The Great God Pan and Other Classic Horror Stories by Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen (1863-1947), Welsh novelist and essayist, is considered one of the most important and influential writers of his time. While displaying a preoccupation with pagan themes and matters of the occult - an interest he shared with his close friend, the distinguished scholar A. E. Waite - his writing transcends the genre of supernatural horror. Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as Paul Bowles and Jorge Luis Borges are just a few of the literary notables who are counted among his admirers. Machen is also a key figure in the development of pulp magazine fiction (e.g., Weird Tales), a line of ancestry that leads directly to today's popular graphic novels. Further, Machen's name often crops up in the writings of theorists and practitioners of psychogeography, a school of thought and literature which explores the hidden links between the landscape and the mind.
In "The Great God Pan," Arthur Machen delivers a tense atmospheric story about a string of mysterious suicides. With its suggestive visions of decadent sexuality, the work scandalized Victorian London. This edition also includes "The White People," "The Inmost Light," and "The Shining Pyramid." Taken together, these short stories are considered some of the first works of horror and have inspired generations of subsequent writers and creators.
I suppose there’s some reason these stories have inspired future generations of horror writers; I, for one, didn’t see it.
The stories drag on, with a lot of extraneous verbiage. If one word is needed, ten are used. It’s a short book, only 136 pages. It shouldn’t have taken me more than a couple of days to finish (I only give a book about an hour a day.) Instead, it took me five.
Which is really too bad, because the ideas behind the stories are quite good, especially The Great God Pan. But even there, the lack of real resolution was annoying. What was let loose from a little brain surgery? And, not having done it to himself, how could the “surgeon” know exactly what was happening to the patient?
Obviously, much of the book’s success has to do with his readers’ of the time never having been exposed to this type of story. For someone in this time, it’s old hat.
Mount TBR 2022 Book Links
Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.
1. The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
2. The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
3. The Autumn Throne (Eleanor of Aquitaine #3) by Elizabeth Chadwick
4. Grant's Final Victory: Ulysses S. Grant's Heroic Last Year by Charles Bracelen Flood
5. Doctor Sleep (The Shining #2) by Stephen King
6. The High House by Jessie Greengrass
7. Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin
8. Nightmare Country by Marlys Millhiser
9. The End of the Ocean by Maja Lunde, Diane Oatley (translator)
10. 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
11. The Bear (The Grizzly King: A Romance of the Wild) by James Oliver Curwood
12. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
13. The Wrong End of Time by John Brunner
14. The Hidden Child by Louise Fein
15. The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel
16. The Virtues of War by Stephen Pressfield
17. Our Oldest Companions: The Story of the First Dogs by Pat Shipman
18. The Man in the Moss by Phil Rickman
19. The Redemption of Wolf 302 by Rick McIntyre
20. John of Gloucester by Wendy Miall
21. Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism by Laura E. Gómez
22. The Cold Calling (The Cold Calling #1) by Phil Rickman
23. The Keep (Adversary Cycle #1) by F. Paul Wilson
24. Pines (Wayward Pines #1) by Blake Crouch
25. The Speed of Souls: A Novel for Dog Lovers by Nick Pirog
26. The Yorkists: The History of a Dynasty by Anne Crawford
27. With Face Aflame by A.E. Walnofer
28. The Gypsy Morph by Terry Brooks
29. Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton
30. Wardenclyffe (The Secret History of the World) by F. Paul Wilson
31. Goblin by Josh Malerman
32. The Queen Who Never Was by Maureen Peters
33. The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell's 1984 by Dorian Lynskey
34. Richard III’s Books by Anne F. Sutton & Livia Visser-Fuchs
35. Gwendy's Final Task (The Button Box #3) by Stephen King, Richard Chizmar
36. Malorie (Bird Box #2) by Josh Malerman
37. Where We Come From by Oscar Cásares
38. The Unconquered Sun by Ralph Dulin
39. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
40. The God Eaters by Jesse Hajicek
41. The X Factor by Andre Norton
42. The Last Wild Horses (Climate Quartet #3) by Maja Lunde, Diane Oatley (Translator)
43. The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner
44. Double Threat by F. Paul Wilson
45. Wayward (Wayward Pines #2) by Blake Crouch
46. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
47. Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan
48. Mean Spirit (The Cold Calling #2) by Phil Rickman
49. The Killing of Richard the Third (Henry Morane #1) by Robert Farrington
50. The Curious Case of H. P. Lovecraft by Paul Roland
51. Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood
52. The Great God Pan and Other Classic Horror Stories by Arthur Machen
A Gothic horror classic (published 50 or more years ago, published no later than 1972)
1. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
2. The Great God Pan
• AUGUST- Quick Lit. Novellas, Graphic Novels, Poetry Collections, books under 200 pages, one sitting reads.
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
Under 200 pages, but not a one sitting read.