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The Willows

Critique • Quotes

The Listener (incl. The Willows) coverStory collection first edition, 1907
By Algernon Blackwood
Publication details ▽ Publication details △

First publication
1907

Literary form
Novella

Genres
Fantasy, horror

Writing language
English

Author's country
England

Length
Approx. 19,500 words

Notable lines

After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Buda-Pesht, the Danube enters a region of singular loneliness and desolation....

— First lines

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.

 

And when I turned my eyes again from his ghastly face to the river, the current had done its work, and the body had been swept away into midstream and was already beyond our reach and almost out of sight, turning over and over on the waves like an otter.

— Last lines

 

Critique • Quotes