Line #27 Creator/AlgernonBlackwood


1	[[quoteright:290:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/algernon_blackwood_photo.jpeg]]
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3	->''"To some imaginary reader, sitting at a desk inside my own mind, I tell my story. It is written to express—to relieve—an emotion in my own being. It is never written to please other readers or any imaginable public."''
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5	Algernon Henry Blackwood CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was a highly prolific (for his time) English author of {{Horror}} and {{Fantasy}} short stories and novels, as well as a journalist and broadcast narrator.
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7	An early writer of the {{cosmic horror story}}, Blackwood's works combine the beauty of nature (often going into {{scenery porn}}) with various [[IndexOfGothicHorrorTropes gothic horror tropes]], as well as folklore and creatures from various religions such as the {{wendigo}}. His most famous work is probably "The Willows", which many also regard as his best. He also was an early influence on the {{occult detective}} genre of fiction with his creation "Dr. John Silence". His works sometimes played with tropes and featured [[BlackComedy dark humor]].
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9	In contrast to many other authors like him, Blackwood had a genuine interest in the supernatural and actually worked as a paranormal investigator with a group of friends before he moved into writing.
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12	!!Tropes appearing in Algernon Blackwood's works include:
13	* {{Arcadia}}: The theme of ''The Centaur'', where an Irish reporter experiences cosmic consciousness in the Caucasus mountains. He believes he's experienced MotherNature in the GardenOfEden and that humans should discard material possessions and live as close to the earth and nature as possible. Some believe him, but warn that most people won't get it unless they've had the experience themselves.
14	* AstralProjection: The kids and some adults in ''A Prisoner in Fairyland'' do it to collect starlight in Fairyland, which they distribute to their loved ones as kind of a mental/spiritual anodyne.
15	%%* BodyHorror:
16	%%** Happens to the man dragged off by the wendigo in "The Wendigo".
17	%%** "The Paper Man"
18	* BrainBleach: The protagonist of "The Man Who Found Out" learned something so repellent from two ancient tablets that he had a hypnotist eliminate the abhorrent knowledge via LaserGuidedAmnesia.
19	* CoolTrain: The Starlight Express in ''A Prisoner in Fairyland''.[[note]]No relation to Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's ''Theatre/StarlightExpress''. A play based on ''A Prisoner in Fairyland'', also called ''The Starlight Express'', was written in 1915 by Violet Pearn with music by Music/EdwardElgar, who loved Blackwood's story because it was so close to his own childhood fantasy world. Unfortunately it had a TroubledProduction, the art direction was way off, and Pearn's script inappropriately turned it into a Christmas pageant that Blackwood, writing to Elgar, called "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement Arts & Crafts]] pretentious rubbish stitched onto your music by a silly crank" who hadn't read the book. The exquisite music is all that survives; the sets and costumes were destroyed along with the orchestra score in a UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo air raid. Elgar's manuscript score has been recorded several times and can be heard in its entirety on Website/YouTube, and often on classical music stations.[[/note]]
20	%%* {{Creepy Doll}}: "The Doll"
21	* DontGoInTheWoods: A recurring theme, although in ''The Centaur'' it's more like the forces there are powerful, so be careful, but they're not evil.
22	* {{Drugs are Bad}}: In "A Psychical Invasion" they cause a man to get possessed by a ghost.
23	* EldritchAbomination: Some are encountered in "The Willows," and they're literally incomprehensible. They produce a loud ringing sound, dig perfectly conical pits in the sand and [[spoiler:in the body of the man they eventually kill]], and although their presence can be felt they're invisible.
24	* EldritchLocation: The setting of "The Willows." More specifically, it's set in the remote countryside around the Danube River in Slovakia/Hungary. And there's something just ''wrong'' about it. The characters speculate that an incomprehensible dimension that does not like humans somehow borders or touches it, but they never even come close to finding out the place's actual nature.
25	* {{Elemental Embodiment}}: "The Nemesis of Fire" features John Silence fighting against a Fire Elemental.
26	* TheFairFolk:
27	** They heavily influence the countryside that is the setting for "The Trod".
28	** A couple of them make an appearance in "Ancient Lights," when the main character intrudes on their woods.
29	* FantasyForbiddingFather: Blackwood writes a well-meaning one in ''Jimbo'', who is aghast that his five-year-old son, whom he intends to send to military school, is "an imaginative child" who might become "an ass", or a "poet, or [[BuryYourGays one of these -- these -- !]]"
30	* GeniusLoci:
31	** The setting of "The Willows" - or at least one of the things that is speculated about the setting.
32	** The forest around the protagonist's house in "The Man Whom the Trees Loved" is implied to be alive.
33	** The spirits of Fright and the Frightened Children in ''Jimbo'' in the haunted house are this.
34	** The "fairy wood" in the story "Ancient Lights" is either ''very'' responsive to the will of [[TheFairFolk its residents]], or has a strong will of its own.
35	* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Essentially what happens to anyone who reads the translated message from the tablets in "The Man Who Found Out".
36	* GrowingUpSucks: Averted in some tales, especially ''A Prisoner in Fairyland'', where adults may get "wumbled" with daily cares and forget about the realities behind the "real" world, but can re-learn the necessary skills at any age.
37	* HauntedHouse: "The Empty House" has a fairly typical example. ''Jimbo'' has a kind of subjective example, with the kid initially thinking the ghosts are friendly, until his governess tries to ScareEmStraight and ends up traumatizing him and being fired as a consequence. Jimbo subsequently has a serious accident and his astral self becomes trapped in the house and terrorized by its residents. Meeting his governess there, he learns to survive and free himself from fear until he's ready to wake up, only to discover [[spoiler:she was DeadAllAlong -- she died a few days after being fired, and in a MyGodWhatHaveIDone, was trying to help him before going on to heaven.]]
38	* HeAlsoDid: In addition to his supernatural writing, Blackwood was also a radio broadcaster and wrote a great deal of children's literature, {{literary fiction}} and propaganda. The television series ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Mystery Tales of Mystery]]'' (1961-1963) was based on his stories.
39	* HumanToWerewolfFootprints: In "The Wendigo", the prints of a man being dragged off by the monster become a copy of the monster's footprints--and grow ''further apart'', until eventually they disappear.
40	* ItKindOfLooksLikeAFace: The eponymous bag in "The Kit Bag", which comes to resemble (and is apparently haunted by) a murderer whom the protagonist's employer successfully defended in court.
41	* {{Magical Native American}}: "Running Wolf" has one that come back from the dead as a wolf and only the (white) protagonist can grant him release.
42	* MadeOfIndestructium: The Tablets of the Gods in "The Man Who Found Out"; the first victim spends months trying to unsuccessfully destroy them. Following some LaserGuidedAmnesia by the second victim, they get casually tossed out as bits of rubbish.
43	* MoreThanThreeDimensions: "A Victim of Higher Space"
44	* NatureSpirit: Blackwood was fond of this trope; his variants tend to fall somewhere between TheFairFolk and EldritchAbomination.
45	* OccultDetective: Dr. John Silence.
46	* OurGhostsAreDifferent:
47	** "A Psychical Invasion"
48	** "The Empty House"
49	** "Running Wolf"
50	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: "The Singular Death of Morton"
51	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent:
52	** "The Strange Adventure of a Private Secretary in New York" has an example who behaves similar to a werewolf but never actually transforms.
53	%%** "The Camp of the Dog"
54	%%* {{Paranormal Investigation}}
55	* SoundOnlyDeath: Horrifically reenacted in "The Empty House." As soon as this is finished, [[spoiler:the murderer's spirit appears to direct its attention to the house's living visitors, but they get away]].
56	* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: In "The Man Who Found Out", an explorer discovers the long-lost Tablets of the Gods, reputed to explain the true purpose of human existence. Reading their translation causes him to lose the will to live, and the friend who inherits the Tablets destroys the text and has his own memory of reading it erased via hypnosis.
57	* {{Wendigo}}: "The Wendigo" is an influential early example of modern treatments of the concept.
58	* WhenTreesAttack:
59	** "The Man Whom the Trees Loved".
60	** In "The Willows," provided you take the view that the... ''things'' they encountered were spirits of the willow trees.
61	* WriteWhatYouKnow: Many of Blackwood's stories take place in New York (where he lived for a time) or feature various fictional accounts of cases investigated by him when he was part of the Psychical Research Society or things he learned from the Rosicrucian Order or The Hermetical Order of the Golden Dawn when he was part of them. Others recapitulate (with added spooky) wilderness expeditions he'd undertake by canoe or on foot.
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Context Creator / AlgernonBlackwood