Ghosts Who Wander

The Wood of the Dead by Algernon Blackwood (1906)

 Tuesday’s Tale of Terror    September 9, 2014

 

Let’s think that time has no existence. Past and future exist in the present. Pain and pleasure are one in the same. Author Algernon Blackwood brings us to this timelessness in The Wood of the Dead. A traveler is wandering the countryside and comes across an “old rustic” man and a maiden of loveliness. He pursues the mystery  about the village ghost who lives in the woods.

 

“Instantly the shadows closed in upon me and “something” came forward to meet me from the centre of the darkness. It would be easy enough to meet my imagination half-way with fact, and say that a cold hand grasped my own and led me by invisible paths into the unknown depths of the grove …”

 

If you’ve been following this blog, you know how much I appreciate a well-written ghost story. And if you have read any of my own ghost short stories or my ghostly novel The Dazzling Darkness, you know how important ghosts are to me personally. Blackwood is truly a mentor for me because he explores human consciousness, not just the ghost of humans.

 

Algernon Blackwood is an author who writes artfully of fear and ghostly beauty at the same time. He is likely one of the most prolific  and impressive writers of  ghost stories that you’ll find. I read Blackwood whenever I want a moody story that will conjure vivid images and provide a supernatural adventure with compelling ghosts. He knocks on the ghostly thoughts within all of us and leaves impressions that  last long after you’ve closed the book.

 

 

Come into the Wood of the Dead and you’ll see what I mean.

 

Read The Wood of the Dead at ReadBookOnline.net

 

A Woman’s Ghost Story is another of Blackwood’s stories that I liked. Read A Woman’s Ghost Story at Gutenberg.org (scroll to choose page 108)

 

 

 

Librivox Recordings of Algernon Blackwood short stories (The Woman’s Ghost Story, The House of the Past, The Empty House, Wendigo, The Occupant of the Room, and other shorts). Choose “Short Ghost and Horror Story Collection 020” at bottom of page for title selections for audio versions:

  http://article.wn.com/view/2014/03/15/Horror_writer_Algernon_Blackwood_turns_145_today_so_read_the/

 

Other Reading Web Sites to Visit

Bibliophilica       Lovecraft Ezine

Horror Novel Reviews    Hell Horror    HorrorPalace

HorrorSociety.com       Sirens Call Publications

 Monster Librarian  Tales to Terrify       Spooky Reads

 Rob Around Books    The Story Reading Ape Blog

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