british

S. T. Joshi, who edited and introduced these short stories by Algernon Blackwood rightfully classifies them as 'weird fiction' rather than ghost stories. Blackwood was a pantheist and a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, eventually branching out into Buddhism and Rosicrucianism, and his stories reveal a deep, mystical appreciation of Nature, with a capital 'N.' The author was an avid camper and spent many happy summers in the backwoods of Canada communing with his incomprehensible, dangerous, and beautiful mistress.

Nature serves as his haunted domain in some of the John Silence stories, most notably "The Camp of the Dog," and also in two of his most anthologized stories, "The Willows" and "The Wendigo."

You will need to equip yourself with two reading gears in the John Silence stories (not the author's best work by any means): a leisurely course through his descriptions of nature and the awesome terror of his hauntings; and a fast forward through the mystical, occult blah-blah whereby John Silence tries to explain away the terror and awe.

John Silence serves as both a psychiatrist and an exorcist in these stories, and the hapless, bumbling narrators are always falling about in awe of his occult powers. However, the good physician is a bit schizophrenic about the occult. In this book's first story, "A Psychical Invasion" a potential client tries to explain why she has come to him:

"Your sympathetic heart and your knowledge of occultism---"

"Oh, please--that dreadful word!" he [Dr. Silence] interrupted, holding up a finger with a gesture of impatience."

And yet John Silence is always reading minds, performing magical rites, and defending ordinary mortals against the powers of Darkness.

All of these stories will send a chill down your spine, as long as you skip lightly past the mystical, rather pompous blather of the main character:

"A Psychical Invasion"--A young author who takes a mind-expanding drug accidentally puts himself in touch with an ancient evil. John Silence and his cat and his collie spend a night in the author's haunted house on Putney Heath and are attacked by dreadful, occult forces.

"Ancient Sorceries"--A masterful portrait of a shy misogynist who escapes from a noisy trainload of English tourists, only to find himself in a very strange, sleepy little French village. As the narrator is leaving the train, a Frenchman leans out and mutters a half-understood warning that ends in: "á cause du sommeil et á cause des chats." Beware of sleep and cats. Blackwood slowly builds a powerful, eerie atmosphere around the narrator as he tries to decide whether to escape, or to stay forever in the mysterious village.

"The Nemesis of Fire"--This story has some genuinely frightening moments as fire elementals and an ancient Egyptian curse haunt a peaceful, English countryside. Blood is drunk, faces are blasted to ruin, and you'll need to employ your fast-forward gear through quite a few explanatory paragraphs.

"Secret Worship"--As dusk falls in the hills of the Black Forest, a silk merchant revisits the school where he spent his childhood with the Moravian Brothers (just as the author did). Lots of atmosphere and a slow build to a terrifying climax: "And then the room filled and trembled with sounds that...were the failing voices of others who had preceded him in a long series down the years." Blackwood is not very specific in his descriptions of the Other World. His glancing images and sounds leave much to the reader's horrified imagination.

"The Camp of the Dog"--A jolly campout on an island in the Baltic Sea slowly turns terrifying as a mysterious canine dogs the footsteps (sorry) of a young woman.

"A Victim of Higher Space"--A mathematician learns how to peer into the higher dimensions of space-time and is horrified by what he discovers.

I am delighted that Dover has brought back into print these stories by Blackwood. But if you're expecting John Silence to be another Carnacki or Sherlock Holmes you will be disappointed. Dr. Silence is a near mythic one dimensional character who merely serves as the vehicle for resolution in the stories. The stories become increasingly more sophisticated and interesting as the book progresses. "A Psychical Invasion" was nearly unreadable for me, dull & plodding, it reminded me of Dion Fortune's lesser efforts at fiction. But I hung in and was amply rewarded by my patience. You will find Blackwood comfortable with the supernatural as a plot device, considering his esoteric interests and membership in AE Waite's reorganized Golden Dawn. Blackwood's greatest gift as a "ghost" story writer was his ability to create landscapes with a naturalists eye for detail and underlying threats to human dominion of the setting. Character development is not his forte. But that is a minor criticism of one of the best writer's of sheer terror of the 20th century. His story "The Willows" must rank among the best short stories ever. Reading these stories in the right setting is a guarantee for some delicious shivers.

i love blackwood at his best. this is not it. one great story, otherwise this detective doesn't work for me. if it only had been more crime-like, i might have liked it. these explanations, investigations, plots, are just not good enough. probably his worst work.