Of all the practitioners of the classic “weird tale,” which flourished in the early twentieth century, none is more esteemed than Algernon Blackwood.

Blackwood wrote more than 200 stories, and novels classified today by critics as fantasy or science fiction; but many of his stories also belong to the Gothic genre where he mixes elements of horror and romance.

Known as one of the key figures in the 'weird' horror movement that arose in England and the United States in the early twentieth century, Blackwood was known for inserting surprising, often sophisticated twists into his tales.

The Damned is Algernon Blackwood's haunted house masterpiece, a tale of sheer psychological terror where the haunting is the direct result of the rigid religious views of the house's former tenants.

Blackwood delves into the idea that for each person the afterlife is whatever he or she believes it will be.

For a widow of a religious zealot, one who has warped Christian ideas into a form of psychological torture, the afterlife is a place to torment the soul of his posthumous wife.

As you explore the torment felt by one women, you may be reminded just how many homes are filled with unknown horror, for in The Damned the afterlife is exactly what you believe it will be.

ALGERNON BLACKWOOD (1869–1951) was an English novelist and short story writer, one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre.