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The Great God Pan

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 1,664 ratings · 151 reviews

With a foreword by Ramsey Campbell.

An experiment into the sources of the human brain through the mind of a young woman has gone horribly wrong. She has seen the great god Pan and will die giving birth to a daughter.

Twenty years later, feted society hostess Helen Vaughan becomes the source of much fevered speculation. Many men are infatuated with her beauty, but great beaut...more

Paperback, 193 pages

Published October 1st 2010 by Parthian Books (first published 1894)

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Apr 05, 2011 Kat Hooper rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Written in 1894, Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan is a short novel 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…” The Great God Pan used to be hard to find, but is now available free on the Kindle (and at other public domain e-book outlets) and is easily read in one dark and...more ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Written in 1894, Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan is a short novel 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…” The Great God Pan used to be hard to find, but is now available free on the Kindle (and at other public domain e-book outlets) and is easily read in one dark and rainy evening.

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. Thus, he hypothesizes that a small lesion in the cortex of the brain — a slight adjustment of our normal functioning — will “lift the veil” so that we can perceive the supernatural. The Greeks called this “seeing the Great God Pan.” Dr. Raymond invites Mr. Clarke into his laboratory where he is ready to perform this operation on Mary, a beautiful teenage girl who he saved from the streets years before and who, in his thinking, owes him her life. The operation appears to be unsuccessful… or at least Mary turns out to be incapable of describing her perceptions, because she has become “an idiot.”

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. The horrible things he hears about happen in private (many appear to be sexual in nature), so he can’t report the specifics for any of them. Eerie tension and a creeping horror arise as the reader fills in the unknown with fears from his or her own imagination.

It’s disappointing that the writing style of The Great God Pan isn’t as exquisite as the terror is, but it’s pleasant enough and completely readable over 100 years later. The Great God Pan is a must-read for any fan of horror fiction — not the bloody gruesome type of horror, but the brain-bending, soul-scaring type.(less)

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Dec 25, 2010 Marvin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, kindle, short-fiction

The reason Machen remains influential among modern horror writers is quite evident in his most famous tale, The Great God Pan. While not the as shocking and decadent as his contemporary critics said it was, it is still quite disturbing as Machen tells this story about evil seductions and hidden deities. Machen seems to have a strong interest in the mystical (he hung around with Alister Crowley) and strong pantheistic leanings. Yet while contemporary Algernon Blackwood wrote about the same areas...more

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Nov 01, 2010 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, classic-literature, read-oct-2009-oct-2010

I've been hearing of Machen's work for years now, but never got around to reading him. I live in a small, Canadian town, and finding his work around here is near impossible. When I got my Kindle, all that changed. Suddenly, I had all the classic books I yearned for, including Machen.

I hesitated, though. What if my expectations were raised too high? What if I were let down? I have, after all, heard a lot of great things about Machen from authors of whom I admire. Great writers like Caitlin R. Kie...more

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Jul 26, 2010 Michael Hawkins rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've always heard Machen mentioned in the same breath as Lovecraft and being a big fan of the latter's stories I knew I had to get my hands on a copy of "The Great God Pan" which I was told is a must-read for fans of cosmic horror. I've always heard it described as one of the most terrifying stories ever written. That being said, I found the story very interesting and much less dense in its language than I had expected - an enjoyable and easy read - but I'm not so sure about its status as terrif...more

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Nov 11, 2009 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1890s, horror, victorian

Who is the dark and lovely young woman living in Ashley Street, in the cheery house with red geraniums in the windows and flowers on the curtains? Why do so many gentlemen call upon her? What do they see there? What do they do in the house in Ashley Street? And why do they all kill themselves so hideously afterwards?

Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan (1894) is a paranormal mystery that twists together the lives of mad scientists, occultists, and men about town, all attracted, some destroyed, by t...more

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Apr 18, 2008 Dfordoom rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror-gothic

Arthur Machen’s 1894 novella The Great God Pan is probably his best-known work. Machen himself was an interesting character, a devout Anglo-Catholic with an intense dislike for just about everything modern, as well as a fascination with paganism. His books embody a kind of personal mythology, dealing with the continued existence of a mysterious ancient race, a race that has supposedly given rise to various legends about fairies and so forth.
The theme of The Great God Pan is typical of Machen’s...more Arthur Machen’s 1894 novella The Great God Pan is probably his best-known work. Machen himself was an interesting character, a devout Anglo-Catholic with an intense dislike for just about everything modern, as well as a fascination with paganism. His books embody a kind of personal mythology, dealing with the continued existence of a mysterious ancient race, a race that has supposedly given rise to various legends about fairies and so forth.
The theme of The Great God Pan is typical of Machen’s writing – the idea of a hidden world of pagan deities and supernatural rites from the ancient world that still survives, and can on rare occasions come into contact with our world. In this case a scientist performs experimental brain surgery on a young woman, surgery that unlocks part of the brain that allows her to see this hidden world. The result is madness, but that’s only the beginning of the story. A series of strange events occurs, each involving a mysterious, beautiful but very disturbing woman. These events prove to be connected in unexpected ways, and the threads are gradually drawn together. It’s also typical of Machen in its very indirect method of unfolding the tale – most events are recounted at second or third hand, and we’re told very little in the way of concrete facts. One of the characters describes the mystery as being like a nest of Chinese boxes, and in fact that’s the way the whole novella is structured. Hideous and unnameable horrors are suggested but not described. Various people have been given glimpses of a different order of reality, but what they actually see remains obscure. They have seen the mystery of the universe unveiled, and it’s a mystery that defies description.

There’s a very considerable fear of female sexuality expressed in this tale, but there’s also a certain awe at the power this represents. This is sex as a horrifying destructive force, unleashing uncontrollable energies that bring delirium, insanity, chaos and evil. Like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, published three years after Machen’s story, it represents one of the more fascinating examples of Victorian gothic fiction based on sexual anxiety. The intriguing thing about Machen is that his work is thoroughly enjoyable and enthralling even if you don’t share his beliefs. Lovecraft, notorious atheist and materialist, had an enormous admiration for Machen’s fiction.
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Aug 04, 2012 Xenophon Hendrix rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this because Stephen King highly recommended it somewhere on his site. My reaction was more meh.

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Apr 10, 2011 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A novella published in 1894, famous and quite influential in the horror genre. Machen manages to convey a sense of dread and suspense without ever actually describing anything horrible. It's essentially about the evil that comes from trafficking with the pure spirit world, which Machen clearly sees as completely evil and sexually licentious. Really quite well done, and worth reading for those who enjoy, for example, Stephen King, who cited it in Just After Sunset. I had this as one of the free b...more

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May 04, 2013 Antonomasia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Antonomasia by: Alex Sarll

Shelves: 2013, horror, nineteenth-century, decadent-aesthetic, kindle

[My 100th Goodreads review, and more of an actual review than many of them.]

What a curious beast. As it was a free Kindle book, I hadn't read up on this specific story and expected numinous pagan ramblings in the English landscape, a sort of Rewards and Fairies for grown-ups. Certainly there are some beautiful descriptions, but opening as it does with dastardly experimental brain-surgery on a nubile 17-year-old ward (backed by a curiously modern theory echoing the idea of the "god module") - and...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Mitch rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, horror

This book is so odd that I am not sure what to say about it. It contains three short stories that are quite different from one another, yet all are somewhat unsatisfying and unsettling.

The first was ironically panned by many when it was published. Interestingly, I sided with the critics mostly in this case. The reader was supposed to feel nameless dread by its chronicle of nameless horrors, but I often felt nothing at all. I found myself wondering time and again if the horror genre had moved on...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

THE GREAT GOD PAN. (1894). Arthur Machen. ***.
Machen (1863-1947) was a pioneer in the macabre/fantasy genres. Of particular note was the fact that you didn’t have to learn a new language in order to read his work. This novella is probably one of his best known works, and, along with his otheer writings, had a significant influence on later writers. In this tale, we meet Dr. Raymond. Raymond is a researcher in neurology and psychology, and has been doing private research on his own for the last...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Palmyrah rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Maybe it's my fault. Tales of the supernatural had a tremendous effect on me as a child, but the magic no longer works as it did. That said, in a competent writer's hands I'm as susceptible to atmosphere and suspense as anybody else.

And here is a book that is all about atmosphere and suspense. It has little enough of anything else – hardly any action, not much of a plot, no characters worthy of the name, no interesting new ideas to set you thinking. It is a play of hints and shadows – of unspeak...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Alec rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan" (1894) delves into Machen's favorite subject: the supposed existence of a spiritual realm that is imperceptible to the human eye. A realm -- in the mind of Machen -- populated by golden-haired fairies haunting Welsh meadows, sex-crazed demons of ancient mysticism, furry red-eyed changelings that drag children underground with ropes, and phantom Roman legions glimpsed on foggy British moors. Clearly, Machen was a dreamer-sentimentalist, but with a very, very cr...more Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan" (1894) delves into Machen's favorite subject: the supposed existence of a spiritual realm that is imperceptible to the human eye. A realm -- in the mind of Machen -- populated by golden-haired fairies haunting Welsh meadows, sex-crazed demons of ancient mysticism, furry red-eyed changelings that drag children underground with ropes, and phantom Roman legions glimpsed on foggy British moors. Clearly, Machen was a dreamer-sentimentalist, but with a very, very creepy sexual side. His Orthodox Anglo-Catholic upbringing imbued his mind with a love/hate fascination of aberrant sexuality; in particular, its spiritual ramifications. It was this fascination that lead to his writing "The Great God Pan."

Machen's "The Great God Pan" is based upon the concept of spiritual demons that seduce their victims. This age-old story shares some of its esoteric origins in the Old Testament. Prior to textual expurgations by Christian Councils, the Old Testament once referenced the existence of incubi (male) or succubi (female) which preyed on sexual debutantes. Their queen was Lilith -- the Night Hag -- the first wife of Adam in Hebrew and Akkadian folklore. Lilith was a nymphomaniac whom Yahweh made from dung, prior to the creation of Eve. Lilith's inability to obey Adam led to her banishment and replacement by Eve. Later, Lilith mated with beasts and had offspring. Although in Hellenistic myth Pan was the foster brother of Zeus, some of Joseph Campbell's monomyth theorists claim that Pan was one of Lilith's children.

The Pan deity present in Machen's horror story borrows from the aforementioned lore and also from the contemporary exorcism of his day. In the 19th century, exorcists believed that a demon could invade a weak soul and, if a child was conceived in lust by that soul, be born into the resulting child. Another variant was that a person in a hypnotic or drowsy state of mind could glimpse the spirit realm and have unwanted "encounters" there. Machen expounded upon this latter variant of exorcism in "The Great God Pan" by having Dr. Raymond create an experiment that allows others to glimpse that spirit world and creates tragic, yet kinky results.

In "The Great God Pan," the experiment performed upon a seventeen-year old female, Mary, results in her seeing the "real world [...] beyond the veil" and, in doing so, she is raped by Pan. Mary goes insane, but bears a child nine months later from that unholy union. Years later, Helen Vaughan, the offspring of Pan and Mary, shocks London society by engaging in bizarre sexuality and destroying lives as the result of her taint by Pan. Machen foreshadows these events with the Latin adage: "Et diabolus incarnatus est. Et homo factus est." The English translation is: "And a devil was made incarnate. And a human being was produced."

Overall, I enjoyed Machen's "The Great God Pan." To me, Machen's tale is similar to Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) minus the clear-cut, black-and-white demarcation between good and evil. I also think "The Great God Pan" would be an excellent story to have your girlfriend read if the topic of marriage and children has just come up...(less)

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Aug 05, 2012 Emy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Emy by: Frozenwaffle

Shelves: 2012, horror, psychological-horror, british-classics

I read this book as part of the EEVILLE book challenge, the idea being we were challenged to read something that we would never normally pick up. I was partnered with the lovely Frozenwaffle, who challenged me to read this strange, rough little gem of a book.

In essence, The Great God Pan is a tale of the unintended consequences of an experiment that delved into the hidden mysteries of the human brain. At least, that's what I took out of it. You could also desribe it as a series of linked mysteri...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Karl Steel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: postmedieval_fiction

Not really decadent enough for my tastes, though the ontological horror at the end is almost enough of a pay off.

I can imagine folks complaining about Machen's inability to vary his tone. All his characters sound the same (so no wonder virtually everyone's of the same class of Drones). For example, here are two characters talking:

"I was wide awake enough. Even if I had been dreaming as you say, what I saw would have roused me effectually."

"What you saw? What did you see? Was there anything stran...more

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Jan 16, 2012 Ben Dutton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Arthur Machen is almost a forgotten name these days. The Great God Pan, perhaps is masterwork, is almost unread, but for a few hardy souls willing to tread into late Victorian gothic. In its day, however, Arthur Machen was well regarded, and this novel was praised by H. P. Lovecraft who said: "No one could begin to describe the cumulative suspense and ultimate horror with which every paragraph abounds." It is an apt description of the novella - this is a slim, but powerful volume - whose mysteri...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Yorkshiresoul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have not heard of Welsh author Arthur Machen before, but I am very glad I found this novella at the library for what a wonderful little story this is. The Great God Pan was the first of Machen's works to be published in 1890. The blurb on the back had this little anecdote which piqued my imagination "Machen's story was widely denounced for its sexual and horrific content and subsequently sold well."

TGGP is a classic horror story, although if you're going to read it for the sex and horror conte...more

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Oct 07, 2010 Eddie Watkins rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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.

A scientist, a self-proclaimed practitioner of transcendental medicine, cuts into a young woman's brain to heighten her spiritual awareness; but instead Pan, the wild nature spirit, or rather the tremendous invisib...more 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.

A scientist, a self-proclaimed practitioner of transcendental medicine, cuts into a young woman'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.

It’s short, 50-60 pages, and it is presented in a patchwork fashion, as overlapping chapters that connect only peripherally to each other, that for me intensified the mystery and made the tale feel like a much longer work in concentrate. It could be called a minimalist masterpiece of Gothic horror.

At the time of publication this book caused quite a scandal because of its suggestion that men were killing themselves because of some dark sex magic that transferred Pan (in the form of an STD, I suppose) from the carrier to them, though all this occurs off-stage as it were. It's hard now to see what the fuss was all about, and so it’s much easier now to simply focus on the potency of the tale.

As an author of some of classic Weird Tales, Arthur Machen has the added advantage of believing much of what he writes about. He was a keen explorer of dark mystical realms and was right there in the thick of London’s Magickal scene: he along with Yeats and Aleister Crowley were members of The Order of the Golden Dawn. Machen knew of powerful realities hidden from our rational intellects by the thinnest of physical veils, and that the parting of this veil was possible through various means – drugs, meditation, magick, a blow to the head, etc. He was also a wonderfully evocative writer with an intense love for that very physical world that potentially contained many horrors.(less)

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Dec 17, 2008 Chad rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

When authors like H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King refer to you as an influence, you know you're doing something right. Such is the case with turn of the century horror writer, Arthur Machen.

King's latest volume of short stories wasn't his strongest contribution to the genre, but one story stood out, a brief glimmer into what kind of genius King is capable of when he's firing on all cylinders. The story was called "N.", and King directly mentions "The Great God Pan" as an inspiration, which deals...more When authors like H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King refer to you as an influence, you know you're doing something right. Such is the case with turn of the century horror writer, Arthur Machen.

King's latest volume of short stories wasn't his strongest contribution to the genre, but one story stood out, a brief glimmer into what kind of genius King is capable of when he's firing on all cylinders. The story was called "N.", and King directly mentions "The Great God Pan" as an inspiration, which deals with the idea that ugly horribly maddening things lie beyond the thin veil that we percieve as reality.

I can't say I've read a lot of Victorian era horror, but the period had its share of ugly things to scare its society's psyche, including the (at the time) recent Jack the Ripper murders, which are actually referenced in Machen's work.

The Whitechapel murders, indeed, provide a pretty good parallel to the horrors that Machen writes about. His characters are all well to do society gentlemen, most of whom either have concealed interests in occult-like behavior, or unknowingly possess items with dark and cryptic properties. In the daylight, they go about their proper lives, but at night, frightening things are revealed. The idea of an ugly and chaotic underbelly hidden only by our own manufactured sense of peace and order is one that runs through the book.

A doctor thinks he can peer behind human perception and see the world as it really is with a surgical procedure. His assistant keeps a secret dossier of clippings and stories that prove the existence of the devil. A string of high-society suicides are subtly linked by the presence of a mysterious woman.

In the days before modern horror movies, where "More Gore = More Scary", Machen's frights may seem rather pedestrian. Whether it was normal for that era's genre, or if Machen simply ascribed to the 'less is more' philosophy, if you actually stop to think about what he implies, there is a definite creepiness factor to this short work. There are no implicit descriptions of monsters or murders or gore, but all the hints are there, and I kind of like that. Again, what is left unsaid is far scarier than anything he could describe.

This isn't a life-changing read for fans of horror, but its a pretty interesting glimpse into an inspiration and precursor to the Cthulu mythology that would be written several years later by Lovecraft.(less)

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Jul 24, 2011 dragonhelmuk rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Available very cheap because of its age: what a great story! From the inscription to Deo M.-Nodenti which I only studied a couple of weeks ago to the illusion and glamour this book is beautiful. The only flaw was that there were a few too many main characters, I had trouble keeping up with who was speaking, but otherwise it was amazing! I will definitely look out for more books by this author. Three quotes...

(some things shouldn't be seen... sometimes I get poetic like this in real life ;>)
It...more Available very cheap because of its age: what a great story! From the inscription to Deo M.-Nodenti which I only studied a couple of weeks ago to the illusion and glamour this book is beautiful. The only flaw was that there were a few too many main characters, I had trouble keeping up with who was speaking, but otherwise it was amazing! I will definitely look out for more books by this author. Three quotes...

(some things shouldn't be seen... sometimes I get poetic like this in real life ;>)
It was, indeed, an exquisite symbol beneath which men long ago veiled their knowledge of the most awful, most secret forces which lie at the heart of all things; forces before which the souls of men must wither and die and blacken, as their bodies blacken under the electric current. Such forces cannot be named, cannot be spoken, cannot be imagined except under a veil and a symbol, a symbol to the most of us appearing a quaint, poetic fancy, to some a foolish tale.

(I think Machen could have gone a bit further here... but good for the time it was written perhaps!)
You see me standing here beside you, and hear my voice; but I tell you that all these things -- yes, from that star that has just shone out in the sky to the solid ground beneath our feet--I say that all these are but dreams and shadows; the shadows that hide the real world from our eyes. There is a real world, but it is beyond this glamour and this vision, beyond these 'chases in Arras, dreams in a career,' beyond them all as beyond a veil.

(Amazing characters!)
the temptation to relax in the evening was too great, especially in the winter months, when the fire cast a warm glow over his snug bachelor apartment, and a bottle of some choice claret stood ready by his elbow. His dinner digested, he would make a brief pretence of reading the evening paper, but the mere catalogue of news soon palled upon him, and Clarke would find himself casting glances of warm desire in the direction of an old Japanese bureau, which stood at a pleasant distance from the hearth. Like a boy before a jam-closet, for a few minutes he would hover indecisive, but lust always prevailed, and Clarke ended by drawing up his chair, lighting a candle, and sitting down before the bureau. Its pigeon-holes and drawers teemed with documents on the most morbid subjects, and in the well reposed a large manuscript volume, in which he had painfully entered he gems of his collection. Clarke had a fine contempt for published literature; the most ghostly story ceased to interest him if it happened to be printed; his sole pleasure was in the reading, compiling, and rearranging what he called his "Memoirs to prove the Existence of the Devil," and engaged in this pursuit the evening seemed to fly and the night appeared too short.

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Nov 02, 2010 Lady Danielle aka The Book Huntress rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of weird fiction

Shelves: kindle-book, tales-to-chill-your-blood, weird-tale-weird-fiction, classic-horror, favorites, victorian, short-story

I quite liked this story by Arthur Machen. I liked the air of mystery, but harrowing menace he created. Apparently the doctor's experiments in piercing the veil had some very bad effects. There was a subtle element of dark sexuality in this story, handled very elegantly. I like that much is left for the reader to discern in this story. Many of those people who see what should have been left hidden don't live long afterward, and I was encouraged to draw my own conclusions about that horror they w...more

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Jul 24, 2009 Terence rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of Lovecraft, early pulp horror

Shelves: horror-gothic

Reading articles and other stuff about the horror genre and its authors, I had come across Arthur Machen’s name many times and had always meant to sample his work when time or opportunity permitted.

Well, it happened – a reference to a totally unrelated author and a Wikipedia search took me to “The Great God Pan” and, hence, to the Gutenberg Project, where I downloaded a copy.

The plot is similar to H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror” (a debt HPL openly acknowledged) – A scientist performs an op...more

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May 31, 2012 Julie Davis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 1927, H.P. Lovecraft wrote an essay titled “Supernatural Horror in Literature”. This podcast will include readings of works referenced in this essay, including the works of Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James, among others.

So far Charly at Supernatural Horror in Literature has been working his way through Arthur Machen's writing, beginning with this novella, The Great God Pan. I can really see why Lovecraft wrote about it and, in fact, preferred it to Lovecraft as...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Angus Macdonald rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dark, disturbing and just downright creepy, this story has been compared to Lovecraft. It is easy to see why, with the details and the elements of the story which are simply described as 'indescribable', 'unspeakable,' or 'beyond comprehension.' In this story these unspeakable things add a sordid and uncomfortable atmosphere to the whole thing. Beautifully written, this is a great little horror story.

"suddenly, in place of the hum and murmur of the summer, an infinite silence seemed to fall on...more

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Sep 13, 2010 Travis Ferrell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read "The Great God Pan" because it inspired two short stories I read in the last year that I enjoyed very much: "N." by Stephen King and "The Dunwitch Horror" by Lovecraft. It is always interesting to see how two different authors can be inspired differently by the same literary author. For King, finds concept that "the world is thin," which I imagine comes from the daydreams which characters have which almost reveal another world do them. For Lovecraft, it is the plot point of humans and other...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Alex Laybourne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I heard about this novel some time ago, but for some reason it slipped my mind and it wasn't until recently that I stumbled upon it.

As far as horror stories go, it is aged, there can be no denying it, but if you are to read it and cast yourself into not just the world of the story, but the thinking at the time, ir is a creepy story, and a tale as good as anything written today.

There was a surge of PAN related stories written around the turn of the nineteenth century, but this one in particular...more

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Jul 28, 2010 Ricardo Lourenço rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Marco importante na literatura fantástica, inspirando e influenciando muitos autores que se inserem nesse género, não se justifica a imerecida falta de atenção dada à obra de Machen por parte das editoras portuguesas. Felizmente a Saída de Emergência, à semelhança do que tem vindo a fazer em relação a diversos escritores, acaba por preencher o relativo vazio no que a traduções em português diz respeito.
No entanto, é preciso ter em conta que, naturalmente, não podemos ler os seus contos da mesma...more Marco importante na literatura fantástica, inspirando e influenciando muitos autores que se inserem nesse género, não se justifica a imerecida falta de atenção dada à obra de Machen por parte das editoras portuguesas. Felizmente a Saída de Emergência, à semelhança do que tem vindo a fazer em relação a diversos escritores, acaba por preencher o relativo vazio no que a traduções em português diz respeito.
No entanto, é preciso ter em conta que, naturalmente, não podemos ler os seus contos da mesma forma que se fazia nos finais do séc. XIX, inícios do séc. XX. O horror transmitido não causa o mesmo impacto, algo que se deve em grande parte ao grande progresso tecnológico que caracterizou o século passado, e que continua a estar presente na actualidade (talvez um tema para um post posterior, este da desmistificação que a ciência veio trazer, e as suas consequências na literatura).

Nesta edição estão traduzidos os seguintes contos:

· O Grande Deus Pã (The Great God Pan, 1984)
Iniciando-se com uma sinistra experiência numa jovem rapariga, que acaba por destruir a mente desta, este conto apresenta uma sucessão de estranhos acontecimentos que, apesar de aparentemente serem independentes uns dos outros, acabam por revelar ligações que vêm desmistificar a identidade de uma mulher que se crê estar na origem de uma bizarra série de suicídios em Londres.

· Novela da Chancela Negra (The Novel of the Black Seal, 1895)
Uma leitura especialmente interessante para quem aprecia a obra de H.P. Lovecraft, dado que é visível a influência que este conto (e, no fundo, a obra de Machen) teve sobre o trabalho de Lovecraft, nomeadamente em “The Whisperer in Darkness” (que pode ser encontrado nas antologias publicadas também pela Saída de Emergência).

· A Luz Mais Interior (The Innmost Light, 1894)
Em que o casal Black se muda para os subúrbios de Londres, vivendo felizes, pelo menos temporariamente, dado que a senhora Black desaparece por completo durante o Inverno. Tal facto é encoberto pelo marido, mas esta acaba por ser avistada através de uma janela, sendo aparente uma horrível mudança que nela se operou.

· Povo Branco (The White People, 1904)
Talvez o conto que mais apreciei, aquele que nos impele fortemente a uma reflexão sobre a própria natureza do mal, fruto da discussão entre dois homens com que se inicia. De modo a ilustrar os seus argumentos, um dos intervenientes acaba por revelar um diário que tem na sua posse, relatando as impressões de uma jovem, que acabam por ser o ponto central deste Povo Branco.

Trata-se de um boa selecção mas, apesar do que foi dito até agora devo salientar que a escrita de Machen não está isente de falhas, longe disso. De facto, os seus contos apresentam diversos problemas a nível de narrativa, que se desenvolve em grande parte através do uso da coincidência. Muito embora tal abordagem permita criar uma progressão que se assemelha a um pesadelo, em que independentemente das opções tomadas pelas personagens estas caminham sempre de encontro ao mistério, o uso recorrente da coincidência acaba por empobrecer alguns dos contos.
Para além destes aspectos, Machen peca também pela caracterização das personagens que é bastante elementar, tornando-as bastante desinteressantes por vezes.
Mas, apesar destes pontos negativos, a obra de Arthur Machen não deixa de ser uma leitura recomendada, especialmente aos adeptos do fantástico e do horror. Não se vão arrepender ao entrar num ambiente único em que o mistério e o terror se entrelaçam...em que paisagens atractivas encobrem, com a sua beleza, forças que a compreensão humana não consegue atingir.(less)

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Apr 05, 2011 Hazel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Historical interest only

I have a very clear memory of a short story fragment. Some dilletante is visiting a country house and playing with the idea of paganism. By the end of the story, though, he encounters Pan in the flesh, and the reality is all too much. He screams 'Oh, Great Christ!' as the god laughs mockingly. Still gives me the chills, but I haven't a clue who wrote it, or what it's called. (Manny, does this sound familiar?)

I went searching the internet and found this Arthur Machen novella which is rather less...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Steven rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mandatory reading for any student of the horror genre. I recommend it for both its historical value as a horror piece and its glimpse into Victorian society from a point of view quite different than the usual 'proper' literature.
Unfortunately for me, I found "The Great God Pan," to be so inhibited in its approach and so formal in its language as to be nearly inaccessible to me. Granted, it was written in Victorian England and, at the time, the sensuality and un-Christianness of the book scandal...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Greg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I really enjoyed this book. I had never heard of Arthur Machen until I recently Googled for a recommended reading list in the horror genre. I came across a recommended reading list for the Horror Writers Association and Arthur Machen was on the list. I then looked him up on Wikipedia, which said that one of his most widely regarded books was The Great God Pan. The novella is typical of Victorian and Edwardian horror and is interestingly structured with a prologue of action, and the story told th...more

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About Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen was a leading Welsh author of the 1890s. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His long story "The Great God Pan" made him famous and controversial in his lifetime, but The Hill of Dreams is generally considered his masterpiece. He also is well known for his leading role in creating the legend of the Angels of Mons.

At the age of eleven, Mache...more Arthur Machen was a leading Welsh author of the 1890s. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His long story "The Great God Pan" made him famous and controversial in his lifetime, but The Hill of Dreams is generally considered his masterpiece. He also is 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. Returning to London, he lived in relative poverty, attempting to work as a journalist, as a publisher's clerk, and as a children's tutor while writing in the evening and going on long rambling walks across London.

In 1884 he published his second work, the pastiche The Anatomy of Tobacco, and secured work with the publisher and bookseller George Redway as a cataloguer and magazine editor. This led to further work as a translator from French, translating the Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre, Le Moyen de Parvenir (Fantastic Tales) of Béroalde de Verville, and the Memoirs of Casanova. Machen's translations in a spirited English style became standard ones for many years.

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. 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. However, following the scandal surrounding Oscar Wilde later that year, Machen's association with works of decadent horror made it difficult for him to find a publisher for new works. Thus, though he would write some of his greatest works over the next few years, some were published much later. These included The Hill of Dreams, Hieroglyphics, A Fragment of Life, the story "The White People", and the stories which make up Ornaments in Jade.
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Quotes from The Great God Pan

“I had to cast out a good many lines, though, before I got what I wanted, and when I landed the fish I did not for a moment suppose it was my fish. But I listened to what I was told out of a constitutional liking for useless information, and I found myself in possession of a very curious story, though, as I imagined, not the story I was looking for.” — 4 people liked it

“By what seemed then and still seems a chance, the suggestion of a moment’s idle thought followed up upon familiar lines and paths that I had tracked a hundred times already, the great truth burst upon me, and I saw, mapped out in lines of light, a whole world, a sphere unknown; continents and islands, and great oceans in which no ship has sailed (to my belief) since a Man first lifted up his eyes and beheld the sun, and the stars of heaven, and the quiet earth beneath.” — 2 people liked it

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