The Human Chord

As a boy, Robert Spinrobin created vast worlds in his imagination, naming and bringing things to life. In later years this inner world of childhood fades, but he retains the mystical vision of the poet.

Bored and disappointed by his humdrum adult existence, and seeking an adventure of the soul, he comes across a strange advertisement in a newspaper. Attracted by the promise of adventure, he travels to the remote mountains of Wales where he is to assist Philip Skale in his enigmatic "experiments in sound". Caught up in the mystical adventure he has yearned for, Robert begins to feel in touch with the greater elemental scheme of the universe.

First published in 1910 but lost for most of the twentieth century, Blackwood’s tour-de-force novel is long overdue rediscovery and is now part of the British Libraries Tales of the Weird series with an introduction by Mike Ashley.