piaciuto molto.
Infine l'ultimo, "Sand", è quanto di più noioso e soprifero io abbia letto ultimamente, e mi dispiace molto dirlo perché adoro Blackwood. Lungo, insulso, ridondante, verboso e pregno di una spiritualità che non mi ha interessato per niente. Se leggeste questo racconto per primo non vorreste leggere altro di Blackwood, per cui non fatelo.
The Man Who Found Out - 3/5
The Glamour of the Snow - 3.5/5
Sand - 1.5/5
Se è vero che Algernon Blackwood è il mio autore horror preferito e uno dei miei autori preferiti in generale, è vero pure che non consiglierei affatto questo libro per iniziare a conoscere questo autore.
Come dice il titolo sono 4 racconti, e come in tutte le raccolte la qualità varia da un racconto all'altro.
Il primo, "The Insanity of Jones", è il mio preferito: a seconda dei punti di vista può narrare una storia di reincarnazione (che è poi il sottotitolo del racconto), ma anche una storia di dissociazione nel senso di patologia mentale. Scritto bene, ricco di suspense, soprannaturale quanto basta, insomma Blackwood al meglio.
Il secondo, "The Man Who Found Out", è molto bello ma finisce in maniera bruschissima e sinceramente mi sarebbe piaciuto che proseguisse a svelare il segreto. Ok, l'uomo che ha scoperto... che cosa? Dunque, buono, ma con riserva.
Il terzo, "The Glamour of the Snow", è un gran bel racconto folkloristico e soprannaturale. Molti recensori dicono che sia il migliore della raccolta, io non sono d'accordo ma comunque mi è piaciuto molto.
Infine l'ultimo, "Sand", è quanto di più noioso e soprifero io abbia letto ultimamente, e mi dispiace molto dirlo perché adoro Blackwood. Lungo, insulso, ridondante, verboso e pregno di una spiritualità che non mi ha interessato per niente. Se leggeste questo racconto per primo non vorreste leggere altro di Blackwood, per cui non fatelo.
July 2, 2021
Not my favorites by him to be honest. But that last one was pretty great, if only for its obvious influence upon lovecraft
September 1, 2022
The first three stories were good, but the last and longest story 'Sand' felt drawn out a bit.
I liked them, but not his best work
I liked them, but not his best work
September 3, 2016
Unsurprisingly this collection features four short stories. This is the first Blackwood I have read and I found his writing style overly verbose, getting carried away with lengthy and unnecessary description that kills any pace the story may have had. There are some good ideas in the stories, and the occasional gem in the descriptive writing, however I doubt I will read any more by this author.
The Insanity of Jones follows the harrowing schizophrenic descent of a man gripped by delusions and hallucinations. Dark and disturbing, we see the reasoning and logic that comes about from being detached from reality. Blackwood takes us down the rabbit hole masterfully, so that as readers we can see both the delusions yet also infer the reality behind each situation. Reminiscent of Gogol's Diary of a Madman. 4/5
The Man Who Found Out is a short story about discovering the ultimate secret of the universe and finding you cannot live with that terrible knowledge. Although very well written, the story concludes with a very weak and unsatisfying resolution. 3/5
The Glamour of the Snow follows the experience of a man who, while skiing in the mountains, it's enchanted by a beautiful and mysterious young woman he happens to meet in the dead of night. Unfortunately although the story is generally well written, the lack of anything actually happening combined with the predictability made this unrewarding to read. Maybe at a time when such stories were lesser known it would have been more worthwhile but in today's horror saturated world it had little left to offer. 3/5
Sand is the longest story of the four, taking up half of the book by itself. This story is about Egypt and old religion; our protagonist take up with two mysterious strangers in their attempt to perform a ritual. While an interesting story, I felt it dragged significantly at times with paragraph on paragraph of descriptive text. At times the writing was beautiful, however at other times the heavy use of complex and run on sentences made it arduous to read. 3/5
The Insanity of Jones follows the harrowing schizophrenic descent of a man gripped by delusions and hallucinations. Dark and disturbing, we see the reasoning and logic that comes about from being detached from reality. Blackwood takes us down the rabbit hole masterfully, so that as readers we can see both the delusions yet also infer the reality behind each situation. Reminiscent of Gogol's Diary of a Madman. 4/5
The Man Who Found Out is a short story about discovering the ultimate secret of the universe and finding you cannot live with that terrible knowledge. Although very well written, the story concludes with a very weak and unsatisfying resolution. 3/5
The Glamour of the Snow follows the experience of a man who, while skiing in the mountains, it's enchanted by a beautiful and mysterious young woman he happens to meet in the dead of night. Unfortunately although the story is generally well written, the lack of anything actually happening combined with the predictability made this unrewarding to read. Maybe at a time when such stories were lesser known it would have been more worthwhile but in today's horror saturated world it had little left to offer. 3/5
Sand is the longest story of the four, taking up half of the book by itself. This story is about Egypt and old religion; our protagonist take up with two mysterious strangers in their attempt to perform a ritual. While an interesting story, I felt it dragged significantly at times with paragraph on paragraph of descriptive text. At times the writing was beautiful, however at other times the heavy use of complex and run on sentences made it arduous to read. 3/5
October 29, 2012
The Glamour of Snow is a great ghost story written well and prob the best of the four. 3/5
The Man who Found Out is a great philosophical short story that about how the meaning of life and what that information can do to a man. 3/5
The Insanity of Jones is a decent story that got me hooked to read the next three stories because it was just a weird offside tale from the start. 2/5
Sand is the longest, overwritten, slowest paced, dullest, boring and most confusing tale of the bunch. If these short stories would've started with this one i prob would have not read the rest. This story drags the other stories down. 1/5
The only complaint about the stories I have on a whole is that they all featured a deeply philosophical, independent, deep thinking man whose wants to find out the mysteries of the universe through deep meditation and thought. While this is not a bad thing for one of these short stories it gets a little tiresome after 4 stories of the same guy. I believe Blackwood puts himself as the main character no matter what there name is in the story.
The Man who Found Out is a great philosophical short story that about how the meaning of life and what that information can do to a man. 3/5
The Insanity of Jones is a decent story that got me hooked to read the next three stories because it was just a weird offside tale from the start. 2/5
Sand is the longest, overwritten, slowest paced, dullest, boring and most confusing tale of the bunch. If these short stories would've started with this one i prob would have not read the rest. This story drags the other stories down. 1/5
The only complaint about the stories I have on a whole is that they all featured a deeply philosophical, independent, deep thinking man whose wants to find out the mysteries of the universe through deep meditation and thought. While this is not a bad thing for one of these short stories it gets a little tiresome after 4 stories of the same guy. I believe Blackwood puts himself as the main character no matter what there name is in the story.
October 8, 2012
"THE GLAMOUR OF THE SNOW" is excellent! worth the price of admission.
"THE MAN WHO FOUND OUT" is very interesting piece of horror philosophy.
"THE INSANITY OF JONES" is decent.
"SAND" (by far the longest) is long and overwritten to the point of tiresome.
Blackwood sometimes mires himself with long passages of pointless description.
"THE MAN WHO FOUND OUT" is very interesting piece of horror philosophy.
"THE INSANITY OF JONES" is decent.
"SAND" (by far the longest) is long and overwritten to the point of tiresome.
Blackwood sometimes mires himself with long passages of pointless description.
January 18, 2015
I have officially fallen in love with Blackwoods writing. I listened to the audiobook and I was amazed with the pictures he could paint with his words. Blackwood's tales of the weird make you awe at nature and a spark for the unknown. It is obvious through his writing that the author had a deep love for nature. If you are into the weird genre I highly recommend Blackwood.
March 31, 2019
Ik heb altijd al iets willen lezen van Algernon Blackwood, en nu het verhaal The Insanity of Jones werd besproken in de podcast Elder Sign, heb ik eindelijk een verhalenbundel gelezen.
Het zojuist genoemde verhaal is prachtig en verrassend, en opvallend voor de tijd waarin het geschreven is, omdat het uitgaat van een goede kennis van de psychiatrie: de lezer ziet een overtuigende waanwereld door de ogen van een 'waanzinnige', maar aan het eind draait het perspectief 180 graden en zien we opeens het 'monster' dat de buitenwereld ziet.
De andere drie verhalen gaan in op de ontdekkingen van het onbeschrijfelijke, het ultieme, de hoogste waarheid, die op een soms Lovecraftiaanse manier wordt beschreven. Toch blijft ook in deze verhalen de notie van 'waanzin' door het verhaal zweven, want het wordt voor de lezer eigenlijk nooit echt duidelijk wat dit 'ultieme' nu eigenlijk is. Het derde van deze drie verhalen, Sand, vond ik helaas veel te langdradig met te veel herhaling (iets wat critici vaker zeggen over de verhalen van Blackwood), al blijft de kern ervan boeiend.
Door de stijl dus 4 sterren, geen 5, maar ik ben zeker van plan meer van Blackwood te lezen.
Het zojuist genoemde verhaal is prachtig en verrassend, en opvallend voor de tijd waarin het geschreven is, omdat het uitgaat van een goede kennis van de psychiatrie: de lezer ziet een overtuigende waanwereld door de ogen van een 'waanzinnige', maar aan het eind draait het perspectief 180 graden en zien we opeens het 'monster' dat de buitenwereld ziet.
De andere drie verhalen gaan in op de ontdekkingen van het onbeschrijfelijke, het ultieme, de hoogste waarheid, die op een soms Lovecraftiaanse manier wordt beschreven. Toch blijft ook in deze verhalen de notie van 'waanzin' door het verhaal zweven, want het wordt voor de lezer eigenlijk nooit echt duidelijk wat dit 'ultieme' nu eigenlijk is. Het derde van deze drie verhalen, Sand, vond ik helaas veel te langdradig met te veel herhaling (iets wat critici vaker zeggen over de verhalen van Blackwood), al blijft de kern ervan boeiend.
Door de stijl dus 4 sterren, geen 5, maar ik ben zeker van plan meer van Blackwood te lezen.
September 14, 2022
Are these tales weird? Or are the narrators? Perhaps the degree of sensitivity they bring to a particular environment or person, seeing somthing fantastic in them. Sometimes the environment and the person become entangled in the narrator’s perspective. I found this sensitivity distinct, refreshing, and yet familar. Often there was as much wonder as horror in the experience.
I draw a great deal of inspiration from the peculiar insight of Algernon Blackwood’s characters and their ambient fantasy worlds which are deeply personal and mythic at the same time. They tell their tales in a language I find beautiful and often miss in a modern narrative. If any of this appeals to you, take a look at this engaging collection of stories.
I draw a great deal of inspiration from the peculiar insight of Algernon Blackwood’s characters and their ambient fantasy worlds which are deeply personal and mythic at the same time. They tell their tales in a language I find beautiful and often miss in a modern narrative. If any of this appeals to you, take a look at this engaging collection of stories.
October 10, 2021
'Weird' tales is about right.
The four stories in this book were interesting, left open to reader interpretation and about subjects including reincarnation/past lives, discovering humanity's reasons for existence, and godhood.
These were very reflective, though at times this meant the stories felt slow or too wordy. This is especially the case with the last story in the collection ('Sand'), which is close to the length of the other three stories put together.
While the subjects and ideas behind these stories were interesting, at times the book felt like a chore to read. I would recommend this if you're interested in 'old' horror or if you don't mind particularly verbose writing styles.
The four stories in this book were interesting, left open to reader interpretation and about subjects including reincarnation/past lives, discovering humanity's reasons for existence, and godhood.
These were very reflective, though at times this meant the stories felt slow or too wordy. This is especially the case with the last story in the collection ('Sand'), which is close to the length of the other three stories put together.
While the subjects and ideas behind these stories were interesting, at times the book felt like a chore to read. I would recommend this if you're interested in 'old' horror or if you don't mind particularly verbose writing styles.
August 12, 2020
Superb Writing
Evoking nature more vividly than anyone, Blackwood conjures layered insights from both the natural and supernatural worlds, not neglecting human psychology and genuine referents proving he knew what he was discussing with his deep themes and wonderful, awesome tales. In this collection we have three short stories and a magnificent novella, Sand, all of which raise nature spirits and ancient gods. Amazing, hypnotic prose draws the reader into unimaginable depths. Strongly recommended. / Gene Stewart
Evoking nature more vividly than anyone, Blackwood conjures layered insights from both the natural and supernatural worlds, not neglecting human psychology and genuine referents proving he knew what he was discussing with his deep themes and wonderful, awesome tales. In this collection we have three short stories and a magnificent novella, Sand, all of which raise nature spirits and ancient gods. Amazing, hypnotic prose draws the reader into unimaginable depths. Strongly recommended. / Gene Stewart
December 2, 2019
Despite the slightly archaic language of the early 1900's the four tales stir the imagination; can vengance survive death and ressurection, what if the fundamental secrets of the universe are too horrible to contemplate, are there sirens of winter and are ancient religions just awaiting someone to stage their comeback.
December 20, 2021
Entertaining fantasy listening 🔰😀
A will written fantasy thriller adventure of four short stories by Algemon Blackwood. Each story has it's own characters and story with it's conclusion. I would recommend this novel of short stories to anyone looking for a quick read. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or 🎶 listening to books 📚 2021 😮
A will written fantasy thriller adventure of four short stories by Algemon Blackwood. Each story has it's own characters and story with it's conclusion. I would recommend this novel of short stories to anyone looking for a quick read. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or 🎶 listening to books 📚 2021 😮
January 5, 2022
This was a great little collection of tales.
-The Insanity of Jones
-The Man Who Found Out
-The Glamour of Snow
-Sand
I enjoyed the first three a lot, short, to the point and the ends were all amazing. They deal with things like reincarnation, the occult, spirits, and the dangers of too much knowledge. Now my only complaint, Sand, it had a great ending, but it drug on to long.
-The Insanity of Jones
-The Man Who Found Out
-The Glamour of Snow
-Sand
I enjoyed the first three a lot, short, to the point and the ends were all amazing. They deal with things like reincarnation, the occult, spirits, and the dangers of too much knowledge. Now my only complaint, Sand, it had a great ending, but it drug on to long.
August 16, 2018
The first three stories in this book were suitably chilling, but the fourth story, while it was lyrically beautiful, dragged on and then ended abruptly, letting down the overall impression of Blackwood’s work. I recommend reading the first three stories and just skip the last one.
May 20, 2019
Very prosy.
People had more time when this was written. This first three stories move slowly, but end at least intetestingly. "Sand," however, is like reading congealed molasses. The "climax" isnt really worth the slog, either.
People had more time when this was written. This first three stories move slowly, but end at least intetestingly. "Sand," however, is like reading congealed molasses. The "climax" isnt really worth the slog, either.
November 4, 2019
The stories are interesting, but his writing style is incredibly hard to go through. It was a pain, for me at least. I felt like I was back in college trying to get through a book assigned by one of my professors.
March 3, 2020
The Insanity of Jones was one I've read before. It's a good story.
The Man Who Found Out was lovely. I've never read it before and it was just good.
The Glamour of the Snow was interesting. I think I've read it before? A good story.
Sand was interesting. I liked it a little.
The Man Who Found Out was lovely. I've never read it before and it was just good.
The Glamour of the Snow was interesting. I think I've read it before? A good story.
Sand was interesting. I liked it a little.
March 5, 2020
Would have been a five star, except for the undue length of “Sand.” The other stories were fantastic. Excellent look into how the dichotomy of modern man and savage was thought about in the early 1900s.
February 6, 2017
The first story captivated me, the second two nearly put me to sleep, and the fourth one was meh... the first one is worth a read though.
October 13, 2017
Four weird (and somewhat dull) tales indeed. However, the Glamour of the Snow was by far the exception. A beautiful and absolutely terrifying short story.
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