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The Great God Pan
Arthur Machen was a Welsh writer and mystic. Machen is best known for supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. This edition of Machen’s The Great God Pan includes a table of contents.
61 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1890
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About the author
Arthur Machen
1,112 books1,004 followersArthur 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.
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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,702 reviews
May 6, 2015
Reading this book was a bit like eating a salad made with bottled dressing instead of one made with virgin olive oil and a spike of balsamic or wine vinegar for piquancy. It was almost there, you could see that there was definitely flavour in there somewhere, but it didn't have any crunch and it wasn't Mary Shelley nor H.P. Lovecraft either.
Machen was friendly with Alastair Crowley who dubbed himself, 'the evilest man in England' which really deserves a reality show all of its own. I think Machen wanted to be the runner-up but lacked the charisma so he turned to words and his beloved thesaurus and the whole enterprise died at birth.
The book is the story of a woman he rescued and so felt himself able to dispose of her as he would. He devised a brain operation that would allow her to see 'the great god Pan'. It left Mary lobotomized. Years later her daughter would wreak havoc everywhere, the evil force of women's nature allowed full rein here, no burkas to make sure we don't disturb the world of men who lack self control. Like all the best reality shows there is sex and violence, and violent sex, and it all ends with a terrible death accompanied by special effects, swirling smoke and a transformation into Pan himself. This isn't the Pan of nature, the gentle god who plays a flute and is best friends with Bacchus. No this is the same Satan as worshipped by Alastair Crowley, the fallen god who seeks to mystify, confuse and spread evil and dissension. A-ha-ha-ha...
An easy read. A bit purple in the prose but schlock horror. At best.
Machen was friendly with Alastair Crowley who dubbed himself, 'the evilest man in England' which really deserves a reality show all of its own. I think Machen wanted to be the runner-up but lacked the charisma so he turned to words and his beloved thesaurus and the whole enterprise died at birth.
The book is the story of a woman he rescued and so felt himself able to dispose of her as he would. He devised a brain operation that would allow her to see 'the great god Pan'. It left Mary lobotomized. Years later her daughter would wreak havoc everywhere, the evil force of women's nature allowed full rein here, no burkas to make sure we don't disturb the world of men who lack self control. Like all the best reality shows there is sex and violence, and violent sex, and it all ends with a terrible death accompanied by special effects, swirling smoke and a transformation into Pan himself. This isn't the Pan of nature, the gentle god who plays a flute and is best friends with Bacchus. No this is the same Satan as worshipped by Alastair Crowley, the fallen god who seeks to mystify, confuse and spread evil and dissension. A-ha-ha-ha...
An easy read. A bit purple in the prose but schlock horror. At best.
March 9, 2024
IL MONDO CHE ESISTE OLTRE LE OMBRE
Pan e Capra, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Ritrovato a Ercolano nella Villa dei Papiri.
Un caso come questo è come una serie di scatole cinesi: si aprono una dopo l’altra, e in ogni scatola se ne scopre una di fattura ancora più bizzarra.
Breve romanzo gotico in formato di novella uscito in volume nel 1894, ma apparso su rivista, in versione più asciutta, quattro anni prima.
Dracula di Bram Stoker apparirà tre anni più tardi. Siamo in piena epoca vittoriana e solo l’anno dopo Oscar Wilde subì il processo per la sua omosessualità (condanna a due anni di carcere, il carcere di Reading, un’esperienza dalla quale Wilde probabilmente non si riprese mai).
Il dio Pan visto da Gustave Moreau nel 1894, lo stesso anno di pubblicazione di questo romanzo.
Machen è bravo, costruisce la sua novella a incastro, proprio come le scatole cinesi: un racconto genera l’altro, e quando il lettore potrebbe smarrirsi, tira le fila e chiude il cerchio.
Usa molto il dialogo, che riesce a comporre con poca pomposità, tanto più considerato il periodo. Lo stesso incipit è una battuta di dialogo che trascina il lettore immediatamente dentro la storia, senza passi falsi e lentezze e lungaggini.
Pan insegna al pastorello Dafni a suonare la siringa (Museo archeologico nazionale di Napoli).
Non ho potuto non annotare che le condizioni igieniche del primo intervento chirurgico sono perfino peggiori di quelle di quasi un secolo prima quando il dottor Frankenstein dette vita alla sua Creatura: di sterile nella sala operatoria – che in precedenza era una sala da biliardo – c’era solo l’occhio del lettore. Seppure.
Non ho potuto non annotare quanto la scienza e il progresso che dovrebbe derivare dalle sue scoperte flirti col mondo magico, quanto luce scientifica e tenebra mistica vadano a braccetto.
Ninfe e satiri (1873), dipinto di William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
Il dio Pan, grande o meno, sembra tanto il pretesto per accennare – non parlare, non descrivere, mai nominare – al sesso, al desiderio erotico e/o carnale, a orge e accoppiamenti vari. Che data l’epoca, erano ben oltre che proibiti, ma quanto mai bramati dagli abitanti della (corrotta) città di Londra.
Il dio Pan è un po’ uomo e un po’ caprone, è un satiro: si presenta secondo l’iconografia, ma sa trasformarsi, è un “mutaforme”: assume quella femminile per espandere la sua opera di corruzione – chiaro, il peccato risiede sempre nel corpo della donna – ma, alla resa dei conti, torna in sembianze maschili, poi animali, e infine vattelapesca.
Peter Paul Rubens: Ceres e Pan.
Il volto di quell’uomo mi gelò il sangue. Non avrei mai pensato che fosse possibile un tale groviglio di passioni attraversare uno sguardo umano; alla sua vista, mi sentii quasi svenire. Compresi di aver guardato dritto negli occhi di un’anima perduta. La forma esteriore dell’uomo persisteva ancora, ma dentro di lui si era scatenato l’intero inferno. Lussuria sfrenata, odio incandescente come fuoco, la perdiya di qualsiasi speranza e un terrore che sembrava gridare di paura nella notte, anche se la sua bocca era chiusa… e la tenebra impenetrabile della disperazione… Quello che vidi era il volto di un demonio.
Arnold Böcklin - Pan im Kinderreigen (ca. 1884)
Pan e Capra, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Ritrovato a Ercolano nella Villa dei Papiri.
Un caso come questo è come una serie di scatole cinesi: si aprono una dopo l’altra, e in ogni scatola se ne scopre una di fattura ancora più bizzarra.
Breve romanzo gotico in formato di novella uscito in volume nel 1894, ma apparso su rivista, in versione più asciutta, quattro anni prima.
Dracula di Bram Stoker apparirà tre anni più tardi. Siamo in piena epoca vittoriana e solo l’anno dopo Oscar Wilde subì il processo per la sua omosessualità (condanna a due anni di carcere, il carcere di Reading, un’esperienza dalla quale Wilde probabilmente non si riprese mai).
Il dio Pan visto da Gustave Moreau nel 1894, lo stesso anno di pubblicazione di questo romanzo.
Machen è bravo, costruisce la sua novella a incastro, proprio come le scatole cinesi: un racconto genera l’altro, e quando il lettore potrebbe smarrirsi, tira le fila e chiude il cerchio.
Usa molto il dialogo, che riesce a comporre con poca pomposità, tanto più considerato il periodo. Lo stesso incipit è una battuta di dialogo che trascina il lettore immediatamente dentro la storia, senza passi falsi e lentezze e lungaggini.
Pan insegna al pastorello Dafni a suonare la siringa (Museo archeologico nazionale di Napoli).
Non ho potuto non annotare che le condizioni igieniche del primo intervento chirurgico sono perfino peggiori di quelle di quasi un secolo prima quando il dottor Frankenstein dette vita alla sua Creatura: di sterile nella sala operatoria – che in precedenza era una sala da biliardo – c’era solo l’occhio del lettore. Seppure.
Non ho potuto non annotare quanto la scienza e il progresso che dovrebbe derivare dalle sue scoperte flirti col mondo magico, quanto luce scientifica e tenebra mistica vadano a braccetto.
Ninfe e satiri (1873), dipinto di William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
Il dio Pan, grande o meno, sembra tanto il pretesto per accennare – non parlare, non descrivere, mai nominare – al sesso, al desiderio erotico e/o carnale, a orge e accoppiamenti vari. Che data l’epoca, erano ben oltre che proibiti, ma quanto mai bramati dagli abitanti della (corrotta) città di Londra.
Il dio Pan è un po’ uomo e un po’ caprone, è un satiro: si presenta secondo l’iconografia, ma sa trasformarsi, è un “mutaforme”: assume quella femminile per espandere la sua opera di corruzione – chiaro, il peccato risiede sempre nel corpo della donna – ma, alla resa dei conti, torna in sembianze maschili, poi animali, e infine vattelapesca.
Peter Paul Rubens: Ceres e Pan.
Il volto di quell’uomo mi gelò il sangue. Non avrei mai pensato che fosse possibile un tale groviglio di passioni attraversare uno sguardo umano; alla sua vista, mi sentii quasi svenire. Compresi di aver guardato dritto negli occhi di un’anima perduta. La forma esteriore dell’uomo persisteva ancora, ma dentro di lui si era scatenato l’intero inferno. Lussuria sfrenata, odio incandescente come fuoco, la perdiya di qualsiasi speranza e un terrore che sembrava gridare di paura nella notte, anche se la sua bocca era chiusa… e la tenebra impenetrabile della disperazione… Quello che vidi era il volto di un demonio.
Arnold Böcklin - Pan im Kinderreigen (ca. 1884)
March 4, 2024
I, a devotee of transcendental medicine (45 M) rescued a child from the gutter (13 F) and performed minor surgery on her brain to allow her to see the supernatural. My friend (45 M) says I did wrong and am responsible for many deaths; I say her life was mine to use as I saw fit. AITA?
September 27, 2016
As good as advertised, called by Stephen King to be perhaps the greatest horror story in English. Not sure about that, but I can see how influential this may have been. Really weird and has allusions to myth. First published in 1890, this is after Poe but before Lovecraft, creating something of a bridge between masters of the horror genre.
This has all the elements of a great story and created a benchmark for what makes a horror story.
This has all the elements of a great story and created a benchmark for what makes a horror story.
October 21, 2018
Whatever the hell was going on with the society when this was published. This, a sensation? Underwhelming. Thank God I live now not then: I would have died bored out of my mind!
Too whimsical for me. Reads like a cross of Hawthorne with Poe with just a tad of Lovecraft (who might have been a diligent follower of Machen, at a later date) and several notes from Merezhkovsky (of all autors!) added into the mix. Though in the case of Merezhkovsky it is not clear who influenced who (even if this was not a case of ideas congeniality), since they sort of worked and published simultaneously. Lovecraft might have been himself influenced by Machen not the other way around.
The story centers around a hypomaniacal sociopathic butcher of a transcendent surgeon who spews lots of bullshit and proceeds to act on it. Some Pan added to the mix, some dreadful mysteries, some incarnates, some whatnot... Did nothing to me, read tediously. Why did I even bother to read it?
Q:
“No, I think not, even if the worst happened. As you know, I rescued Mary from
the gutter, and from almost certain starvation, when she was a child; I think her life is
mine, to use as I see fit...” (c)
Q:
...But have you no misgivings, Raymond? Is it absolutely safe?”...
“Safe? Of course it is. In itself the operation is a perfectly simple one; any surgeon
could do it.”
“And there is no danger at any other stage?”
“None; absolutely no physical danger whatsoever, I give you my word. ...
“We are standing on the brink of a strange world, Raymond, if what you say is true. I suppose the knife is absolutely necessary?”(c)
This is patently what should be the prompt to getting the hell out of the plan, whatever it involves: operations, investments, whatever... Hear the crock talking! And not the feeble 'is the knife necessary?'
Q:
That is a strange saying of his: ‘In every grain of wheat there lies hidden the soul of a star.’“ (c)
Q:
Strangely that wonderful hot day of the fifties rose up again in Clarke’s imagination; the sense of dazzling all-pervading sunlight seemed to blot out the shadows and the lights of the laboratory, and he felt again the heated air beating in gusts about his face, saw the shimmer rising from the turf, and heard the myriad murmur of the summer. (c)
Q:
He could only think of the lonely walk he had taken fifteen years ago; it was his last look at the fields and woods he had known since he was a child, and now it all stood out in brilliant light, as a picture, before him. Above all there came to his nostrils the scent of summer, the smell of flowers mingled, and the odour of the woods, of cool shaded places, deep in the green depths, drawn forth by the sun’s heat; and the scent of the good earth, lying as it were with arms stretched forth, and smiling lips, overpowered all. His fancies made him wander, as he had wandered long ago, from the fields into the wood, tracking a little path between the shining undergrowth of beech-trees; and the trickle of water dropping from the limestone rock sounded as a clear melody in the dream. (c)
Too whimsical for me. Reads like a cross of Hawthorne with Poe with just a tad of Lovecraft (who might have been a diligent follower of Machen, at a later date) and several notes from Merezhkovsky (of all autors!) added into the mix. Though in the case of Merezhkovsky it is not clear who influenced who (even if this was not a case of ideas congeniality), since they sort of worked and published simultaneously. Lovecraft might have been himself influenced by Machen not the other way around.
The story centers around a hypomaniacal sociopathic butcher of a transcendent surgeon who spews lots of bullshit and proceeds to act on it. Some Pan added to the mix, some dreadful mysteries, some incarnates, some whatnot... Did nothing to me, read tediously. Why did I even bother to read it?
Q:
“No, I think not, even if the worst happened. As you know, I rescued Mary from
the gutter, and from almost certain starvation, when she was a child; I think her life is
mine, to use as I see fit...” (c)
Q:
...But have you no misgivings, Raymond? Is it absolutely safe?”...
“Safe? Of course it is. In itself the operation is a perfectly simple one; any surgeon
could do it.”
“And there is no danger at any other stage?”
“None; absolutely no physical danger whatsoever, I give you my word. ...
“We are standing on the brink of a strange world, Raymond, if what you say is true. I suppose the knife is absolutely necessary?”(c)
This is patently what should be the prompt to getting the hell out of the plan, whatever it involves: operations, investments, whatever... Hear the crock talking! And not the feeble 'is the knife necessary?'
Q:
That is a strange saying of his: ‘In every grain of wheat there lies hidden the soul of a star.’“ (c)
Q:
Strangely that wonderful hot day of the fifties rose up again in Clarke’s imagination; the sense of dazzling all-pervading sunlight seemed to blot out the shadows and the lights of the laboratory, and he felt again the heated air beating in gusts about his face, saw the shimmer rising from the turf, and heard the myriad murmur of the summer. (c)
Q:
He could only think of the lonely walk he had taken fifteen years ago; it was his last look at the fields and woods he had known since he was a child, and now it all stood out in brilliant light, as a picture, before him. Above all there came to his nostrils the scent of summer, the smell of flowers mingled, and the odour of the woods, of cool shaded places, deep in the green depths, drawn forth by the sun’s heat; and the scent of the good earth, lying as it were with arms stretched forth, and smiling lips, overpowered all. His fancies made him wander, as he had wandered long ago, from the fields into the wood, tracking a little path between the shining undergrowth of beech-trees; and the trickle of water dropping from the limestone rock sounded as a clear melody in the dream. (c)
September 26, 2015
My favored definition of wisdom has always been 'a recognition of one's limits', and as such, wisdom is vital for writers. When an author knows their capabilities and their flaws, they are in prime position to write a story which takes advantage of their strengths and mitigates their weaknesses.
Yet what is preferable for an artist: to stay within the bounds of their skill, or to work to always to exceed them? The first sort will be able to create precise and deliberate works of mastery, while the latter can produce wild and intense works of vision. All authors experiment and take risks while writing; should such experiments be left in, even when are not entirely successful?
There are works, like Moby Dick, which are masterpieces precisely because they are full of numerous, unusual experiments, not all of which were effective. Many critics are hesitant to praise works which are grand, yet incomplete, stitching together many wild ideas and disparate techniques to create a vision which is powerful and inspirational, despite being conflicted.
In fantastical genres, it is perhaps an even more central question, since they are so dependent on the strength of idiomatic vision. Perhaps the clearest illustration of the importance of that creative force is the vast influence of pulp authors. Their style was defined by unbridled exploration and a thirst for new ideas. They went headlong into the fray without pretension, for authors who erred on the side of caution tended to be left behind. What they lacked in style, character, and plot they tried to overcome with an abundance of ideas.
In horror, the line between restraint and unfettered creativity is usually defined by what the author chooses to describe, and what is left to the reader's imagination. As many a skilled writer has demonstrated, the reader is often better at scaring themselves if the setup is strong enough. The strongest example may be when the author begins to describe some terror, then breaks off with 'but it was too horrific for words to describe, too awful to comprehend, too shocking for the mere mortal mind to revisit'.
Though many authors--particularly of the Victorian--use this technique, I tend to associate it with Lovecraft. It has been a running joke in my writing circle that Lovecraft's monsters are not actually that terrifying, it's just that his protagonists are so nervous and sensitive as to be totally unnerved even by the least imp.
Machen uses this technique throughout the story, leaving much of the action implied so that we must piece together the reality from the occasional detail. His constant drawing back from actual descriptions helps to remind the reader that, for the purposes of a story, what the Thing looks like, or what it is capable of are not fundamental to the story itself. The story is about people, about their reactions and the progression of events, and if the structure is strong, there is no need to explicate the monster.
Machen's writing is competent and precise--he does not give in to the purple prose and long internal monologues which typify Lovecraft, nor does he trudge along, workmanlike, in the manner of Stoker. The gradual unfolding of the story and its mysteries is artful, and the uneasy tone consistent.
Yet there are problematic aspects. The characters are not vivid or well-differentiated, which makes them difficult to connect with, and the story harder to follow. We are often casting about between different individuals and their experiences, and since they all speak in a similar voice and have similar backgrounds, it can be a task to keep them apart.
And while the gradual unfolding of the action is enjoyable, the structure is somewhat imprecise, going back and forth and sometimes repeating itself. Though Stoker was rough and guileless and Lovecraft often overwrought, at least they both focused on the central motivations and desires of their characters throughout.
Despite these flaws, it isn't difficult to see why horror authors from Lovecraft to King have cited this story as an influence, and have worked to recreate its haunting, slow-burning build.
Yet what is preferable for an artist: to stay within the bounds of their skill, or to work to always to exceed them? The first sort will be able to create precise and deliberate works of mastery, while the latter can produce wild and intense works of vision. All authors experiment and take risks while writing; should such experiments be left in, even when are not entirely successful?
There are works, like Moby Dick, which are masterpieces precisely because they are full of numerous, unusual experiments, not all of which were effective. Many critics are hesitant to praise works which are grand, yet incomplete, stitching together many wild ideas and disparate techniques to create a vision which is powerful and inspirational, despite being conflicted.
In fantastical genres, it is perhaps an even more central question, since they are so dependent on the strength of idiomatic vision. Perhaps the clearest illustration of the importance of that creative force is the vast influence of pulp authors. Their style was defined by unbridled exploration and a thirst for new ideas. They went headlong into the fray without pretension, for authors who erred on the side of caution tended to be left behind. What they lacked in style, character, and plot they tried to overcome with an abundance of ideas.
In horror, the line between restraint and unfettered creativity is usually defined by what the author chooses to describe, and what is left to the reader's imagination. As many a skilled writer has demonstrated, the reader is often better at scaring themselves if the setup is strong enough. The strongest example may be when the author begins to describe some terror, then breaks off with 'but it was too horrific for words to describe, too awful to comprehend, too shocking for the mere mortal mind to revisit'.
Though many authors--particularly of the Victorian--use this technique, I tend to associate it with Lovecraft. It has been a running joke in my writing circle that Lovecraft's monsters are not actually that terrifying, it's just that his protagonists are so nervous and sensitive as to be totally unnerved even by the least imp.
Machen uses this technique throughout the story, leaving much of the action implied so that we must piece together the reality from the occasional detail. His constant drawing back from actual descriptions helps to remind the reader that, for the purposes of a story, what the Thing looks like, or what it is capable of are not fundamental to the story itself. The story is about people, about their reactions and the progression of events, and if the structure is strong, there is no need to explicate the monster.
Machen's writing is competent and precise--he does not give in to the purple prose and long internal monologues which typify Lovecraft, nor does he trudge along, workmanlike, in the manner of Stoker. The gradual unfolding of the story and its mysteries is artful, and the uneasy tone consistent.
Yet there are problematic aspects. The characters are not vivid or well-differentiated, which makes them difficult to connect with, and the story harder to follow. We are often casting about between different individuals and their experiences, and since they all speak in a similar voice and have similar backgrounds, it can be a task to keep them apart.
And while the gradual unfolding of the action is enjoyable, the structure is somewhat imprecise, going back and forth and sometimes repeating itself. Though Stoker was rough and guileless and Lovecraft often overwrought, at least they both focused on the central motivations and desires of their characters throughout.
Despite these flaws, it isn't difficult to see why horror authors from Lovecraft to King have cited this story as an influence, and have worked to recreate its haunting, slow-burning build.
December 10, 2020
For Reasons, a guy named Raymond wants to experiment on putting a person into some sort of altered state. Mary was, like, super poor, and he took her in and fed her, so this is fair, he says. She agrees because of Stockholm-syndrome-like loyalty to this creep. Bad idea genes abound here, and then-- Mary and Raymond are basically out of the narrative.
Again with a really destitute person in the street, Herbert, an old school chum of Villiers. No, you're not supposed to know who Villiers is. Does he try to help his unfortunate friend? No, he just listens to his sad but vague story about his unfortunate marriage and how it ruined his life, then says 'bye and goes off and tells other people, because he appears to be a nosy gossip, and judgy, too.
Machen is by no means a great prose stylist, and this book is written in a confused manner. Many lurid events are hinted at then broken off with a-- leaving the reader to surmise what took place. It would be fine if the conclusions were obvious, but they aren't (even when I thought I got what had happened) and I found myself several time turning back trying to figure out if a person had died, or what.
Interesting that Machen named the insignificant artist character "Meyrink" as the tone of the book is quite reminiscent of Eggeler's illustrations for Meyrink, the writer.
I'm not sure what mythological or anthropological material this is based on, if any. It doesn't jive with the admittedly minimal material I've read on Pan.
I have a reprint of the 1926 Ayer Company publication that includes "Inmost Light" and "Red Hand" as well. I was relieved to reach page 90 and find out I was done with this story.
[Edit: I'm kind of sorry now that I didn't read those other stories, because I've moderately enjoyed a couple other things by Machen since.]
Again with a really destitute person in the street, Herbert, an old school chum of Villiers. No, you're not supposed to know who Villiers is. Does he try to help his unfortunate friend? No, he just listens to his sad but vague story about his unfortunate marriage and how it ruined his life, then says 'bye and goes off and tells other people, because he appears to be a nosy gossip, and judgy, too.
Machen is by no means a great prose stylist, and this book is written in a confused manner. Many lurid events are hinted at then broken off with a-- leaving the reader to surmise what took place. It would be fine if the conclusions were obvious, but they aren't (even when I thought I got what had happened) and I found myself several time turning back trying to figure out if a person had died, or what.
Interesting that Machen named the insignificant artist character "Meyrink" as the tone of the book is quite reminiscent of Eggeler's illustrations for Meyrink, the writer.
I'm not sure what mythological or anthropological material this is based on, if any. It doesn't jive with the admittedly minimal material I've read on Pan.
I have a reprint of the 1926 Ayer Company publication that includes "Inmost Light" and "Red Hand" as well. I was relieved to reach page 90 and find out I was done with this story.
[Edit: I'm kind of sorry now that I didn't read those other stories, because I've moderately enjoyed a couple other things by Machen since.]
September 13, 2021
I feel like I need to read this again to figure out what the heck just happened.
Actually, reading other reviews, it seems like I might have got an edited edition? Like where is the controversial sexual content? The story I read was pretty vague and never described anything really.
Anyhoo.
So I did really enjoy the idea that messing with a young girl's brain created an unspeakable horror that then went about ruining lives. Karma, my dudes.
I loved how it was broken up into smaller anecdotes that eventually got around to the point that all the stories were connected. I enjoyed how much power this evil woman wielded, and how so many succumbed! However I did want more sordid details.
The atmosphere was disturbing and the whole thing was intriguing but ultimately it did feel like it was missing chunks and was therefore a little light on the horror. I think I need to investigate whether there is a more detailed version I can read.
Actually, reading other reviews, it seems like I might have got an edited edition? Like where is the controversial sexual content? The story I read was pretty vague and never described anything really.
Anyhoo.
So I did really enjoy the idea that messing with a young girl's brain created an unspeakable horror that then went about ruining lives. Karma, my dudes.
I loved how it was broken up into smaller anecdotes that eventually got around to the point that all the stories were connected. I enjoyed how much power this evil woman wielded, and how so many succumbed! However I did want more sordid details.
The atmosphere was disturbing and the whole thing was intriguing but ultimately it did feel like it was missing chunks and was therefore a little light on the horror. I think I need to investigate whether there is a more detailed version I can read.
October 25, 2023
Il grande dio Pan è un grande classico del fantastico, mancava ancora nel mio personale paniere di opere siffatte. Ho lasciato diverso tempo quest'opera nel limbo, perchè molte volte mi son trovato lì lì per iniziarlo, ma poi una qualche forza ultraterrena mi allontava, come quando stai fermo a guardare un quadro, uno di quei quadri surreali e lì, da qualche parte sulla tela, intravedi qualcosa che ti immobilizza, ti inquieta, ti attrae la curiosità, ma per contro la razionalità ti fa cambiare idea. Ecco più o meno, mi son sempre trovato in questa situazione con questo libro. Positiva o negativa che fosse questa sensazione, mi teneva alla larga, infatti sondavo la bibliografia dell'autore, però alla fine non lessi nulla, quindi l'arcano è da ritrovare sull'autore? Comunque tenevo quest'opera nell'ombra. Poi di punto in bianco lo prendo e lo leggo tutto d'un fiato! Colpo di fulmine o scarica elettrica, questo libro si insidia nel profondo, anche se le dinamiche della storia vengono esposte sotto forma quasi di elenco dei fatti, l'energia ancestrale che emanano le pagine non riescono a farmi desistere e mi tengono incollati gli occchi e la mente agli eventi che susseguono, fino ad arrivare ad un finale molto suggestivo e carico di suspense e mistero.
Penso che la protagonista incontrastata di questo piccolo gioiello del fantastico sia la città di Londra, definita "terribile" dall'autore stesso, perchè nella strade buie e umide si può insinuare qualsiasi forza malefica. Ecco in questo libro la città di Londra è resa alla perfezione come città gotica per eccellenza, non dai castelli o dalle case abbandonate, ma sono i labirinti di strade che questa Londra ottocentesca imprimono un marchio malefico al tutto.
Penso che la protagonista incontrastata di questo piccolo gioiello del fantastico sia la città di Londra, definita "terribile" dall'autore stesso, perchè nella strade buie e umide si può insinuare qualsiasi forza malefica. Ecco in questo libro la città di Londra è resa alla perfezione come città gotica per eccellenza, non dai castelli o dalle case abbandonate, ma sono i labirinti di strade che questa Londra ottocentesca imprimono un marchio malefico al tutto.
July 12, 2017
Za sve izdavače...ovako se pristupa poslu,knjizi,piscu,prevodu
May 19, 2017
This was a strange little story, sold as paganism, with a touch of sexuality. It had a supernatural feel, that left me holding my breath in anticipation. Unfortunately, due to the confusing nature of the book, it also left me holding my head in confusion more than once. I was initially intrigued by the story, but midway through it morphed into a Sherlock style detective case, before getting back to the mystical elements that made it unique. Overall it was a good idea, but poorly executed.
December 12, 2018
*Read for Class*
I'm glad I had to re-read this for the final, because it's definitely not a 2-star read like my previous rating.
I'm glad I had to re-read this for the final, because it's definitely not a 2-star read like my previous rating.
April 6, 2011
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.
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.
April 12, 2022
Scritto in maniera superbamente evocativa. Ho esitato ad approcciare Machen, preferendogli l'anno scorso Algernon Blackwood; devo dire che Machen si è rivelato, a mio parere, decisamente superiore a Blackwood a livello di scrittura, almeno da quel che posso giudicare dopo la lettura di questo breve (ma notevole) romanzo.
And I forgot that when the house of life is thus thrown open, there may enter in that for which we have no name, and human flesh may become the veil of a horror one dare not express. I played with energies which I did not understand, you have seen the ending of it.
And I forgot that when the house of life is thus thrown open, there may enter in that for which we have no name, and human flesh may become the veil of a horror one dare not express. I played with energies which I did not understand, you have seen the ending of it.
December 25, 2010
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 with a feeling of eerie awe, Machen fills it with foreboding and sexual tension. A must read for horror aficionados.
October 14, 2014
The Great God Pan is one of Arthur Machen's earliest works, and also his most popular. Upon release it was widely denounced as decadent and depraved, although it has since influenced countless writers of horror and weird fiction, from H.P. Lovecraft to Stephen King.
Machen was a bohemian fellow, deeply opposed to science and modernity; he held a belief that the real world is just a veil behind which another world is hidden, infinitely more strange, mysterious and magical. The Great God Pan is set in Wales, Machen's home country, and begins with a Mr. Clarke visiting a Dr. Raymond. Dr Raymond is a surgeon who believes that humans are surrounded by a supernatural, mysterious world, but aren't able to truly perceive it. For Dr. Raymond, the human mind can be surgically altered, "opened", to lift the barrier separating that world from ours - which he calls "seeing the Great God Pan". He even has a test subject ready - a beautiful girl named Mary. Raymond intends to sever part of Mary's brain tissue to "lift the veil", which supposedly separates her from the spiritual world - justifying his experiment by the fact that he has rescued her from poverty on the streets and certain death, her life is his to use as he sees fit. Raymond performs the operation, and Mary is apparently horrified by something only she can see - but she's also rendered unable to narrate her experiences, as the operation left her completely retarded.
Years later, Mr. Clarke is living in London and has completely distanced himself from anything supernatural as a result of Dr. Raymond's experiment - but the old passion for the unseen would not let him go entirely, and he dedicated himself to complete a book which he calls Memoirs to prove the Existence of the Devil - a collection of accounts of the life of a girl named Helen V., a girl from a small Welsh village near the English border. Over the years Helen was to said to have encountered strange things in the woods, and ultimately left the village still shrouded in mystery; the story then shifts to an omniscient narrator recounting a series of suicides of rich men from London, all of which seem to be connected in a strange way. Ultimately, it concludes with Raymond and Clarke connecting once again, this time through letters, where they exchange their opinions and suspicions about these horrors and their nature.
This is undoubtedly an important work of weird/horror fiction, as it's influence can be seen all over the genre. One notable influence which immediately comes to mind is Peter Straub's classic Ghost Story, which can even be read as almost an extended tribute to it. The Great God Pan is a strange story - it's jumbled plot and experiments with narration (Mr. Clarke collects testimonies of people who retell a story of another person), and its characters are neither well developed nor distinctive from one another. The end is confusing and the terror itself doesn't make much sense - it's never given any possible reasoning behind it, and seems to happen just because it can. It's not a novella easily explained and its interpretations are many, but in this lies precisely the fun of it. Still, it's an important work - Machen showed how restraint can be more effective than exposure, and let readers scare themselves with their own vision of the horror instead of drowning them with gore and schlock as many contemporary authors do. So it's best to treat The Great God Pan an an important foundation on which later authors such as Lovecraft, King and Straub have expanded and built their own works.
Machen was a bohemian fellow, deeply opposed to science and modernity; he held a belief that the real world is just a veil behind which another world is hidden, infinitely more strange, mysterious and magical. The Great God Pan is set in Wales, Machen's home country, and begins with a Mr. Clarke visiting a Dr. Raymond. Dr Raymond is a surgeon who believes that humans are surrounded by a supernatural, mysterious world, but aren't able to truly perceive it. For Dr. Raymond, the human mind can be surgically altered, "opened", to lift the barrier separating that world from ours - which he calls "seeing the Great God Pan". He even has a test subject ready - a beautiful girl named Mary. Raymond intends to sever part of Mary's brain tissue to "lift the veil", which supposedly separates her from the spiritual world - justifying his experiment by the fact that he has rescued her from poverty on the streets and certain death, her life is his to use as he sees fit. Raymond performs the operation, and Mary is apparently horrified by something only she can see - but she's also rendered unable to narrate her experiences, as the operation left her completely retarded.
Years later, Mr. Clarke is living in London and has completely distanced himself from anything supernatural as a result of Dr. Raymond's experiment - but the old passion for the unseen would not let him go entirely, and he dedicated himself to complete a book which he calls Memoirs to prove the Existence of the Devil - a collection of accounts of the life of a girl named Helen V., a girl from a small Welsh village near the English border. Over the years Helen was to said to have encountered strange things in the woods, and ultimately left the village still shrouded in mystery; the story then shifts to an omniscient narrator recounting a series of suicides of rich men from London, all of which seem to be connected in a strange way. Ultimately, it concludes with Raymond and Clarke connecting once again, this time through letters, where they exchange their opinions and suspicions about these horrors and their nature.
This is undoubtedly an important work of weird/horror fiction, as it's influence can be seen all over the genre. One notable influence which immediately comes to mind is Peter Straub's classic Ghost Story, which can even be read as almost an extended tribute to it. The Great God Pan is a strange story - it's jumbled plot and experiments with narration (Mr. Clarke collects testimonies of people who retell a story of another person), and its characters are neither well developed nor distinctive from one another. The end is confusing and the terror itself doesn't make much sense - it's never given any possible reasoning behind it, and seems to happen just because it can. It's not a novella easily explained and its interpretations are many, but in this lies precisely the fun of it. Still, it's an important work - Machen showed how restraint can be more effective than exposure, and let readers scare themselves with their own vision of the horror instead of drowning them with gore and schlock as many contemporary authors do. So it's best to treat The Great God Pan an an important foundation on which later authors such as Lovecraft, King and Straub have expanded and built their own works.
October 22, 2022
MUY buena historia. Con tan solo 90 páginas te sumerge en una narración atrapante y sumamente efectiva. Tiene todos los elementos que me gustan en una historia de terror e intriga escrita en los finales de 1800. Me quedaría con este estilo para siempre.
March 27, 2017
قادتني أبحاثي المريعة إلى آرثر ماكِن منذ فترة بعيدة، لكنني أجلت قراءته كما يحدث كثيرًا للأسف، حتى وجدت صاحب مكتبتي المفضلة يقترح عليَّ هذا الكتيب الصغير الذي يوحي غلافه المسروق بالاسترخاص المنتشر إياه (ومع ذلك فالناشر يذكر أن الغلاف من تصميم إسلام مجاهد. لكن اسم آرثر ماكِن أثار ذاكرتي على الفور، فأمسكت بالكتاب لأرى صورة السيد لافكرافت على غلافه الخلفي مع عبارة من المديح للرواية. كان ذلك أكثر من كافٍ لي لأشتري الكتاب بلا تردد.
بالطبع تجاهلت الصورة الأخرى لستيفن كينج، وعبارته التي تزعم أن هذه الرواية هي أفضل ما كتب في أدب الرعب بالإنجليزية. ستيفن كينج يحب المبالغة ويحب الجعجعة. لنبقَ مع عبارة لافكرافت الحيية التي تقول أنه لا أحد يستطيع وصف - وعدم استطاعة الوصف أمر شائع ومحبب لدى لافكرافت - التشويق اللامتناهي والرعب المطلق الموجود في كل فقرة من فقرات الكتاب!
لكن حتى أنت تبالغ يا لافكرافت؟ في كل فقرة يا رجل؟ حسنًا، لنر.
منذ البداية وهناك خطان متلازمان في عقلي. الخط الأول هو شدة تأثر لافكرافت بآرثر ماكِن التي بلغت عندي آفاقًا مريبة:
ص33 الكلام عن الحقبة الرومانية المنسية المخيفة
ص43 تعبير مثل: الذي لا يمكن وصفه
ص52 تعبير مثل: الذي لا اسم له
ص79 تمني الجهل
ص88 إشارة إلى رسام تذكرك ببيكمان ويتأكد ذلك ص116 عندما نعرف أن الرسام لم يرسم من خياله!
ص101 رؤية مدن خيالية في الأحلام. كاداث؟
ص120 وأسلوب الاختزال في وصف الهول
ص130 الهلام
ص136 ذكر للإله نودينس الذي تبناه لافكرافت بعد ذلك في آلهته القدامى
ص121 تقدم أفكار لافكرافت كلها تقريبا في قشرة جوز!
أما الخط الثاني فهو المترجم الذي كتب عن نفسه في التعريف أنه خريج قسم اللغة العربية! حرام عليك يا رجل! طبعا في البداية لاحظت كمية هائلة من الأخطاء النحوية في أسماء كان وأخبارها وما إلى ذلك، مثل:
رأى وميضٍ ص22، هكذا بالتنوين!
كان مفيدٌ ص29 بالتنوين أيضًا!
منذ إحدى عشر عامًا ص33
صفحة 58 حملت وحدها ثلاثة أخطاء لغوية اثنان منها مبتدأ منصوب أو مجرور!
لكن المترجم أتى بمستوى جديد تمامًا من المجازر اللغوية في ص57: نقطتين مثيرتان!
وفي ص66: لم يخبرنِ، هكذا بالكسرة!
وأخيرًا ص128 يكتب: هؤلاء الشخصين! هكذا والله!
لا أعرف كيف أسامحك يا أحمد صلاح المهدي، لكن اختيارك لهذا العمل هو شفيعك الوحيد لديّ. هذا العمل الذي ألهم بمنتهى الوضوح أفلامًا شيطانية الروعة مثل
Antichrist
و
The Witch
وألهم قبل ذلك كله لافكرافت، الرجل الذي صار عرشه لديَّ مهددًا بعد قراءة ذلك الكتاب القصير، الذي يعتبر بحق - ولا أذكر أين سمعت ذلك من قبل - أفضل ما كتب في أدب الرعب باللغة الإنجليزية.
أحمد الديب
مارس 2017
بالطبع تجاهلت الصورة الأخرى لستيفن كينج، وعبارته التي تزعم أن هذه الرواية هي أفضل ما كتب في أدب الرعب بالإنجليزية. ستيفن كينج يحب المبالغة ويحب الجعجعة. لنبقَ مع عبارة لافكرافت الحيية التي تقول أنه لا أحد يستطيع وصف - وعدم استطاعة الوصف أمر شائع ومحبب لدى لافكرافت - التشويق اللامتناهي والرعب المطلق الموجود في كل فقرة من فقرات الكتاب!
لكن حتى أنت تبالغ يا لافكرافت؟ في كل فقرة يا رجل؟ حسنًا، لنر.
منذ البداية وهناك خطان متلازمان في عقلي. الخط الأول هو شدة تأثر لافكرافت بآرثر ماكِن التي بلغت عندي آفاقًا مريبة:
ص33 الكلام عن الحقبة الرومانية المنسية المخيفة
ص43 تعبير مثل: الذي لا يمكن وصفه
ص52 تعبير مثل: الذي لا اسم له
ص79 تمني الجهل
ص88 إشارة إلى رسام تذكرك ببيكمان ويتأكد ذلك ص116 عندما نعرف أن الرسام لم يرسم من خياله!
ص101 رؤية مدن خيالية في الأحلام. كاداث؟
ص120 وأسلوب الاختزال في وصف الهول
ص130 الهلام
ص136 ذكر للإله نودينس الذي تبناه لافكرافت بعد ذلك في آلهته القدامى
ص121 تقدم أفكار لافكرافت كلها تقريبا في قشرة جوز!
أما الخط الثاني فهو المترجم الذي كتب عن نفسه في التعريف أنه خريج قسم اللغة العربية! حرام عليك يا رجل! طبعا في البداية لاحظت كمية هائلة من الأخطاء النحوية في أسماء كان وأخبارها وما إلى ذلك، مثل:
رأى وميضٍ ص22، هكذا بالتنوين!
كان مفيدٌ ص29 بالتنوين أيضًا!
منذ إحدى عشر عامًا ص33
صفحة 58 حملت وحدها ثلاثة أخطاء لغوية اثنان منها مبتدأ منصوب أو مجرور!
لكن المترجم أتى بمستوى جديد تمامًا من المجازر اللغوية في ص57: نقطتين مثيرتان!
وفي ص66: لم يخبرنِ، هكذا بالكسرة!
وأخيرًا ص128 يكتب: هؤلاء الشخصين! هكذا والله!
لا أعرف كيف أسامحك يا أحمد صلاح المهدي، لكن اختيارك لهذا العمل هو شفيعك الوحيد لديّ. هذا العمل الذي ألهم بمنتهى الوضوح أفلامًا شيطانية الروعة مثل
Antichrist
و
The Witch
وألهم قبل ذلك كله لافكرافت، الرجل الذي صار عرشه لديَّ مهددًا بعد قراءة ذلك الكتاب القصير، الذي يعتبر بحق - ولا أذكر أين سمعت ذلك من قبل - أفضل ما كتب في أدب الرعب باللغة الإنجليزية.
أحمد الديب
مارس 2017
October 17, 2025
The Great God Pan itself is great – very creepy and intriguing. The other stories in this collection, I enjoyed less.
December 6, 2022
“The figures of Fauns and Satyrs and Ægipans danced before his eyes, the darkness of the thicket, the dance on the mountain-top, the scenes by lonely shores, in green vineyards, by rocks and desert places, passed before him; a world before which the human soul seemed to shrink back and shudder.”
⟶ Right off the bat: this story is good at creating an ambivalent and possibly dangerous figure of the pagan god Pan but bad at actually evoking horror and presenting women in it.
The great God Pan is one of the works of fiction that had arisen during the Victorian and early Edwardian times when there was the reawakening of the general interest in paganism and Pan in particular.
This novella is a mixture of:
➣ Science fiction, presented by the scientist Doctor Raymond whose beliefs are rooted in Neo-Platonism; with his view of reality in which the true object of study is the revelation of the higher, hidden spiritual world. Although, it couldn’t be fully classified as such because Raymond expresses an occultist belief rather than the scientific.
➣ Fantasy fiction, obviously in the figure of Pan, who was an ancient Greek God associated with shepherds, nature, one whose appearance inflicted his enemies with sudden terror or panic. The Phrase The great God Pan can be traced back to Plutarch’s On the defense of Oracles where there is a tale of a sailor, during the reign of Tiberius, hearing a voice crying out: “when you have arrived at Palodes, take care to make it known that the great God Pan is dead.”(this can be tied with the fact that Jesus lived and died during the reign of Tiberius, thus abandoning Pan and turning to a birth of new religion, Christianity). Many writers were inspired by the story, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning who wrote the poem “The dead Pan” alluding to abandonment of the pagan elements in Christian works.
➣ Decadent literature elements such as occultism, the femme fatale, strange deaths, non-mainstream eroticism.
➣ Religious motifs which can be connected to a critic of the atavistic Victorian fascination with paganism in the age of Christianity. Most of these motifs are related to the portrayal of female characters in the novel. Mary, a direct analogy of virgin Mary is presented as helpless and naïve while Helen Vaughan is present as demonic due to her power and sexuality.
“We know what happened to those who chanced to meet the Great God Pan, and those who are wise know that all symbols are symbols of something, not of nothing. 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, silly tale.”
⟶ The story has a well-crafted structure, an introduction chapter with elements of science fiction, as the doctor conducts a gruesome experiment; the middle segment which follows different men that came in contact with Helen Vaughan, and an equivocal ending.
It is said to inspire the works of H.P.Lovecraft (The Call of Cthulhu H.P. Lovecraft's the Dunwich Horror The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath), Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Guillermo del Toro’s Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun.
The strongest side of the tale is the structure and the writing, Machen manages to keep the reader entertained and interested in how the story will wrap up rather than actually evoking horror.
⟶ One of the aspects that I couldn’t enjoy in this novella is the masked presentation of a powerful and sexually liberated woman as demonic; the culmination of such in Helen’s post mortem metamorphosis – freeing the evil out of her and morphing her female body into the male. Helen is the character that evokes more terror than the ambivalent Pan.
This definitely wasn’t the best horror story I have ever read but it was an enjoyable read, will be checking out more stories by Machen in the future.
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A solid horror novella! Review to come.
April 29, 2021
Veliki bog Pan 5⭐
Srž unutrašnjeg svetla 5⭐
Beli ljudi 4⭐
Ceremonija 3⭐
Svetleća piramida 4⭐
Priča o crnom pečatu 5
Beli prah 5⭐
Krajnji sever 4⭐
Srž unutrašnjeg svetla 5⭐
Beli ljudi 4⭐
Ceremonija 3⭐
Svetleća piramida 4⭐
Priča o crnom pečatu 5
Beli prah 5⭐
Krajnji sever 4⭐
January 5, 2024
The story feels fragmentary even aside from the last chapter explicitly titled "The Fragments", as if someone had compiled these anecdotes but hesitated to synthesize them, just as a few of the story's figures (they seem more like figures to me than characters, but it works) hesitate, out of fear for their sanity, to approach the heart of the mystery. The story itself is full of hints, suggestions, and anecdotes that cut off abruptly, just on the verge of the apparently unspeakable. I could be wrong, but I got the impression that Machen's intention was not so much to entertain as to pull back the curtain on a vision of reality- that he believed every word.
It's creepy. This story is creepy.
Incidentally, sometimes I wish I lived in turn-of-the-century London and acquaintances would "call on" me to relate "the most extraordinary" or "the most abominable" occurrence they'd witnessed or heard about, something beyond the ken of ordinary humanity. Seems like there was more wonder in the world back then.
April 18, 2008
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.
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.
January 16, 2024
«Existe un mundo real, pero está detrás de este encanto y esta visión, detrás de todo eso como detrás de un velo. No sé si algún ser humano levantó alguna vez ese velo, pero lo que sí sé, Clarke, es que esta noche tu y yo veremos esta misma noche cómo se levanta ese velo ante los ojos de una persona. Quizás pienses que todo esto es un extraño desvarío, quizás sea extraño, pero la verdad es que los antiguos sabían levantar ese velo. Le decían ver al gran dios Pan.»
No es extraño que H. P. Lovecraft considerara a Arthur Machen como a uno de sus más predilectos escritores. Los otros dos que completan la terna son Edgar Allan Poe y Algernon Blackwood.
Nadie como ellos para tensar la cuerda del horror y lo macabro y contar una historia espeluznante como sucede aquí con El gran dios Pan.
En su ensayo El horror sobrenatural en la literatura, Lovecraft le dedica una página de análisis a este cuento en el que una mujer es el eje de tormentosas y demoníacas visiones que la afectan a ella y a todos las personas que va conociendo de pequeña: «Entre los creadores modernos del horror cósmico elevado a su punto artístico más alto, pocos pueden tener la esperanza de rivalizar con el versátil Arthur Machen, autor de una decena de relatos en donde el terror oculto y amenaza siniestra alcanzan una incomparable esencia y agudeza realista».
Ella puede abrir un portal de imaginería de seres cósmicos para los que personas comunes no están preparadas para ver. Esas mismas víctimas aparecerán en toda la obra de Lovecraft a partir de los “Mitos de Ctulhu”.
En esta historia, la inquietante, sensual y aterrorizante Helen Vaughan pasa de enloquecer a aquellos que osen mirarla hasta desatar una inusual ola de suicidios.
Tres hombres llamados Clarke, Austin y Villiers se encargarán de investigar estos terroríficos hechos y sobre el final, un médico será testigo de contemplar algo tan monstruoso que ni siquiera su mente puede procesar ni sus palabras logran explicar.
Escrito en 1894 y ante una sociedad victoriana que se escandaliza por el alto contenido sensual y voluptuoso así también como por la naturaleza macabra de la historia narrada de un modo muy convincente, Arthur Machen se abre camino en la literatura de terror que muchos otros utilizarán como espejo para sus creaciones.
No es extraño que H. P. Lovecraft considerara a Arthur Machen como a uno de sus más predilectos escritores. Los otros dos que completan la terna son Edgar Allan Poe y Algernon Blackwood.
Nadie como ellos para tensar la cuerda del horror y lo macabro y contar una historia espeluznante como sucede aquí con El gran dios Pan.
En su ensayo El horror sobrenatural en la literatura, Lovecraft le dedica una página de análisis a este cuento en el que una mujer es el eje de tormentosas y demoníacas visiones que la afectan a ella y a todos las personas que va conociendo de pequeña: «Entre los creadores modernos del horror cósmico elevado a su punto artístico más alto, pocos pueden tener la esperanza de rivalizar con el versátil Arthur Machen, autor de una decena de relatos en donde el terror oculto y amenaza siniestra alcanzan una incomparable esencia y agudeza realista».
Ella puede abrir un portal de imaginería de seres cósmicos para los que personas comunes no están preparadas para ver. Esas mismas víctimas aparecerán en toda la obra de Lovecraft a partir de los “Mitos de Ctulhu”.
En esta historia, la inquietante, sensual y aterrorizante Helen Vaughan pasa de enloquecer a aquellos que osen mirarla hasta desatar una inusual ola de suicidios.
Tres hombres llamados Clarke, Austin y Villiers se encargarán de investigar estos terroríficos hechos y sobre el final, un médico será testigo de contemplar algo tan monstruoso que ni siquiera su mente puede procesar ni sus palabras logran explicar.
Escrito en 1894 y ante una sociedad victoriana que se escandaliza por el alto contenido sensual y voluptuoso así también como por la naturaleza macabra de la historia narrada de un modo muy convincente, Arthur Machen se abre camino en la literatura de terror que muchos otros utilizarán como espejo para sus creaciones.
March 10, 2019
İthaki Yayınları'nın yabancı korku-fantastik-bilimkurgu kapsamında yaptığı işlerin bence efsane kadrosu (Alican Saygı Ortanca - Ömer Ezer - Emre Aygün - Hamdi Akçay) tarafından oluşturulan "Karanlık Kitaplık" serisinin üyesi "Yüce Tanrı Pan" onca eski bir tarihte böylesi bir eserin varlığını bize hediye ediyor. Saygı duymamak mümkün değil. Arthur Machen'in eseri kurgusu, anlatısı, dili ile fazlasıyla tuhaf, esrik, o oranda leziz. Serinin diğer eserlerine göre kısa olduğunu düşündüğüm kitabın çevirmeni Barış Tanyeri; onu da tebrik ediyorum. Gerçekten tekinsiz bir şey mi okumak istiyorsunuz? Bunu siz istediniz; buyrunuz! :)
February 15, 2024
Horror in the Mind of the Beholder
Review of the Public Domain Kindle eBook edition (May 16, 2012) excerpted from the John Lane hardcover original (1894*).
While doing research for my review of Stephen King's Holly (2023), I chanced upon the above statement in between the constant stream of King's anti-Trump tweets. Having read neither of the books mentioned, I immediately grabbed a free public domain copy of The Great God Pan. Klein's The Ceremonies (1984) with a rare used paperback listed at $102.55 Cdn. 😮 will have to wait its turn.
You shouldn't expect anything very explicit from this Victorian novella. It primarily consists of the conversations or the recorded letters of various paranormal investigators, doctors, scholars and such. The title villain and its progeny are never directly encountered but are constantly spoken about. The horror of it all is the extent to which your imagination will take you.
The greatest horror for me was actually in the first chapter where a diabolical experiment is performed on a hapless young woman in order for her to "see" into the other world. This "operation" consists of a method which pre-figures lobotomies (which weren't invented until 1935) by 45 years!
The resulting spawn is unleashed upon the world until steps are taken to eradicate it.
The title page from the John Lane 1894 edition with an illustration by Aubrey Beardsley. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
Footnote
* Goodreads shows 1890 as the year of first publication, but that was only an early version of Chapter 1 which appeared in The Whirlwind magazine. The full novella was not published until 1894 when it was paired with Machen's short story The Inmost Light.
Trivia and Link
The Great God Pan is in the Public Domain and can be read at various online sources such as Project Gutenberg. The Public Domain Kindle eBook is available free at Amazon.
Review of the Public Domain Kindle eBook edition (May 16, 2012) excerpted from the John Lane hardcover original (1894*).
The greatest horror tales I ever read is a tie between “The Great God Pan,” by Arthur Machen (novella) and The Ceremonies, by T.E.D. Klein. - tweeted by Stephen King on February 9, 2024.
While doing research for my review of Stephen King's Holly (2023), I chanced upon the above statement in between the constant stream of King's anti-Trump tweets. Having read neither of the books mentioned, I immediately grabbed a free public domain copy of The Great God Pan. Klein's The Ceremonies (1984) with a rare used paperback listed at $102.55 Cdn. 😮 will have to wait its turn.
You shouldn't expect anything very explicit from this Victorian novella. It primarily consists of the conversations or the recorded letters of various paranormal investigators, doctors, scholars and such. The title villain and its progeny are never directly encountered but are constantly spoken about. The horror of it all is the extent to which your imagination will take you.
The greatest horror for me was actually in the first chapter where a diabolical experiment is performed on a hapless young woman in order for her to "see" into the other world. This "operation" consists of a method which pre-figures lobotomies (which weren't invented until 1935) by 45 years!
The resulting spawn is unleashed upon the world until steps are taken to eradicate it.
The title page from the John Lane 1894 edition with an illustration by Aubrey Beardsley. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
Footnote
* Goodreads shows 1890 as the year of first publication, but that was only an early version of Chapter 1 which appeared in The Whirlwind magazine. The full novella was not published until 1894 when it was paired with Machen's short story The Inmost Light.
Trivia and Link
The Great God Pan is in the Public Domain and can be read at various online sources such as Project Gutenberg. The Public Domain Kindle eBook is available free at Amazon.
April 20, 2021
Un capolavoro del weird classico. Si inizia in una sala da biliardo trasformata in laboratorio medico dove si assiste ad un intervento al cervello su una ragazzina, a causa del quale si "squarcia il velo tra le realtà" e, vedendo cosa c'è oltre, la paziente diviene totalmente folle.
I rimanenti capitoli sono ambientati a Londra alla fine del 1800, spesso ambientati di notte con le lunghe file di lampioni a gas, in quella città cupa, decadente, ma anche misteriosa e affascinante. Qui ogni capitolo racconta una vicenda quasi a sé stante, ma che si collega a una specie di indagine portata avanti da un nobiluomo riguardo a fatti strani e suicidi misteriosi.
COSA MI È PIACIUTO
- Estremamente weird
- Atmosfera incredibile
- Perturbante senza sfociare nell'horror
- Padronanza della narrazione
COSA NON MI È PIACIUTO
- Alcune "coincidenze" sono davvero forzate
I rimanenti capitoli sono ambientati a Londra alla fine del 1800, spesso ambientati di notte con le lunghe file di lampioni a gas, in quella città cupa, decadente, ma anche misteriosa e affascinante. Qui ogni capitolo racconta una vicenda quasi a sé stante, ma che si collega a una specie di indagine portata avanti da un nobiluomo riguardo a fatti strani e suicidi misteriosi.
COSA MI È PIACIUTO
- Estremamente weird
- Atmosfera incredibile
- Perturbante senza sfociare nell'horror
- Padronanza della narrazione
COSA NON MI È PIACIUTO
- Alcune "coincidenze" sono davvero forzate
February 4, 2022
Lo squarcio per vedere oltre
"Riusciva a pensare soltanto alla passeggiata solitaria di quindici anni prima. Era stata l'ultima volta che aveva visto i campi e i boschi che conosceva fin dall'infanzia, e ora tutto era di fronte a lui, illuminato da una luce abbagliante, come in una fotografia. Soprattutto, giunsero alle sue narici l'odore dell'estate, il profumo misto dei fiori e l'aroma dei boschi e dei ripari freschi e ombrosi."
Se Lovecraft inserisce Machen negli intoccabili del genere horror, e King lo annovera tra gli autori responsabili della sua ispirazione, allora vien da sé che Il grande dio Pan sia un passaggio obbligato per ogni lettore che voglia approfondire il genere.
Il libro, scritto nell'oramai lontano 1894, sonda - attraverso un'ottima padronanza di linguaggio e tempi narrativi - l'orrore cosmico celato ai nostri occhi, facente parte del creato; quindi reale tanto quanto l'ambiente che recepiamo a livello sensoriale.
Se la gestione dell'orrore non è troppo dissimile da quella lovecraftiana, non si può estendere pedissequa riflessione sulla natura della componente sovrannaturale: il Dio Pan esalta la radice primordiale e irrazionale dell'uomo; promette la realizzazione di desideri che sussurrano sibillinamente perversioni innominabili, la cui contemplazione preclude la possibilità del poter tornare indietro.
Questo aspetto irreversibilmente contraddittorio in se stesso, oscillante tra paura e desiderio del peccato, rende l'opera di Machen innegabilmente disturbante (soprattutto se relazionata agli anni in cui fu pubblicata).
"Riusciva a pensare soltanto alla passeggiata solitaria di quindici anni prima. Era stata l'ultima volta che aveva visto i campi e i boschi che conosceva fin dall'infanzia, e ora tutto era di fronte a lui, illuminato da una luce abbagliante, come in una fotografia. Soprattutto, giunsero alle sue narici l'odore dell'estate, il profumo misto dei fiori e l'aroma dei boschi e dei ripari freschi e ombrosi."
Se Lovecraft inserisce Machen negli intoccabili del genere horror, e King lo annovera tra gli autori responsabili della sua ispirazione, allora vien da sé che Il grande dio Pan sia un passaggio obbligato per ogni lettore che voglia approfondire il genere.
Il libro, scritto nell'oramai lontano 1894, sonda - attraverso un'ottima padronanza di linguaggio e tempi narrativi - l'orrore cosmico celato ai nostri occhi, facente parte del creato; quindi reale tanto quanto l'ambiente che recepiamo a livello sensoriale.
Se la gestione dell'orrore non è troppo dissimile da quella lovecraftiana, non si può estendere pedissequa riflessione sulla natura della componente sovrannaturale: il Dio Pan esalta la radice primordiale e irrazionale dell'uomo; promette la realizzazione di desideri che sussurrano sibillinamente perversioni innominabili, la cui contemplazione preclude la possibilità del poter tornare indietro.
Questo aspetto irreversibilmente contraddittorio in se stesso, oscillante tra paura e desiderio del peccato, rende l'opera di Machen innegabilmente disturbante (soprattutto se relazionata agli anni in cui fu pubblicata).
July 31, 2012
19th century neurobiology as means of "lifting the veil" of consensus reality as mediated by flawed senses, and terrible repercussions of both this hidden knowledge and what may cross back through such lifted veils. An influence on Lovecraft, apparently (obviously), and as such it could be improved somewhat by, rather than just telling us that things are cripplingly horrifying, actually giving us some more of the specifics. Of course, the merits of the unknown, suggestion, etc -- so it still rather works. Excellent, evocative descriptions of landscape, too, Machen's native Wales, fully imbued with mystery and arcane history (apparently the psychogeographers have gotten ahold of this). Incidentally, Walerian Borowczyk seems to have borrowed bits of this when adapting Stevenson, who Machen also admired and borrowed from.
June 5, 2025
Arthur Machen is one of my favorite writers of terror and the supernatural. I consider his stories classic.
Contemporary readers may be disappointed, but it has to be remembered that this Novella was published in 1894.
The story was considered decadent because of the sexual content. Machens reputation was damaged at the time. It was re-evaluated in 1920.
I took out a book of his stories in my HS library, and this one made quite an impression.
Many times, after that, when looking into a forest, I would imagine seeing Machens description of Pans Wild Stare looking through the leaves.
Contemporary readers may be disappointed, but it has to be remembered that this Novella was published in 1894.
The story was considered decadent because of the sexual content. Machens reputation was damaged at the time. It was re-evaluated in 1920.
I took out a book of his stories in my HS library, and this one made quite an impression.
Many times, after that, when looking into a forest, I would imagine seeing Machens description of Pans Wild Stare looking through the leaves.
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