What do you think?
Rate this book
UN’ALTRA REALTÀ: Racconti del Mistero
Questi racconti di Arthur Machen, quasi tutti inediti in Italia, fanno parte della sua produzione più nascosta e rimasta in ombra rispetto ai capolavori riconosciuti, e coprono un arco temporale che va dal 1890, l’anno del Grande dio Pan, al 1937, in cui posò la penna e smise completamente di scrivere narrativa. Sono racconti thriller e del mistero, con qualche incursione nel weird e nel fantastico, ma l’impronta inconfondibile del misticismo di Machen è presente in tutti. Si va da casi di stregoneria e scomparse inspiegabili (“Morduck la Strega”, “Lo Strano Caso di Emily Weston”) a storie di doppelganger e doppi (“Johnny e il Doppio”, “Un Duplice Ritorno”, “Psicologia”), passando per strane visioni che avvengono nella campagna gallese (“Notte di Mezza Estate”, “La Visione del Dott. Duthoit”), omicidi rocamboleschi (“Il Mistero di Islington”) e singolari riti che si celebrano in regni immaginari (“L’Isola delle Ombre”) o nel mezzo di zone poco frequentate della metropoli londinese (“Il Circolo Scomparso”, “Il Rituale”). In tutto sono 12 racconti e una poesia (“L’Iniziazione”), inframmezzati da immagini fotografiche o pittoriche di Machen e raccordati da note e commenti del curatore. Si tratta quindi di un’edizione critica che comprende anche una dotta introduzione di Marco Maculotti e, in appendice, un raro saggio dello stesso Machen sui fantasmi in letteratura.
178 pages, Paperback
Published September 14, 2022
1 person is currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Machen
1,119 books1,011 followersArthur Machen was a leading Welsh author of the 1890s. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His long story The Great God Pan made him famous and controversial in his lifetime, but The Hill of Dreams is generally considered his masterpiece. He also is well known for his leading role in creating the legend of the Angels of Mons.
At the age of eleven, Machen boarded at Hereford Cathedral School, where he received an excellent classical education. Family poverty ruled out attendance at university, and Machen was sent to London, where he sat exams to attend medical school but failed to get in. Machen, however, showed literary promise, publishing in 1881 a long poem "Eleusinia" on the subject of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Returning to London, he lived in relative poverty, attempting to work as a journalist, as a publisher's clerk, and as a children's tutor while writing in the evening and going on long rambling walks across London.
In 1884 he published his second work, the pastiche The Anatomy of Tobacco, and secured work with the publisher and bookseller George Redway as a cataloguer and magazine editor. This led to further work as a translator from French, translating the Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre, Le Moyen de Parvenir (Fantastic Tales) of Béroalde de Verville, and the Memoirs of Casanova. Machen's translations in a spirited English style became standard ones for many years.
Around 1890 Machen began to publish in literary magazines, writing stories influenced by the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, some of which used gothic or fantastic themes. This led to his first major success, The Great God Pan. It was published in 1894 by John Lane in the noted Keynotes Series, which was part of the growing aesthetic movement of the time. Machen's story was widely denounced for its sexual and horrific content and subsequently sold well, going into a second edition.
Machen next produced The Three Impostors, a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895. The novel and the stories within it were eventually to be regarded as among Machen's best works. However, following the scandal surrounding Oscar Wilde later that year, Machen's association with works of decadent horror made it difficult for him to find a publisher for new works. Thus, though he would write some of his greatest works over the next few years, some were published much later. These included The Hill of Dreams, Hieroglyphics, A Fragment of Life, the story The White People, and the stories which make up Ornaments in Jade.
At the age of eleven, Machen boarded at Hereford Cathedral School, where he received an excellent classical education. Family poverty ruled out attendance at university, and Machen was sent to London, where he sat exams to attend medical school but failed to get in. Machen, however, showed literary promise, publishing in 1881 a long poem "Eleusinia" on the subject of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Returning to London, he lived in relative poverty, attempting to work as a journalist, as a publisher's clerk, and as a children's tutor while writing in the evening and going on long rambling walks across London.
In 1884 he published his second work, the pastiche The Anatomy of Tobacco, and secured work with the publisher and bookseller George Redway as a cataloguer and magazine editor. This led to further work as a translator from French, translating the Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre, Le Moyen de Parvenir (Fantastic Tales) of Béroalde de Verville, and the Memoirs of Casanova. Machen's translations in a spirited English style became standard ones for many years.
Around 1890 Machen began to publish in literary magazines, writing stories influenced by the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, some of which used gothic or fantastic themes. This led to his first major success, The Great God Pan. It was published in 1894 by John Lane in the noted Keynotes Series, which was part of the growing aesthetic movement of the time. Machen's story was widely denounced for its sexual and horrific content and subsequently sold well, going into a second edition.
Machen next produced The Three Impostors, a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895. The novel and the stories within it were eventually to be regarded as among Machen's best works. However, following the scandal surrounding Oscar Wilde later that year, Machen's association with works of decadent horror made it difficult for him to find a publisher for new works. Thus, though he would write some of his greatest works over the next few years, some were published much later. These included The Hill of Dreams, Hieroglyphics, A Fragment of Life, the story The White People, and the stories which make up Ornaments in Jade.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 26, 2025
Il volume curato da Pietro Guarriello prende il titolo, 'Un'altra realtà', da un breve saggio di Arthur Machen sul mondo al di là del velo e sul modo di raccontarlo. Saggio posto in appendice a questa raccolta di dodici racconti e una breve poesia.
La cura nella selezione dei testi, accompagnata da un apparato critico pregno di note (arrivano a prendere anche più di mezza pagina) e approfondimenti (ogni racconto ha un'introduzione), permette al lettore di apprezzare la ricchezza stilistica e l’intensità emotiva che caratterizzano la produzione meno nota dell’autore.
Le traduzioni sono ottime, in linea con quanto avevamo visto in 'Oniricon' (sempre curato e tradotto da Guarriello), il font è bello grande e le illustrazioni numerose. Queste ultime sono tutti ritratti di Machen.
Lo scrivente va matto per le antologie zeppe di notte, che ci guidano dentro l'opera e fuori dall'opera, con i rimandi ad altri autori, altri libri, altri territori ancora inesplorati.
shortino: https://youtube.com/shorts/Hr56fpMW97Q
«La cosa peggiore per Johnny Marchant era che non aveva niente di particolare per cui lamentarsi.»(pag. 127)
La cura nella selezione dei testi, accompagnata da un apparato critico pregno di note (arrivano a prendere anche più di mezza pagina) e approfondimenti (ogni racconto ha un'introduzione), permette al lettore di apprezzare la ricchezza stilistica e l’intensità emotiva che caratterizzano la produzione meno nota dell’autore.
Le traduzioni sono ottime, in linea con quanto avevamo visto in 'Oniricon' (sempre curato e tradotto da Guarriello), il font è bello grande e le illustrazioni numerose. Queste ultime sono tutti ritratti di Machen.
Lo scrivente va matto per le antologie zeppe di notte, che ci guidano dentro l'opera e fuori dall'opera, con i rimandi ad altri autori, altri libri, altri territori ancora inesplorati.
«Entrò nell'ombra , camminando lentamente, e lasciò che il sentiero lo portasse via dal mondo»(pag. 58)
shortino: https://youtube.com/shorts/Hr56fpMW97Q
Displaying 1 of 1 review