The Willows

The Willows is a novella by English author Algernon Blackwood, originally published as part of his 1907 collection The Listener and Other Stories.

Two friends are taking a break from a canoe-trip down the snaking, sinuous Danube River when they discover the corpse of a peasant in the woods. When they return to their canoe the oars are missing. As night sets in, a general creeping sense of unease permeates the wild and rural setting…

The story is famous for being influential on a number of later writers, in particular horror author H.P. Lovecraft who praised it as the finest supernatural tale in English literature.