Arthur Machen
1863–1947
Biography
Arthur Machen (1863–1947) was a Welsh writer with a lasting interest in mysticism and the occult. He was born Arthur Llewellyn Jones at Caerleon in Monmouthshire, the son of a clergyman, and the countryside there, with its Celtic, Roman and medieval past, shaped much of his imagination. Early on he worked in London as a journalist, a cataloguer and a translator from French, and his translations included Casanova's memoirs and the Heptaméron of Marguerite de Navarre.
He is remembered for his supernatural, fantasy and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan, first published in 1890 and expanded in 1894, became a classic of the genre, and Stephen King has counted it among the finest horror stories in English. His other books of the 1890s include The Three Impostors (1895), and his novel The Hill of Dreams appeared in 1907. During the First World War his short story The Bowmen was taken by many readers as a true account, and it gave rise to the legend of the Angels of Mons.
The Great God Pan is the book on this site, and it is the best place to begin with his work. Its central experiment, an operation meant to let a young woman see the god Pan, ends in tragedy, and the story then follows the people drawn into the chain of deaths and disturbing events that comes after. It shows the blend of science, decadence and the uncanny that made Machen a notable figure of the late-Victorian fantastic.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
The Great God Pan
by Arthur Machen
The Great God Pan is an 1894 horror and fantasy novella by the Welsh writer Arthur Machen. Machen was inspired to write The Great God Pan by his experiences at the ruins of a pagan temple in Wales. What would become the first chapter of the novella was published in the newspaper…
Summary from Wikipedia: The Great God Pan (CC BY-SA 4.0)