Böcker av Arthur Machen

Machen''s weird tales of the creepy and fantastic have fascinated readers for generations.

An influential writer of supernatural fiction, Arthur Machen was born in Wales, in 1863. Many modern writers, such as Stephen King, have cited him as an inspiration. Perhaps most notably, though, was H.P. Lovecraft, who cites Machen as what led him down the road to eventually creating the Cthulhu Mythos. Presented here are two short stories and two novellas: "The Inmost Light", "A Fragment of Life", "The Shining Pyramid", and "The Terror."

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This second volume of Machen's collected fiction begins with Machen's most accomplished novel, The Hill of Dreams (written in 1895-97 and published in 1907), which H. P. Lovecraft called a "memorable epic of the sensitive aesthetic mind." It features Lucian Taylor, a young man from the country who struggles to become a writer in London. His ruminations on life, love, and authorship are extraordinarily poignant, and at one point he engages in a lengthy dream of being back in ancient Rome, in the town of Isca Silurum, near his birthplace in Wales. Later in 1897 Machen wrote a series of exquisite prose poems that were later published as Ornaments in Jade (1924). These ten vignettes display Machen's luminous prose at its most evocative, and they touch upon the possibility of strange and wondrous phenomena concealed behind the outward façade of the mundane world. Machen's most accomplished weird tale, "The White People," is also found here. Its account of a young girl insidiously inculcated in the witch-cult, told entirely from her own perspective as she jots down her thoughts and impressions in a diary, achieves the pinnacle of clutching fear. A very different work is the short novel A Fragment of Life, telling of how a seemingly ordinary couple rediscover their sense of wonder in the world around them. The novel The Secret Glory (written around 1907) is a discursive novel that searingly condemns the British school system for destroying the imaginations of its pupils. The entire work-including the final two chapters, first published only in a limited edition in 1992-is included here. The edition has been prepared by S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on weird fiction and the author of The Weird Tale (1990) and Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (2012). Joshi has prepared textually corrected editions of the work of H. P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, and many other weird writers.

Welsh writer Arthur Machen (1863-1947) is one of the towering figures in the Golden Age of weird fiction, and his novels and tales have influenced generations of weird writers and remain immensely popular among readers. But much of his work has been difficult to obtain, remaining buried in obscure magazines and newspapers of a century ago or published in expensive limited editions. This is the first edition of Machen's fiction to be based on a thorough examination of his manuscripts and early publications. It is also the first edition to arrange Machen's fiction chronologically by date of writing. This first volume contains his charming picaresque novel The Chronicle of Clemendy (1888), an exquisite imitation of the medieval narratives of Chaucer and Boccaccio. At this time Machen was a young journalist who had moved from his native Wales to London, and he wrote a number of humorous and slightly risqué sketches for fashionable London magazines. But then he published "The Great God Pan" (1894), one of the pioneering works in the entire range of weird fiction. It was condemned by contemporary reviewers as the work of a diseased mind. Machen followed it up with the episodic novel The Three Impostors (1895), containing the brilliant segments "The Novel of the Black Seal" (which features the Little People, a sub-human race lurking on the edges of civilization), "The Novel of the White Powder," and other vivid narratives. The edition has been prepared by S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on weird fiction and the author of The Weird Tale (1990) and Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (2012). Joshi has prepared textually corrected editions of the work of H. P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, and many other weird writers.

Mysterious deaths in London baffle authorities, but for two men the reason is quite clear: they have seen something unspeakably terrible and lost their lives for it. For Clark it goes back to events from years ago; events he had strangely forgotten.The Great God Pan was written in the style of Bram Stoker's Dracula and first published in the Victorian year, 1894. The monster: the elusive pagan god figure, Pan, who none dare to look upon lest they die of horror.

Written during the First World War and first published in 1922, "Far Off Things" is the first volume of Arthur Machan's autobiography. Arthur Machen (1863 - 1947) was a Welsh author and renowned mystic during the 1890s and early 20th century who garnered literary acclaim for his contributions to the supernatural, horror, and fantasy fiction genres. His seminal novella "The Great God Pan" (1890) has become a classic of horror fiction, with Stephen King describing it as one of the best horror stories ever written in the English language. Other notable fans of his gruesome tales include William Butler Yeats and Arthur Conan Doyle; and his work has been compared to that of Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde. This volume offers a fascinating insight into both this important time in history and the life and mind of Arthur Machan, a modern master of supernatural and horror fiction. Not to be missed by fans of the genre and those with an interest in Arthur Machan's fascinating life. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

"The Secret Glory" is a 1922 novel by Welsh author Arthur Machan. Considered by some to be his final masterpiece, it follows the story of a public-school boy who becomes obsessed by incredible stories of the Holy Grail. To this end, he escapes from his repressive school and begins a quest for a deeper meaning to life. Arthur Machen (1863 - 1947) was a Welsh author and renowned mystic during the 1890s and early 20th century who garnered literary acclaim for his contributions to the supernatural, horror, and fantasy fiction genres. His seminal novella "The Great God Pan" (1890) has become a classic of horror fiction, with Stephen King describing it as one of the best horror stories ever written in the English language. Other notable fans of his gruesome tales include William Butler Yeats and Arthur Conan Doyle; and his work has been compared to that of Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.