‘Entrancing but Dangerous’: Blackwood and the Erotic

This article discusses Algernon Blackwood's engagement with sexuality and the erotic in stories published between 1908 and 1948. It argues that a focus on Blackwood's spiritual and mystical interests, along with his apparent celibacy, has meant that his representations of sexual desire have been overlooked or subsumed into wider considerations of the gothic and supernatural in his fiction. Through close readings of stories such as ‘Ancient Sorceries’ (1908), ‘The Glamour of the Snow’ (1912), and ‘The Olive’ (1922), it provides a fresh outlook on Blackwood's fear of what he termed ‘sex-fever’ and the dangers it presents for his male protagonists.