Algernon Blackwood

[Gnosticangel]

I love the occult short stories of Algernon Blackwood but am only now getting into all of his novels. One that I had long put off reading was "The Fruit Stoners," but my copy (Grayson & Grayson Ltd., 1934) has finally arrived in today's mail!

As an intuitive prelude to my reading experience, I opened it at random, to see what I could see.

"I'd like to shake your horny hand," came abruptly from her lips. (p. 95)

.... I guess the message is that I should be prepared for the various archaisms in this work, as in all of Blackwood. : /

I just read an entire Blackwood story devoted to a man going to the bathroom and being scared of a wasp.

[Robin Davies]

Quote Originally Posted by James

I just read an entire Blackwood story devoted to a man going to the bathroom and being scared of a wasp.

Hornet, surely?
I've just looked up Egyptian Hornet and all I can find is the Blackwood story so I'm wondering if such a creature actually exists.

Hornets are wasps, right? Unless everything I know is a lie.

Trying to decide which Blackwood novel to read next.

[Zaharoff]

Quote Originally Posted by James

Hornets are wasps, right? Unless everything I know is a lie.

Hornets are larger and nastier.

I thought a hornet was a large type of wasp?

Edit: I looked it up. Yeah, all hornets are wasps.

Bzzzz...

[Robin Davies]

Quote Originally Posted by James

Trying to decide which Blackwood novel to read next.

Which ones have you read so far?

Only The Centaur and Jimbo. Have read and enjoyed the majority of his short fiction, but as many of his short tales are too long-winded, I'm getting anxious about the idea of reading his novels. Might just do one a year.

He's still one of the giants for the absolute best of his pieces, but Blackwood is proof that you can have too much of a good thing, which also applies to the prodigious size of his 'weird' oeuvre compared to Arthur Machen, Walter de la Mare, M. R. James, Oliver Onions, Sarban, etc. I still need to read Blackwood's final two original collections, but I'm taking my time. In no rush.

[Robin Davies]

Quote Originally Posted by James

Only The Centaur and Jimbo. Have read and enjoyed the majority of his short fiction, but as many of his short tales are too long-winded, I'm getting anxious about the idea of reading his novels. Might just do one a year.

If you find many of his short tales long-winded then I'm surprised you made it through The Centaur! I would suggest Julius leVallon, The Human Chord or The Education of Uncle Paul (though Knygathin didn't care for the latter). I feel more in tune with Blackwood than any other writer of that period so I can get pleasure from nearly all his work - though some of the novels do try my patience (especially A Prisoner in Fairyland and The Promise of Air).

[Gnosticangel]

Thanks for the wasps! This thread pulled me off-track into hours of nighttime reading and film watching about wasps and hornets. Grim reading for the most part, especially re. the effects of Giant Asian Hornet venom.

Now on a foggy day in upstate New York, everything here reminds of the horror film, "The Mist," and I am anxiously watching out my window for gigantic flying insects.