Arthur Machen Books In Order

Novels

The Hill of Dreams (1904)
The Secret Glory (1907)
The Great Return (1915)
The Terror (1916)
The Green Round (1932)
Hieroglyphics (1960)
The Great God Pan (1970)

Collections

The Chronicle of Clemendy (1888)
The Three Impostors (1894)
A Fragment of Life (1904)
The House of Souls (1906)
The Angels of Mons, The Bowmen, and Other Legends of the War (1915)
Out of the Earth (1915)
The Shining Pyramid (1923)
The Glorious Mystery (1924)
Ornaments in Jade (1924)
Dreads and Drolls (1927)
The Children of the Pool (1936)
The Cosy Room (1936)
Holy Terrors (1946)
Tales of Horror and the Supernatural (1948)
The Novel of the Black Seal (1965)
The Novel of the White Powder (1965)
The Collected Arthur Machen (1987)
Ritual (1992)
Rus in Urbe (1998)
The White People and Other Tales (2002)
The Terror and Other Tales (2005)
The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories (2018)

Chapbooks

The Town of a Magic Dream (1987)

Novellas

The Inmost Light (1894)
The Ceremony (1897)
The White People (1904)
The Red Hand (1906)
The Bowmen (1914)
The Islington Mystery (1928)
Change (1936)

Non fiction

Far Off Things (1922)
Things Near and Far (1923)
The Autobiography Of Arthur Machen (1951)
The Anatomy of Taverns (1990)

Novels Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

Chapbooks Book Covers

The Town of a Magic Dream
(1987)

Novellas Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

Arthur Machen Books Overview

The Hill of Dreams

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million books. com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II LUCIAN was growing really anxious about his manuscript. He had gained enough experience at twenty three to know that editors and publishers must not be hurried; but his book had been lying at Messrs. Beit’s office for more than three months. For six weeks he had not dared to expect an answer, but afterwards life had become agonising. Every morning, at post time, the poor wretch nearly choked with anxiety to know whether his sentence had arrived, and the rest of the day was racked with alternate pangs of hope and despair. Now and then he was almost assured of success; conning over these painful and eager pages in memory, he found parts that were admirable, while again, his inexperience reproached him, and he feared he had written a raw and awkward book, wholly unfit for print. Then he would compare what he remembered of it with notable magazine articles and books praised by reviewers, and fancy that after all there might be good points in the thing; he could not help liking the first chapter for instance. Perhaps the letter might come tomorrow. So it went on ; week after week of sick torture made more exquisite by such gleams of hope; it was as if he were stretched in anguish on the rack, and the pain relaxed and kind words spoken now and again by the tormentors, and then once more the grinding pang and burning agony. At last he could bear suspense no longer, and he wrote to Messrs. Beit, inquiring in a humble manner whether the manuscript had arrived in safety. The firm replied in a very polite letter, expressing regret that their reader had been suffering from a cold in the head, and had therefore been unable to send in his report. A final decision was promised in a week’s time, and the letter ended with apologies for the delay and a hope that he had suffered no inconvenie…

The Secret Glory

Unlike most of Machen’s other works, The Secret Glory is not usually considered a work of horror. Instead it is a semi autobiographical tale of a young man, Ambrose Meyrick, and his attempt to struggle through the public school system all the while preoccupied with a childhood memory of the Holy Grail hidden in his native Wales. Arthur Machen is the pen name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones. Born in Wales in 1863, he went on to become one of the most respected horror writers of all times. Many prominent authors from that time and the present admired him Lovecraft, Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, and H.G. Wells to name only a few.

The Great Return

They were purged as if they had passed through the Furnace of the Sages governed with Wisdom that the alchemists know. They spoke without much difficulty of what they had seen, or had seemed to see, with their eyes, but hardly at all of what their hearts had known when for a moment the glory of the fiery rose had been about them.

The Terror

‘Explosion at Munition Works in the Northern District: Many Fatalities.’ The working man told me about it, and added some dreadful details. Corpses so terribly maimed that coffins had been kept covered; faces mutilated as if by some gnawing animal…
. I took a tram to the location of the disaster; a raw and hideous shed with a walled yard about it, and a shut gate. The roof was quite undamaged this had had been a strange accident. There had been an explosion of sufficient violence to kill work people in the building, but the building itself showed no wounds or scars.

Hieroglyphics

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million books. com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II T THINK it is a horrible thing to have such a good memory as that. I recollect, now that you remind me, that I did lay down ‘Pickwick’ v. ‘Vanity Fair’ as a sort of test case of my theory of literature; but you surely do not expect me to work out the arguments in detail? Of course if I were giving a series of lectures I should ‘ set a paper’ after each one; but I expect you to content yourself with the suggestion, with the skeleton map, as it were. Besides, if we take that special case of two eminent Victorian novels as a concrete instance of the abstract argument, don’t you see that we are answering the particular question all the while that we are investigating the general proposition? Surely if you recollect all that we said about fine literature in general, you won’t have much difficulty in adjudicating on the claims of Thackeray. Don’t you see that he never withdraws himself from the common life and the common consciousness, that he is all the while nothing but a photographer; a showman with a set of pictures. A consummately clever photographer, certainly, a showman with a gift of amusing, interesting ‘ patter’ that is quite extraordinary, an artificer of very high merit. But where will you find Ecstasy in Thackeray ? Where is his adoration? You may search, I think, from one end of his books to the other, without finding any evidence that he realised the mystery of things; he was never for a moment aware of that shadowy double, that strange companion of man, who walks, as I said, foot to foot with each one of us, and yet his paces are in an unknown world. And unless you have got any fresh arguments I think we decided last week that the book which lacks the sense of all this is not fine literature. I hope you don’t think I am abusing Thackeray. I am always reading h…

The Great God Pan

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million books. com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE INMOST LIGHT I One evening in autumn, when the deformities of London were veiled in faint blue mist, and its vistas and far reaching streets seemed splendid, Mr. Charles Salisbury was slowly pacing down Rupert Street, drawing nearer to his favourite restaurant by slow degrees. His eyes were downcast in study of the pavement, and thus it was that as he passed in at the narrow door a man who had come up from the lower end of the street jostled against him. ‘ I beg your pardon wasn’t looking where I was going. Why, it’s Dyson!’ ‘ Yes, quite so. How are you, Salisbury ? ‘ ‘ Quite well. But where have you been, Dyson ? I don’t think I can have seen you for the last five years ?’ ‘ No; I daresay not. You remember I wasgetting rather hard up when you came to my place at Charlotte Street ?’ ‘ Perfectly. I think I remember your telling me that you owed five weeks’ rent, and that you had parted with your watch for a comparatively small sum.’ ‘ My dear Salisbury, your memory is admirable. Yes, I was hard up. But the curious thing is that soon after you saw me I became harder up. My financial state was described by a friend as ‘ stone broke.’ I don’t approve of slang, mind you, but such was my condition. But suppose we go in; there might be other people who would like to dine it’s a human weakness, Salisbury.’ ‘ Certainly; come along. I was wondering as I walked down whether the corner table were taken. It has a velvet back, you know.’ ‘ I know the spot; it’s vacant. Yes, as I was saying, I became even harder up.’ ‘What did you do then?’ asked Salisbury, disposing of his hat, and settling down in the corner of the seat, with a glance of fond anticipation at the menu. ‘What did I do? Why, I sat down and reflected. I had a good classical education,and a posi…

The Three Impostors

‘It is all more strange than I fancied,’ he said at last. ‘It was queer enough what I saw; a man is sauntering along a quiet, sober, everyday London street, a street of grey houses and blank walls, and there, for a moment, a veil seems drawn aside, and the very fume of the pit steams up through the flagstones, the ground glows, red-hot, beneath his feet, and he seems to hear the hiss of the infernal caldron. A man flying in mad terror for his life, and furious hate pressing hot on his steps with knife drawn ready; here, indeed, is horror; but what is all that to what you have told me? I tell you, Phillipps, I see the plot thicken; our steps will henceforth be dogged with mystery, and the most ordinary incidents will teem with significance. You may stand out against it, and shut your eyes, but they will be forced open; mark my words, you will have to yield to the inevitable. A clue, tangled if you like, has been placed by chance in our hands; it will be our business to follow it up. As for the guilty person or persons in this strange case, they will be unable to escape us, our nets will be spread far and wide over this great city, and suddenly, in the streets and places of public resort, we shall in some way or other be made aware that we are in touch with the unknown criminal. Indeed I almost fancy I see him slowly approaching this quiet square of yours; he is loitering at street corners, wandering, apparently without aim, down far-reaching thoroughfares, but all the while coming nearer and nearer, drawn by an irresistible magnetism, as ships were drawn to the Loadstone Rock in the Eastern tale.’

A Fragment of Life

Arthur Llewelyn Jones 1863 1947 who wrote under the pen name Arthur Machen was a leading Welsh author. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is also well known for his leading role in creating the legend of The Angels of Mons 1915. In 1884, he published the pastiche The Anatomy of Tobacco, and secured work with the publisher and bookseller George Redway. 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. From the beginning of his literary career, he espoused a mystical belief that the humdrum ordinary world hid a more mysterious and strange world beyond. His gothic and decadent works of the 1890s concluded that the lifting of this veil could lead to madness, sex, or death, and usually a combination of all three. He also wrote The Three Impostors, The Terror, The Inmost Light, The White People, The Novel of the Black Seal, The Novel of the White Powder, The Red Hand, A Fragment of Life, The Shining Pyramid and A New Christmas Carol.

The House of Souls

EDWARD DARNELL awoke from a dream of anancient wood, and of a clear well rising intogrey film and vapour beneath a misty, glimmer ing heat; and as his eyes opened he saw the sunlightbright in the room, sparkling on the varnish of the newfurniture. He turned and found his wife’s place vacant,and with some confusion and wonder of the dream stilllingering in his mind, he rose also, and began hurriedlyto set about his dressing, for he had overslept a little, andthe ‘bus passed the corner at 9. 15. He was a tall, thinman, dark haired and dark eyed, and in spite of theroutine of the City, the counting of coupons, and all themechanical drudgery that had lasted for ten years, therestill remained about him the curious hint of a wild grace,as if he had been born a creature of the antique wood,and had seen the fountain rising from the green moss andthe grey rocks. The breakfast was laid in the room on the ground floor,the back room with the French windows lookiTable of Contents PACK; A FRAGMENT OF LIFE 3; THE WHITE PEOPLE 113; THE GREAT GOD PAN X6g; THE INMOST LIGHT 247; THE THREE IMPOSTORS 28g; ADVENTURE OF THE GOLD TIBERJUS 293; THE ENCOUNTER OF THE PAVEMENT 303; ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING BROTHER 33 I; INCIDENT OF THE PRIVATE BAR 396; THE RECLUSE OF BAYSWATER 410; STRANGE OCCURRENCE IN CLERKENWELL 442; ADVENTURE OF THE DESERTED RESIDENCE 467; THE RED HAND 475About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology. Forgotten Books’ Classic Reprint Series ut

The Angels of Mons, The Bowmen, and Other Legends of the War

Arthur Machen 1863 1947 was a leading Welsh author. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. He also is well known for his leading role in creating the legend of the Angels of Mons. At the age of eleven, he boarded at Hereford Cathedral School, where he received an excellent classical education. Family poverty ruled out attendance at university. 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 1894, which was part of the growing aesthetic movement of the time. Machen’s story was widely denounced for its sexual and horrific content and subsequently sold well, going into a second edition. Machen next produced The Three Impostors, a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895. The novel and the stories within it were eventually to be regarded as among Machen’s best works.

The Shining Pyramid

They lay full length upon the turf; the rock between their faces and the Bowl, and now and again, Dyson, slouching his dark, soft hat over his forehead, put out the glint of an eye, and in a moment drew back, not daring to take a prolonged view. Again he laid an ear to the ground and listened, and the hours went by, and the darkness seemed to blacken, and the faint sigh of the wind was the only sound.

Dreads and Drolls

There! Can you imagine what would happen if one submitted the above as an outline or sketch of a possible plot to our really modern writers, the veritable Georgians? I don’t think that they would be cross, or snap your head off, or wonder audibly what theatre put on transpontine melodrama in these days, or say it was interesting to find that Sue still found readers. There would be nothing violent of this kind; only the slight movement of a weary brow, before the conversation flowed back to its proper channel of ‘complexes’ and skin disease. Because you see, the Georgian novelist knows that the stuff of which we have been talking is not Life, has no relation to Life, and in a word, doesn’t happen.

Tales of Horror and the Supernatural

Includes: The Terror. The Great God Pan. White People. Fourteen Stories! Over 500 pages From the beginning of his literary career, Machen espoused a mystical belief that the humdrum ordinary world hid a more mysterious and strange world beyond. His gothic and decadent works of the 1890s concluded that the lifting of this veil could lead to madness, sex, or death, and usually a combination of all three. Machen’s later works became somewhat less obviously full of gothic trappings, but for him investigations into mysteries invariably resulted in life changing transformation and sacrifice. Machen loved the medieval world view because he felt it combined deep spirituality alongside a rambunctious earthiness. Machen s strong opposition to a materialistic viewpoint is obvious in many of his works, marking him as part of neo romanticism. He was deeply suspicious of science, materialism, commerce, and Puritanism, all of which were anathema to Machen’s conservative, bohemian, mystical, and ritualistic temperament.

The Novel of the Black Seal

‘I think you, are wrong,’ he replied; ‘there are still, depend upon it, quaint, undiscovered countries and continents of strange extent. Ah, Miss Lally! believe me, we stand amidst sacraments and mysteries full of awe, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Life, believe me, is no simple thing, no mass of grey matter and congeries of veins and muscles to be laid naked by the surgeon’s knife; man is the secret which I am about to explore.

The White People and Other Tales

Born in Wales in 1863, Machen was a London journalist for much of his life. Among his fiction, he may be best known for the allusive, haunting title story of this book, &’The White People’, which H.P. Lovecraft thought to be the second greatest horror story ever written after Blackwood’s ‘The Wilows’. This wide ranging collection also includes the crystalline novelette ‘A Fragment of Life’, & ‘The Angel of Mons’ a story so widely reported that it was imagined true by millions in the grim initial days of the Great War, and ‘The Great Return’ telling of the stately visions which graced the Welsh village of Llantristant for a time. Four more tales and the poetical ‘Ornaments in Jade’ are all finely told. This is the second Machen volume edited by S. T. Joshi and published by Chaosium. The first volume was The Three Impostors.

The White People

Far Off Things

Well, as I say, I found myself on a certain night a partaker of all this cheerfulness. I was one guest among many; there were explorers and ambassadors and great scientific personages and judges, and the author who has given the world the best laughter that it has enjoyed since Dickens died: in a word, I was in much more distinguished company than that to which I am accustomed. And after dinner the Persians as I will call them have a kindly and courteous custom of praising their guests; and to my astonishment and delight the speaker brought me into his oration and said the kindest and most glowing things imaginable about a translation I once made of the ‘Heptameron’ of Margaret of Navarre. I was heartily pleased; I hold with Foker in ‘Pendennis’ that every fellow likes a hand. Praise is grateful, especially when there has not been too much of it. Far Off Things is a series of autobiographical sketches by the great Arthur Machen; notice how even in fairly mundane prose from nearly the beginning, there’s a haunting quality to the words themselves.