Machen's great - but this isn't him at his best
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Hmm - I have to say I agree with some of the comments above. I don't think that 'The Great God Pan' represents Machen at his best, and I've always been slightly puzzled by its cult status. This isn't to do down Machen. At his best, he was a magnificent horror writer. 'The Three Impostors' (which Lovecraft cheerfully pillaged) is a wonderful read, and communicates a genuine sense of Edwardian oddness - one of the great novels of London suburban surrealism. It's also worth digging out his more autobiographical novels, 'The Hill of Dreams' et al. Here, he comes across like Dostoevski on opium - some truly amazing writing about life in London at the end of the last century, plus immensely compelling and intense depictions of extreme mental states. For a good bit of horror, though, I'd start with 'The Three Impostors'.
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Hamfisted occult shenanigans - nice drawings though.
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While I know Arthur Machen had some very influential admirers, I have to confess that the cult status of his work completely mystifies me - I grant that he could string together a few repulsive incidents concerning ectoplasm and then wrap them up in a tissue of vague sub-Blavatsky waffle, but then so could a host of his contemporaries, most of them now deservedly obscure. The case in point, 'The Great God Pan',
is a tale of metamorphosis and general shadowy unpleasantness that meanders its short-but-painful way over a thinly-sketched London and a reach-me-down Celtic-twilight Wales, piling up more hilariously under-motivated dialogue en route than almost any other book I can recall reading. For all that people die in dreadful ways and suffer bizarre occult torments in every other chapter, Machen lays it on so thickly that the overall effect isn't so much horrific as just plain daft. The plot isn't so much contrived as congealed - no one does or says anything for any reason whatsoever beyond advancing the story, (such as it is). This reprinting carries Machen's own introduction to a late edition, which recounts some acid highlights from the overwhelming critical drubbing this book received on its first appearance. Presumably, Machen decided to include so much hostile critical material with his own book in the hope of having the last laugh - unfortunately, every single one of the critical beatings reprinted herein seems completely justified. It seems presumptuous of Machen to assume that posterity would inevitably side with him and not with his critics. Still, on the plus side, this edition carries as chapter-headings a selection of splendidly unhinged drawings from Austin Osman Spare, which are almost worth the price of the book on their own.
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Wales' Undiscovered Gem
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I guess that, like a lot of other people, I found Machen via Lovecraft, ... The setting is marvellous (Machen lived around Caerleon and knew it well, and accurately evokes the atmosphere of rural South wales whenever he can). the plot, told from various viewpoints, is made more intriguing by the fact that you never really get a handle on what actually goes on. The shifting viewpoints create a sense of unease, if not of fright- but then, it's not really a scary book. Like a lot of his 'Yellow Book' contemporaries, Machen's work was really intensely moral. It was just a morality that didn't actually preclude describing the things that were to be avoided...
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An interesting, quick read
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Perhaps my hopes were too high,I was however let down by the mythos surrounding this book and the author. Supposedly a masterpiece of the Decadent movement, I found the author could not decide if he wanted to be a true Decadent or was just flirting at it's edges. The story is however enjoyable, interesting and will keep your attention. Great for a short plane or train ride.
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