SOURCE: "The Illusion of Refuge," in Commonweal, Vol. CXIII, No. 9, May 9, 1986, pp. 279-82.

In the essay below, Jones examines themes common to five of Blackwood's works and argues that Blackwood writes in a Gothic tradition in which doom is inherent and life has no greater meaning.

Of the many lies our parents tell us, the myth of the happy life is the one we seem least willing to relinquish. If we no longer have much faith in historical progress, some still hope for the individual to beat the odds and live exempt from the injustices which afflict and define the past. Despite the detours and setbacks tripping everyone around us, we want to be optimistic for ourselves and believe that life has forward motion, that where we end will be some place further away and better from where we began.

Although we pay lip service to the genius...