Arthur Machen

"Of creators of cosmic fear raised to its most artistic pitch, few can hope to equal Arthur Machen." -- H. P. Lovecraft Arthur Machen (1863-1947), Welsh novelist and essayist, is considered one of the most important and influential writers of his time. While displaying a preoccupation with pagan themes and matters of the occult -- an interest he shared with his close friend, the distinguished scholar A. E. Waite -- his writing transcends the genre of supernatural horror. Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as Paul Bowles and Jorge Luis Borges are just a few of the literary notables who are counted among his admirers. Machen is also a key figure in the development of pulp magazine fiction (e.g., Weird Tales), a line of ancestry that leads directly to today's popular graphic novels. Further, Machen's name often crops up in the writings of theorists and practitioners of psychogeography, a school of thought and literature which explores the hidden links between the landscape and the mind. In "The Great God Pan," Arthur Machen delivers a tense atmospheric story about a string of mysterious suicides. With its suggestive visions of decadent sexuality, the work scandalized Victorian London. This edition also includes "The White People," "The Inmost Light," and "The Shining Pyramid." Taken together, these short stories are considered some of the first works of horror and have inspired generations of subsequent writers and creators.

An experiment into the sources of the human brain through the mind of a young woman has gone horribly wrong. She has seen the great god Pan and will die giving birth to a daughter. Twenty years later feted society hostess Helen Vaughan becomes the source of much fevered speculation. Many men are infatuated with her beauty, but great beauty has a price, sometimes you have to pay with the only thing you have left. The Great God Pan was a sensation when first published in 1894. Its author, Arthur Machen, was a struggling unknown writer living in London. He had translated Casanova's memoirs and was living on a small inheritance. He immediately became one of the most talked-about writers of the last years of the nineteenth century, while the publication marked the start of his ongoing influence on modern fantasy and horror. Machen's dark imaginings of the reality behind ancient beliefs feature again in the acclaimed, mesmerising short story 'The White People' and the curious tale 'The Shining Pyramid', also in this volume.

A young man's quest for beauty through literature, love, drugs and dreams becomes a mystical, lyrical classic from the father of supernatural horror. There is a foreword by Catherine Fisher one of whose acclaimed "Oracle" trilogy was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and is an international bestseller translated into over 20 languages. Originally published in 1907, it is widely regarded as Machen's finest lyrical work.

Arthur Machen (1863-1947), popular Welsh writer of the bizarre and fantastic, created some of the finest horror stories ever written. He produced works that would later have a profound influence on science fiction author H. P. Lovecraft, and the contemporary horror genre as a whole. This novel contains what are considered to be Machen's best works, written as a set of interwoven tales that shocked his Victorian contemporaries with their risqu subject matter and wonderfully eerie descriptions. The collection includes Machen's first major success "The Great God Pan," "The Inmost Light," "Shining Pyramid," and "Three Imposters." Set in the bleak and seedy London alleyways, Machen elevates the stories to eerily familiar heights, leaving many of the most disturbing and elusive details up to the reader's imagination. Horror fans especially will enjoy these classic tales of the mysterious and the macabre.

Three famous works by Arthur Machen - The Great God Pan, The Hill of Dreams, and the Angels of Mons - in one volume with an introduction by Catherine Mintz.

Three famous works by Arthur Machen-The Great God Pan, The Hill of Dreams, and the Angels of Mons-in one volume with an introduction by Catherine Mintz. Copper Penny Press books are in an easy to read and easy to read aloud sixteen point type format.