Complete John Silence Stories by Algernon Blackwood Search Amazon for other books by or about Algernon Blackwood. Rating: Reviewed by: John Walsh

It was with the stories of John Silence, the "psychic doctor," that Algernon Blackwood established his reputation as one of the foremost practitioners of weird or ghostly stories at the beginning of the twentieth century. Previously only an occasional writer, Blackwood henceforth devoted himself to writing on a much more intense basis. He established an influential position in his genre, even if his work is little known today. Nevertheless, owing in part to a resurgence in interest in H.P. Lovecraft in recent years, works by contemporaries such as Blackwood have started to come back into print and this edition, by Dover, conveniently makes available all of the Silence stories, including "A Victim of Higher Space," not included in the original collection. John Silence is the central figure in the collection, although he is, in common with Sherlock Holmes and other notable detectives, portrayed through observation by a faithful companion. In this case, the companion is a certain Hubbard, who acts as Silence's companion and private secretary and appears to have no other occupation or profession. Silence, too, appears to have private means of some sort as he does not charge for his services and has been quite able to spend many years mastering esoteric mental and psychic techniques which are likely to have required considerable expense.

Together with Hubbard or else acting alone, Silence works his way through six stories, which range from ghostly emanations to an ancient Egyptian curse and a discombobulating application of higher mathematics. In common with Lovecraft, Blackwood is alert to the dangers apparently posed by the wild, untamed places of the world--he had spent time camping in a Canadian wilderness and used that experience in the story "The Camp of the Dog." He reflects, therefore, the expansion of consciousness of the white man finding new territory, with a view to annexing that territory and drawing upon its resources. These attitudes are very familiar from literature produced during the colonial, imperialist expansion age and have been thoroughly deconstructed in the subsequent wave of post-colonial study. Yet while this attitude reflects Lovecraft's own, Blackwood has a much more optimistic view of the world and of the ability of reason and determination, in the person of Silence and in the way he inspires his companions, to resist the evils or unknown phenomena of that world. The figure of Silence represents, perhaps, a spirit of modern humanity capable of defeating mysteries, so long as proper preparations are made and a stiff upper lip is maintained. It is only those who fail to follow these guidelines who are vulnerable to serious harm. Women, for example.

Blackwood worked at a time when the pacing of stories was quite different from that of the twenty-first century. Most modern readers would find the pace of the narrative, I would suggest, very slow, irrespective of the constant ratcheting of the tension and the pressure the characters feel. The stiff upper lip characteristic means that characters keep their emotions to themselves and a Victorian-style Puritanism means there is never any suggestion of physical intimacy. Consequently, the style is not going to appeal to every reader. Nevertheless, John Silence is a fascinating creation for those people who enjoy pitting the rational against the mysterious places and forces of the world.