Showing results by author "Arthur Machen" in All Categories

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....

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author and mystic, best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy and horror fiction. The Red Hand is a mysterious horror story which tells the peculiar tale of the strange murder of Sir Thomas Vivian, the famous heart surgeon. Why was he murdered with an ancient flint weapon when there was an unused, brand-new knife at the scene? What was the meaning of the bizarre letter in the dead man's pocket, written in a very strange hand? And what could be the meaning of the peculiar symbol of a red hand chalked on the wall above the corpse?

Stranded in London during the summer vacation period and caught up in a sudden rain shower, two friends sought shelter in an archway. One of them vaguely remembered having heard that there was a club down this alleyway. From this point events become very strange. A mutual friend appears, who is able to introduce the two into the mysterious club. All the members are well known figures in London society...and they are all there for a bizarre and terrifying ceremony. Each member must open an old book, and whoever turns up the black page will face an unknown and horrifying fate.

Arthur Machen’s novella explores the disturbing consequences of toying with the line between the earthly world and the spiritual realm. The Great God Pan centers around an ominous woman named Helen, who lives in the woods and invites morbid happenings. The book faced harsh censure upon its publication in 1894 for its explicit content, but today it is considered a hallmark of horror fiction. Stephen King himself called it “one of the best horror stories ever written”, making it essential reading for any dedicated fans of the genre.

Award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti reads "The Monstrance" from The Angels of Mons by Arthur Machen, detailing the agony of a German soldier driven mad by the vision of an atrocity he committed earlier in the war. WWI was going badly for the English, and Machen’s tales of a supernatural power on the side of the embattled British troops brought hope to the nation.

An entrancing collection of 50 great short stories by leading classic writers.

'The Bowmen' is perhaps the most famous of Machen's tales. It is the iconic story of an incident from the First World War trenches. Faced with inevitable death and defeat, a battalion of English soldiers is saved by the mysterious and miraculous intervention of Saint George and a company of English bowmen who had last fought at Agincourt.

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author and mystic, best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. 'The Ceremony' is the eerie tale of a standing stone which exerts a supernatural pull towards young females and draws them fearfully to make offerings there. Strange and mysterious offerings, at secret erotic ceremonies.

'A Double Return' is a classic doppelganger tale. A successful artist, Hallswell, is returning by train from a painting trip in the southwest of England. As the down train passes him at a junction, he imagines he catches a glimpse of his own face in the train rushing past his window. When he reaches home, a strange and sinister mystery awaits him....

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author and mystic, best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy and horror fiction. 'Torture' is a horror story about a schoolboy with a dangerous secret fantasy.

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."

FNH Audio presents an unabridged reading of Arthur Machen's story, The Inmost Light. The streets of the city are dark and wet, and when a sheltering archway leads to a chance encounter it starts a haunting mystery of undiscovered occult horror.

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.

Arthur Machen has been cited as an influence to many writers of supernatural horror. He was also a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This story, originally from 1888, is about a monk, in charge of the wine cellar at his abbey, who finds a strange jar and decides to take a drink.

A young woman, Helen Leicester, becomes concerned about her brother Francis when he begins spending all of his time locked in his room studying. At first Francis insists that he is fine, but eventually admits that he is not feeling well and agrees to see the family physician. The doctor prescribes a medication - a white powder which is mixed with water - and Francis begins to feel better. However, this "cure" doesn't last very long and Francis begins exhibiting peculiar and disturbing behavior.

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".

The short stories written during and about World War I are often overshadowed by the excellent verse of the War Poets. Yet the short story is perhaps their equal in other ways. Within these succinct little time capsules of words are captured ideas, attitudes, feelings and life that are expressed in a few minutes just as movingly, imaginatively and tellingly as in any other form. Some of these stories will be familiar, but some may not. From Virginia Woolf to Katharine Mansfield and John Buchan to C. E. Montague, various writing styles try to make sense of this world at war.

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.

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”.

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this volume we come up against the definition of Northern Europe. There are many, each with plausibility and each so obvious. So, here’s ours.