2 h 13 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 54 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 54 pagesAbout this book
What if the island where you stop for the night seems to know you are there?
In Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows, two friends canoe down the flooded Danube and camp on a small island thick with willow bushes. The towns are behind them. Around them lie wind, water, and sand. As the river eats away at their shelter, the place begins to feel awake.
The narrator trusts reason and tries to explain away his unease. His companion, the Swede, senses that they are unwelcome. Night brings strange shapes among the bushes and a humming in the air. With no clear enemy to face, the men must confront a fear they cannot understand.
What you’ll discover
- A river beyond comfort Follow the Danube into lonely country where nature offers no promise of safety.
- An island that watches Enter dense, rustling willows that seem less like bushes than a living crowd.
- Reason under strain Watch a practical narrator search for sensible answers as his calm begins to fail.
- Dread without a face Feel fear gather through wind, water, and hints of forces beyond human understanding.
- The power of atmosphere Discover how controlled prose and a watchful landscape make each unexplained detail feel threatening.
Who will love it
For readers who love ghost stories that build dread through atmosphere, and for anyone who loves wild places and rivers.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two friends take a canoe downriver
- They land on an island of willows
- The Swede senses that they are unwelcome
- Strange shapes and a humming in the air
- What the story is really about
- How Blackwood builds dread
Who’s who
- The narratorA practical, cheerful traveller who tells the story and trusts reason, yet finds his calm tested as the night on the island goes on.
- The SwedeThe narrator's tall, widely travelled friend, more sensitive to atmosphere, who senses early that something about the island is wrong.
- The willowsThe dense bushes that cover the island, rustling and shimmering, and which seem less like plants than a watching, living crowd.
- The DanubeThe great flooded river that carries the men through lonely country, and whose rising waters eat away at the island where they camp.
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- Audiobook
- 2 h 13 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear The Willows in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Willows
by Algernon Blackwood · 1907
Two friends camp among willows on the flooded Danube, where the landscape seems awake and watching.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two friends take a canoe downriver
The story opens with a description of the Danube after it leaves Vienna. Long before the river reaches Budapest, it enters a region of great loneliness. Here the water spreads into reed beds, side channels, sandbanks, and thick willow thickets. Blackwood paints this land, and he makes it feel both beautiful and empty.
The two travellers are the narrator and his friend, whom he calls the Swede. They have set out in a small Canadian canoe, which is an open boat paddled by kneeling men, and they carry a tent, food, and the simple gear for camping on the banks. The narrator is a cheerful, steady man who likes plain facts. The Swede is tall, strong, and well travelled, and he is a little more sensitive to the moods of the world around him. The two have done this kind of trip before and they enjoy it.
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What is The Willows by Algernon Blackwood about?
It is about two friends canoeing down the flooded Danube who camp on an island covered in willows. Strange sounds and shapes build around them, and they begin to fear that the place is not meant for human beings.
Who is the Swede in The Willows?
The Swede is the narrator's travelling companion. He is tall, widely travelled, and more sensitive to atmosphere than his friend, so he is the first to feel that something about the island is wrong.
When was The Willows written and is it a true story?
It was published in 1907 in the collection The Listener and Other Stories. It is fiction, though Blackwood drew on his own love of the Danube and his canoe trips along it.
The author
Algernon Blackwood
1869–1951 · English supernatural fiction writer
Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951) was an English short story writer and novelist. He was born in Kent and lived in Canada before returning to Britain. He wrote The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories (1906), The Willows (1907), John Silence (1908), and The Wendigo (1910). He died in London.
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