synopsis
Anglo-Welsh writer Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a pioneering author of weird fiction. When “The Great God Pan” was published in 1894, it shocked the readers of Victorian England, who reviled it as the product of a diseased mind. The next year, Machen published The Three Impostors, an episodic novel that featured such classic segments as “Novel of the Black Seal” and “Novel of the White Powder” and cemented his reputation as a writer who believed that science was stripping away the veils of mystery from the universe.
In many stories such as “The White People” and “The Red Hand,” Machen propounded the notion of the “Little People” — a race of stunted, pre-human creatures lurking in the dark corners of the world. These Little People were the source of the myths about fauns, leprechauns, and fairies — but they were far more baleful than these benign entities.
In 1914 Machen gained notoriety for “The Bowmen,” a pseudo-factual piece about the ghosts of ancient British soldiers coming to the rescue of a beleaguered regiment in World War I. The story was taken as a true account in spite of Machen’s repeated denials. In 1917 he published the short novel The Terror, a grim tale of animals revolting against the supremacy of humanity.
This volume features a large quantity of Machen’s best fiction, early and late. Also included are some of Machen’s provocative introductions to his books, along with bibliographical information on all the works included.
The volume has been edited by S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on weird fiction. Joshi is the author of The Weird Tale (1990), The Modern Weird Tale (2001), and Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (2012).
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