Arthur Machen

The Three Impostors; or, The Transmutations is an episodic horror novel by British writer Arthur Machen, first published in 1895 in The Bodley Head's Keynote Series. It was revived in paperback by Ballantine Books as the forty-eighth volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in June 1972. The novel comprises several weird tales and culminates in a final denouement of deadly horror, connected with a secret society devoted to debauched pagan rites. The three impostors of the title are members of this society who weave a web of deception in the streets of London-relating the aforementioned weird tales in the process-as they search for a missing Roman coin commemorating an infamous orgy by the Emperor Tiberius and close in on their prey: "the young man with spectacles". (wikipedia.org)

Most essential Machen work is from the 1890s, but The Terror is one of his most developed horror tales from his later career. This often waffling novella is meandering and less focused than his dark folk masterpieces The Hill of Dreams, The Great God Pan, Novel of the Black Seal and The White People, but also gleefully manic and quite inspired in parts, developing an atmosphere of magical mystery and dread around the countryside and featuring moments of terror, particularly the harrowing final siege diary, which is worthy of Machen at his best as a horror writer. (Jim Smith)

The Great God Pan and 'The White People' are classics of the horror genre, while The Inmost Light is more conventional, but still a damn good piece. A Fragment of Life, the only non-horror tale in the collection, has its tedious sections, but this proves to be intentional as a rendering of the ephemera of life drowning out the beauty. Machen's career, though rarely less than entertaining, eventually descended into lesser material going over the same ideas, but The House of Souls is one of his essential books along with The Hill of Dreams, Ornaments in Jade and The Three Impostors. Uniquely powerful literature from a veritable visionary. (Jim Smith)

The Great God Pan is a horror and fantasy novella by Welsh writer Arthur Machen. Machen was inspired to write The Great God Pan by his experiences at the ruins of a pagan temple in Wales. What would become the first chapter of the novella was published in the magazine The Whirlwind in 1890. Machen later extended The Great God Pan and it was published as a book alongside another story, "The Inmost Light", in 1894. The novella begins with an experiment to allow a woman named Mary to see the supernatural world. This is followed by an account of a series of mysterious happenings and deaths over many years surrounding a woman named Helen Vaughan. At the end, the heroes confront Helen and force her to kill herself. She undergoes a series of supernatural transformations before dying and she is revealed to be the child of Mary and the god Pan. On publication, it was widely denounced by the press as degenerate and horrific because of its implied sexual content, and the novella hurt Machen's reputation as an author. Beginning in the 1920s, Machen's work was critically re-evaluated and The Great God Pan has since garnered a reputation as a classic of horror. Literary critics have noted the influence of other nineteenth-century authors on The Great God Pan and offered differing opinions on whether or not it can be considered an example of Gothic fiction or science fiction. The novella has influenced the work of horror writers such as Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King, and has been adapted for the stage twice. (wikipedia.org)

Fabulous piece of writing. It is really quite astounding that Machen is largely forgotten as a writer. In The Secret Glory, I particularly loved Machen's satirical social comments about the class system, Christian hypocrisy and the sadistic puritanism of English Public Schools. This isn't always an easy book to read but it is very rewarding, and after reading, like the best literary works, carves out a place for itself in one's psyche. (M. J. Johnson)

Fantastic and Horrific Stories is a collection of short fiction by Arthur Machen. Condemned as decadent and obscene upon publication, Machen’s writing earned praise from Oscar Wilde and H. P. Lovecraft. Throughout the years, Machen’s work has been referenced and adapted by such figures as Stephen King, Guillermo del Toro, and Josh Malerman for its masterfully unsettling blend of science, myth, and magic. The Great God Pan, perhaps Machen’s most celebrated work, is the story of an occult experiment gone horribly wrong. Clarke has always taken an interest in occult matters, so when a friend offers him a chance to witness an experimental procedure intended to access the spirit realm, he cannot refuse. When the young patient Mary awakens, she shows signs of terror and soon falls into a catatonic state. Convinced of their success in discovering the world of “the great god Pan,” Clarke and Raymond agree to keep their discovery a secret. Years later, a nearby town begins reporting the mysterious disappearances of young children, all of whom have been seen in the forest with a young woman named Helen Vaughn. In “The White People,” originally published in Horlick’s Magazine in 1904, a Welshman receives the diary of a young girl introduced to witchcraft. Surprisingly well-kept for its age, the green book accompanies Cotgrave on a journey through the lush countryside. Its pages contain the diary of a young girl who, encouraged by her nurse, immerses herself in the world of magic. As she grows adept in the ways of witchcraft, the girl begins referring to strange beings and unknown places, all while doing her best to conceal her secret life from friends and family. The Hill of Dreams is a semi-autobiographical novel about a young man who begins having strange visions after visiting an ancient Roman fort near his rural Welsh home. Published alongside “The Inmost Light,” “The Shining Pyramid,” The Terror, “Out of the Earth,” and Ornaments in Jade, these tales by Arthur Machen showcase his gift for illuminating the presence of the supernatural in everyday life. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Arthur Machen’s Fantastic and Horrific Stories is a classic of British horror fiction reimagined for modern readers.

Invited by his friend to witness an experimental procedure, Clarke watches with interest and horror as the surgeon opens his young patient's mind to grant her a vision of the spirit realm. Years later, a nearby town is traumatized by the strange disappearance of several children, prompting Clarke to investigate. The Great God Pan is a novella by Arthur Machen.

The Zinzolin Book of Occult Fiction, the first in a planned series of books of occult fiction of many colours, brings together twenty-two tales, dating from 1888-1911, from the occult revival of the British Isles. Including both well-known figures, such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Aleister Crowley, and lesser-known talents, such as Helen Fagg and the mysterious Zuresta, this inaugural volume is sure to bring diversion and illumination to both interested acolyte and erudite mahatma alike. Containing a varied and rich array of stories, about dreams and s ances, visionaries and madmen, The Zinzolin Book of Occult Fiction, edited by Brendan Connell, is an indispensable addition to any library of the supernatural and occult.

The Three Impostors (1895) is a novel by Arthur Machen. Consisting of interwoven stories involving the title characters, The Three Impostors was compared to the prose style of Robert Louis Stevenson on publication. Condemned as decadent and obscene upon publication, Machen’s writing earned praise from Oscar Wilde and H. P. Lovecraft. Throughout the years, Machen’s work has been referenced and adapted by such figures as Stephen King, Guillermo del Toro, and Josh Malerman for its masterfully unsettling blend of science, myth, and magic. Inspired by his knowledge of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which was undergoing a controversial conflict involving Irish poet W. B. Yeats and English mystic Aleister Crowley at the time, Machen crafts a layered tale of suspense and secrecy that continues to entertain and surprise over a century after its release. In London, a secret society of occultists gains strength through mutual disdain of modern life and Victorian social conventions. Three impostors gifted in the art of deceit do their best to disrupt city life while embarking on a quest for an Imperial Roman coin with a salacious history. The Three Impostors is a kaleidoscopic novel concerned with the horrors ever present on the outskirts of daily life, waiting to make themselves known. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Arthur Machen’s The Three Impostors is a classic of British horror fiction reimagined for modern readers.

Arthur Machen was a hugely prolific essayist and journalist. In a career that spanned more than half a century, he wrote thousands of articles for such magazines and newspapers as the London Evening News, John O'London's Weekly, and the Independent. In these essays he articulates his distinctive mystical and religiously based outlook. Accusing science and rationalism of impoverishing the human imagination, he was an untiring defender of the essential mystery of the cosmos. In his literary criticism-embodied in the treatise Hieroglyphics (1902) and in many separate essays-Machen made a frequent discussion between mere "reading matter" and genuine literature. The former comprised mundane realism; the latter the world of romance, fantasy, and the supernatural. While being skeptical of spiritualist phenomena, he found in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood, Walter de la Mare, and other writers a vital expression of the wonders and terrors that humanity encounters even in everyday life. This volume presents a robust selection of Machen's essays, detailing his philosophical and literary vision. It is a significant adjunct to his weird fiction, showing how the principles he outlined in his essays were applied to the supernatural tales he wrote over his lifetime. The volume has been edited by S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on Machen and the editor of Machen's colleced fiction as published by Hippocampus Press.

Arvoituksellinen, rauhallisesti kehkeytyvä kertomus tuiki tavallisesta avioparista, jonka elämään hiipii tunne jonkin salaperäisen läsnäolosta. Edward ja Mary Darnell asuvat pienessä talossa Lontoon esikaupungissa. Päällisin puolin heidän elämänsä etenee tavallisilla urilla: töitä päivin, oleilua illoin. Eräänä yönä Edward kuitenkin näkee oudon, enteilevän unen, jonka myötä maailma alkaa tuntua aina vain epätavallisemmalta: aineelliset asiat menettävät aineellisuuttaan, sanat tuntuvat sanovan enemmän kuin sanovat. Pian Darnellit alkavat aavistaa, että heidän elämänsä on vain sirpale suuremmasta elämästä, joka kuultaa tämän maailman pienimpienkin asioiden läpi. Arthur Machenin Sirpale elämää on tiivistunnelmainen, hetkittäin aavemaisiakin sävyjä saava kertomus, jossa klassisista kauhutarinoistaan tunnettu Machen näyttää taitonsa arkielämän kuvaajana.

The book "" The Angels of Mons: The Bowmen and Other Legends of the War, has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies and hence the text is clear and readable.

I Den store Gud Pan og andre fortællinger præsenteres de bedste historier af den store gotiske forfatter Arthur Machen, hvis værker har haft enorm indflydelse på gyserlitteraturen i det 20. århundrede. Selve titelnovellen, Den store gud Pan, er af Stephen King blevet kaldt den måske bedste engelsksprogede horrorfortælling nogensinde, og den øvede stor indflydelse på den lidt yngre samtidige H. P. Lovecraft. Machens fortællinger kredser om den verden, der skjuler sig bag ved den umiddelbart synlige, og mennesker, der søger at komme i berøring med den – ofte med alvorlige konsekvenser. Som hos de andre mesterforfattere inden for genren er Machens skildring af det uhyggelige, det fremmede, raffineret og subtil. Vi møder ikke ”monsteret” eller ”det onde”, men vi fornemmer det ganske tæt på – i øjnene på et menneske, der har mistet forstanden, i sporene efter et ritual, i skyggerne, der falder hen over et ellers idyllisk landskab – og hårene rejser sig på os.

This handsome 5-volume box set contains more than 70 terrifying short stories from the masters of cosmic horror. Unspeakable evils, elder gods, and forgotten terrors haunt the pages within this collection. Whether telling of the emergence of the tentacled Cthulhu in "The Call of Cthulhu" or the rise of an ancient pagan deity in "The Great God Pan", the stories found here are the stuff of nightmares. This collection includes these brilliant and horrifying tales: • The Call of the Cthulhu and Other Stories by H. P. Lovecraft• The Haunter of the Ring and Other Stories by Robert E. Howard•The Black Seal and Other Stories by Arthur Machen• Yuki-Onna and Other Stories by Lafcadio Hearn• The Yellow Sign and Other Stories by Robert W. Chambers With vibrant graphic cover designs, these editions make wonderful collectibles for any classic literature lover, encased in a decorative box set. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Arcturus Classic Collections series features delightful, high-quality paperback box sets of classic works of literature with striking contemporary cover designs.