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Arthur Machen: 30+ Horror Classics, Supernatural Mysteries & Fantasy Books: Including Translations, Essays & Memoirs
This carefully edited collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Table of Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror (Stephen King has called it "The best horror story in the English language"). Historian of fantastic literature Brian Stableford has suggested that Machen "was the first writer of authentically modern horror stories, and his best works must still be reckoned among the finest products of the genre". Table of The Three Impostors The Hill of Dreams The A Mystery The Secret Glory Short Stories and A Fragment of Life The White People The Great God Pan The Inmost Light The Shining Pyramid The Red Hand The Angels of The Bowmen and Other Legends of the The Bowmen The Soldiers' Rest The Monstrance The Dazzling Light The Bowmen And Other Noble Ghosts Change The Children of the Pool The Bright Boy The Tree of Life Opening the Door The Marriage of Panurge The Holy Things Psychology The Turanians The Rose Garden The Ceremony The Happy Children The Cosy Room Munitions of War The Great Return A New Christmas Carol The Islington Mystery Out of the Earth Hieroglyphics Dog and Duck Dreads and Dolls The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798 Far Off Things Arthur A Novelist of Ecstasy and Sin (With Two Uncollected Poems by Arthur Machen)
5682 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 21, 2017
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About the author
Arthur Machen
1,104 books1,001 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.
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June 6, 2018
As a chronic insomniac, much of my reading takes place through the night. In some ways, perhaps that is why I completely tell in love with this collection - many of them told in the first person - as it began to feel like I was the 'friend' who had happened to call round one evening, on seeing a lamp still lit at my friend's window. The feeling of settling down by the fireside to discuss the strange and supernatural with my friend, soon became an irresistible draw, and an added incentive to bring my Kindle with me wherever I went!
The stories themselves, in many ways, are rather like sitting in a favourite chair - you immediately feel at home, and relaxed into your reading. I wouldn't like to even try to critique this wonderful collection, so I will not try. I will simply say you will discover a world still within reach (with a little imagination) where the strange, mysterious, and sometimes terrifying, awaits.
Oh, and perhaps also the most beautifully written and poignant ghost story I have ever read, 'Pirates'. It awaits you almost at the very end of the collection, and I almost wish it had been the last story in the book - if you read it, you'll understand the context I have voiced my wish in, as the last part of the book is actually a small addendum of work that was hitherto uncollected, and comes at a time very close to the author's death.
I defy anyone to read 'Pirates' and not shed a bittersweet tear. I freely admit I did.
The stories themselves, in many ways, are rather like sitting in a favourite chair - you immediately feel at home, and relaxed into your reading. I wouldn't like to even try to critique this wonderful collection, so I will not try. I will simply say you will discover a world still within reach (with a little imagination) where the strange, mysterious, and sometimes terrifying, awaits.
Oh, and perhaps also the most beautifully written and poignant ghost story I have ever read, 'Pirates'. It awaits you almost at the very end of the collection, and I almost wish it had been the last story in the book - if you read it, you'll understand the context I have voiced my wish in, as the last part of the book is actually a small addendum of work that was hitherto uncollected, and comes at a time very close to the author's death.
I defy anyone to read 'Pirates' and not shed a bittersweet tear. I freely admit I did.
Displaying 1 of 1 review