The Great God Pan (Best Novel Classics) - Softcover

Machen, Arthur

Softcover

ISBN 10: 153508068X ISBN 13: 9781535080682

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016

Synopsis

Classics for Your Collection:

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THE GREAT GOD PAN

The Great God Pan is a succinct gem of horror and mystery; a kind of spiritual variation on classic tales of lycanthropy; though its effectiveness depends on one’s sensitivity to, and belief in, the potential horrors of the very real though unseen forces beneath material manifestation.

The Story Outline:

The first few pages of The Great God Pan describe Mr. Clarke’s visit to his friend Dr. Raymond. After many years of study, Dr. Raymond has theorized that the spirit world is all around us, but that humans are unable to perceive it because of the particular set-up of our sensory systems.

A scientist, a self-proclaimed practitioner of transcendental medicine, Dr. Raymond operates on the young teenage girl Mary’s brain to heighten her spiritual awareness; but instead Pan, the wild nature spirit, or rather the tremendous invisible life force that seethes beneath nature’s visible cloak, enters and impregnates her.

The spawn of this diabolical union, a society woman with a lovely though strangely unsettling face, wreaks havoc in late 19th century London (very atmospherically portrayed in all its twisty mystery) as a series of well-heeled men mysteriously commit suicide.

The rest of the story is Mr. Clarke’s collection of accounts of unexplained suicides and strange deaths (apparently from shock and terror) in London society and his gradual suspicion that there is some connection between these deaths and Dr. Raymond’s failed experiment.

Facts and Trivia:

1. Written in 1894, Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan is a novella which was highly influential to H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King. King, in fact, said The Great God Pan is “...one of the best horror stories ever written. Maybe the best in the English language. Mine isn’t anywhere near that good...”

2. The title was taken from the poem "A Musical Instrument" published in 1862 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in which the first line of every stanza ends "... the great god Pan."

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About this title

About the Author

Arthur Machen (3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan (1890; 1894) has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror). He is also well known for his leading role in creating the legend of the Angels of Mons. At the age of eleven, Machen boarded at Hereford Cathedral School, where he received an excellent classical education. Family poverty ruled out attendance at university, and Machen was sent to London, where he sat exams to attend medical school but failed to get in. Machen, however, showed literary promise, publishing in 1881 a long poem "Eleusinia" on the subject of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Around 1890 Machen began to publish in literary magazines, writing stories influenced by the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, some of which used gothic or fantastic themes. This led to his first major success, "The Great God Pan". It was published in 1894 by John Lane in the noted Keynotes Series, which was part of the growing aesthetic movement of the time. HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos was heavily influenced by Machen, and through it Machen's ideas are at the heart of the modern horror genre and the work of writers like Clive Barker and Stephen King.

Review

Of creators of cosmic fear raised to its most artistic pitch, few can hope to equal Arthur Machen. -- H. P. Lovecraft

What can I say about a writer whose influence has been acknowledged by H.P.Lovecraft, Peter Straub, T.E.D.Klein, M.John Harrison and Clive Barker? Perhaps that he managed to communicate a sense of the inexpressibly and awesomely supernatural with more power than he ever knew. --Ramsey Campbell

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 153508068X
• ISBN 13: 9781535080682
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 66
• Editor: Oceo Success