Fantasy Blackwood, Algernon: The Human Chord. v1. 02 Feb 2022

[GrannyGrump]

Engrossing and thought-provoking, the story concerns one Robert Spinrobin, a young man who is drawn to a remote house in the Welsh hills to work with the Reverend Philip Skale, his housekeeper, and a young woman called Miriam. Skale is working on a series of mysterious occult experiments in sound.

This is a fascinating expression of music, magic, and voices through prose, the notion of touching the divine through sound. It’s also an intriguing rivalry over one young man’s soul, between the girl to whom he brings joy, and the man to whom he brings potential. He’s their hope, both Miriam’s and Skale’s, yet their hopes head in different directions, nearly tearing the young man in two when they do.
(— adapted from Goodreads)

“Compact and intense, Mr. Blackwood’s story captivates the reader.”
(— The Athenaeum, review contemporary to first edition)

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One of the foremost British writers of supernatural tales in the twentieth century, Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951) wrote stories in which the slow accumulation of telling details produced a foreboding atmosphere of almost unendurable tension. Though he wrote a number of horror stories, his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe. The literary critic S. T. Joshi stated, “His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer’s except Dunsany’s.”

Blackwood’s literary renown began in 1908 with the publication of a highly successful collection of stories, John Silence — Physician Extraordinary, featuring a “psychic doctor.” His two best known stories are probably “The Willows” and “The Wendigo”.

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The Human Chord, by Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951), was first published in 1910. This ebook is in the public domain where copyright is “Life+70” or less, and in the USA.

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This is the last of the Blackwood works that I could find. I hope you enjoy them.
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