Showing results by author "Arthur Machen" in All Categories

A collection assembled by HorrorBabble, comprising some of Machen's most highly regarded works.

Dubbed the greatest horror story in English by Stephen King, The Great God Pan is an eerie and otherworldly mystery about a diabolical operation and its terrifying repercussions. After rescuing a young woman from the streets of London, Dr. Raymond uses her as a test subject for brain surgery aimed at "lifting the veil" of reality, to see the supernatural and the "great god Pan". The operation is a disaster and leaves the subject lobotomized. Years later, London becomes afflicted with a strange series of male suicides connected to a beautiful but sinister woman.

Machen's novella The Great God Pan is often cited as one of Lovecraft's most notable influences. In it, Dr. Raymond's ultimate goal is to devise a way to open the mind of man so that he may experience all the world has to offer. He calls this "seeing the great god Pan". After much study of the human mind, he devises an experiment that involves minor brain surgery. He performs this experiment on a young woman named Mary, but when she awakens she is terrified and mentally crippled.

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."

The Great God Pan is a haunting novella by Arthur Machen that first appeared in the magazine Whirlwind in 1890, later revised and expanded for its book release in 1894 alongside the story The Inmost Light. Upon its initial publication, the novella faced fierce criticism from the press for its decadent style and provocative themes, labeling it as degenerate and horrific. However, it has since earned its place as a classic in the horror genre. Machen‚s work taps into the symbolism of Pan, exploring the primal forces of nature and the allure of paganism. The title is inspired by Elizabeth ...

The Green Book is a precious artefact procured from the possessions of a dead woman, and carefully kept in secret by the aged and studious Ambrose. Cotgrave is loaned the Green Book to further his understanding of the occult secrets that Ambrose is so reluctant to talk about. FNH Audio presents an unabridged reading of this supernatural classic that's often cited as an inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft.

In The Great God Pan, Arthur Machen invites you to step into a shadowy world where the boundaries between science and the supernatural blur—and where unlocking forbidden knowledge may come at a terrifying cost. Celebrated as one of the most chilling tales ever written, this novella is a symphony of unease, weaving themes of ancient paganism, hidden horrors, and the fragility of human understanding. Prepare to be haunted by whispers of an enigmatic experiment, a shadowy woman, and the presence of an unseen, primal force that lingers just beyond perception.

On publication, it was widely denounced by the press as degenerate and horrific because of its implied sexual content, and the novella hurt Machen's reputation as an author. Beginning in the 1920s, Machen's work was critically re-evaluated and The Great God Pan has since garnered a reputation as a classic of horror.

Lucian Taylor, the hero, is damned either through contact with an erotically pagan "other" world or through something degenerate in his own nature, which he thinks of as a "faun". He becomes a writer, and when he moves to London he becomes trapped by the increasing reality of the dark imaginings of this creature within him, which become increasingly real. One of the first explorations in fiction of the figure of the doomed artist, who is biographically so much a part of the decadent 1890s.

An excellent collection of creepy ghost stories from some of the most notable names of early horror fiction, including: “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood, “The Shadows On The Wall” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, “The Messenger” by Robert W.Chambers, “Lazarus” by Leonid Andreyev, “The Beast With Five Fingers” by W.F. Harvey, “The Mass Of Shadows” by Anatole France, “What Was It” by Fitz-James O’brien, “The Middle Toe Of The Right Foot” by Ambrose Bierce, “The Shell Of Sense” by Olivia Howard Dunbar, and more!

Arthur Machen, born March 3, 1863, in Caerleon, Monmouthshire, Wales, The United Kingdom, was a leading author of the 1890s. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. "The Great God Pan," published in 1894 made him famous and controversial in his lifetime.

When Ms Lally walked out into the cold night devoid of hope, hungry and penniless, she expected to find a quiet place to lie down and die. What she found was a benefactor, an academic with a mysterious passion and secret knowledge of a hidden world beyond the realms of known science. The Novel of the Black Seal is cited as one of the primary influences on H. P. Lovecraft and his tales.

Tauchen Sie ein in Arthur Machens schauriges Meisterwerk des übernatürlichen Horrors, das altertümliche Mystik mit viktorianischer Empfindsamkeit verwebt und Generationen von Horror-Autoren beeinflusst hat. Als ein Wissenschaftler einer jungen Frau durch ein gefährliches Experiment einen Blick auf den Gott Pan ermöglicht, setzt er eine Reihe zunehmend verstörender Ereignisse in Gang, die sich in der Londoner Gesellschaft entfalten.

Inspired by a trip to a graveyard in Wales, the novella was originally not well received. The Great God Pan is now considered an excellent example of Gothic fiction, and has influenced such writers as Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, and Ray Bradbury.

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a master of folk horror. A Fragment of Life, his short novel from 1906, overlays his unique mystical theology with his psychogeographic visions of the grey streets of London, and blends them with…a love story. A young husband and wife, Edward and Mary Darnell, notice weird, dark forces crowding around their lives, and these odd happenings begin to wreak a strange alchemy in them.

The Three Impostors (1895) by Arthur Machen is a combination of horror story and mystery novel. It features the likable detective, Dyson, who is somewhat pretentious and mostly ineffectual. The work is separated into a number of episodes, from "The Adventure of the Gold Tiberius" to "The Adventure of the Deserted Residence".

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author known for his works of horror and the fantastic. He is recognized as an influence on modern writers of supernatural fiction. Holy Terrors (published in 1946, a year before his death) is a collection of 14 short stories of which nine are very short and are included in this recording. They are: “The Rose Garden”, “Psychology”, “The Soldier's Rest”, “The Cosy Room”, “The Ceremony”, “Holy Things”, “The Turanians”, “The Happy Children”, and “Munitions of War”.

I collect snippets from newspapers, special interesting snippets. The unusual, the weird, the unexplained. These things have always interested me. Yet when I found my old hometown was the subject of a sudden rush of strange and inexplicable events, I felt I was being drawn back....

A masterpiece of Gothic horror and suspense that inspired such writers as H. P. Lovecraft, The Three Impostors is Machen’s famous collection of “weird tales” - a string of shocking short stories woven together with a fine narrative thread. The three impostors of the title are members of a secret society devoted to debauched pagan rites who weave a web of deception in the streets of London as they search for a missing Roman coin commemorating an infamous orgy by the Emperor Tiberius and close in on their prey: “the young man with spectacles”.

Volume 7 starts off with Edgar Allan Poe's story of a gifted boy hounded by his shadow, "William Wilson". We take to the sky's with a pilots investigation into unexplainable events thousands of feet above ground in Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Horror of the Heights". Next up, Ambrose Bierce plays with time in "The Suitable Surroundings".