Pan's Garden / Incredible Adventures

PAN'S GARDENPan's Garden is a thematic collection of stories which, in the words of the author, "illustrates that characteristic belief, present in all my work, that there exists a definite relationship between Human Beings and Nature." From the opening novella, "The Man Whom the Trees Loved"--in which Nature welcomes and absorbs the soul of a man--to the concluding "The Temptations of the Clay"--in which Nature rejects the spirit of the man who tries to profit from it--we are transported into a natural world where the elements hold sway. Mike Ashley, in his introduction, calls Pan's Garden "the definitive volume of Blackwood's short stories. . . because it defines the true nature of Blackwood's writing."INCREDIBLE ADVENTURESIncredible Adventures represents what biographer Mike Ashley calls "thelast outburst of his golden period" and is comprised of three novellasand two short stories. Here, nature is a living force, truth is theonly religion and the past holds sway over the present. At times almostsurreal in their intensity, these tales exert a strange power over thereader, opening our eyes to a larger world around us. From the ruggedmountains of Eastern Europe in "The Regeneration of Lord Ernie" to thevast deserts of Egypt in "A Descent Into Egypt," Blackwood takes us toother places--and other worlds.