The Willows

The narrative follows two friends on a canoe trip along the Danube River, where they stumble upon a peasant's corpse in the woods. Upon returning to their canoe, they find their oars have vanished, plunging them into a growing sense of dread as night falls. The story is renowned for its influence on later writers, particularly H.P. Lovecraft, who regarded it as a pinnacle of supernatural literature, emphasizing themes of isolation and the uncanny within a rural landscape.