Subscribe to Read | $0.00
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Read Anywhere and on Any Device!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
I have to start by saying short stories are not my favourite. I have rarely connected well to a collection and usually find the majority a bit dull. However, Machen's writing was beautiful and absorbed me. Whilst I can't say I enjoyed all of the stories, I lapped up the rich descriptions and flowing prose. I also appreciated how some of the characters come back in other stories, even if they're not always linked.
And I came to a hill that I never saw before. I was in a dismal thicket full of black twisted boughs that tore me as I went through them, and I cried out because I was smarting all over, and then I found that I was climbing, and I went up and up a long way, till at last the thicket stopped and I came out crying just under the top of a big bare place, where there were ugly grey stones lying all about on the grass, and here and there a little, twisted stunted tree came out from under a stone, l
A far better-curated anthology of Machen than the Penguin 'White People and Other Tales' release, consisting of basically every major Machen weird tale, along with some short oddities. I'm glad to have finally read 'N', which fits in a trifecta with 'The Great God Pan' and 'The White People' as my favorite Machen.
This selection of novellas and short stories by Welsh writer Arthur Machen (rhymes with Bracken) is a little different from most current horror tales. The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories has no ghosts or haunts, though it is not devoid of terror. What Machen describes are more ancient forms of existence, such as the faeries and even my ancestors, the Finno-Ugric Turanians, whose manifestations in the present day frequently lead to madness or death.In this collection are The Great God Pan,...
The Lost Club -Just a short horror tale to read. Good for passing your leisure time. But an OK story to read...The Great God Pan -Despite the fact that Stephen King stated this story as one of the best best unfortunately I didn't found it much potential. The story confused me. The moment I thought I got the idea of the story plot the moment I left confused again. I had checked double by reading the summary from wiki...From wiki - "Clarke agrees, somewhat unwillingly, to bear witness to a strang...
Still effective as the first time that I read the Great God Pan years ago. The following paragraph may well be the microcosm of the novella, or even of Machen's entire oeuvre."Look about you, Clarke. You see the mountain, and hill following after hill, as wave on wave, you see the woods and orchards, the fields of ripe corn, and the meadows reaching to the reed-beds by the river. You see me standing here beside you, and hear my voice; but I tell you that all these things—yes, from that star that...
Beautiful writing and chilling tales that focus on atmosphere and slow-building dread.
Wordy, rambling, and not much in the way of horror.
With a few exceptions, Machen’s stories have a common theme that there are mysterious (and often quite horrible) things in the world that are hidden from everyday life, but that only require a wrong turn into a strange neighborhood, a walk up a lonely hill, an incautious glance – or alternately reading a book or wadded-up note, taking an improperly mixed medication, or (as in the title story) submitting to a minor, if unethical, surgical procedure – to expose them to the observer, whose life wil...
I tried to find courage in the sweet air that blew up from the sea, and in the sunlight after rain, but the mystic woods seemed to darken around me; and the vision of the river coiling between the reeds, and the silver grey of the ancient bridge, fashioned in my mind symbols of vague dread, as the mind of a child fashions terror from things harmless and familiar.The Lost Club * * *The Great God Pan * * * *The Inmost Light * * *The Three Impostors * * * * *The Red Hand * * * *The Shining Pyramid
I don't know why Arthur Machen isn't more well known in Britain, this book alone shows just how influential he has been on horror and fantasy in general. The influences on Lovecraft in particular are very obvious, but the stories are just as good (and Machen is definitely less problematic). As with any short story collection, it can be a bit hit and miss, but the hits are so good, it makes it worth it. Particular highlights for me were The Three Imposters, The White People, Change, and obviously...
4 1/4 stars
It's easy to see why Machen is best known for his influence on H.P. Lovecraft. His own work was fine, allowing for the literary differences in time one can still enjoy the gothic London and rural Wales descriptions and his unique, folklore based horror. But hey, Dorian Gray, Jekyl and Hyde, etc were way easier to read than this. One part had a single paragraph extend through four pages, I think the longest paragraph was fourteen. Just someone rambling through different horror experiences, in a v...
