Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen (1863-1947), al igual que su contemporáneo Lord Dunsany , fue un obstinado soñador que creó una de las obras más líricas y exquisitas que ha dado hasta la fecha el denominado género de terror. La presente antologia recoge catorce relatos (algunos de ellos ineditos en castellano), lo mas granado y significativo de la ingente obra fantastica de Machen, que tanto influyo en el maestro del horror sobrenatural, H.P. Lovecraft

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Cuando un experimento científico intenta descorrer el velo que separa la realidad de lo desconocido, lo que se revela es un horror inimaginable. Una joven sufre una transformación aterradora y lo que emerge es un terror que supera cualquier pesadilla. Las consecuencias de este acto llegan a las sombrias calles del Londres victoriano, dejando un rastro de locura, misterio y una sombra que se cierne sobre la vida de aquellos infelices que, ajenos al mal que se cierne sobre ellos, disfrutan de una tranquila existencia.

• Los arqueros• Los niños felices• Un nuevo Cuento de Navidad Arthur Machen (1863 - 1947), escritor y periodista galés, fue autor de relatos de terro

The Welsh writer, poet and novelist Arthur Machen, best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction, was above all a great mystic and initiate, and a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.From the beginning of his literary career, Machen espoused a mystical belief that the humdrum ordinary world hid a more mysterious and strange world beyond. His later works became somewhat less obviously full of gothic trappings, but for him investigations into mysteries invariably resulted in life-changing transformation.Arthur Machen wrote his amazing poem Eleusinia in 1881, when he was only 18 years old. In our opinion, it is one of his best poetic works.Was Arthur Machen an Eleusinian initiate? We have no certainty about it, even if we know how much the Eleusinian mystery tradition, which survived in secrecy throughout the Middle Ages and reached the modern age, was also widespread and practiced in Great Britain in the 19th century. In any case, his great propensity for mysticism and spirituality and his initiatory belonging to the Golden Dawn led Machen to want to understand the great mystery of Eleusis and to try to undo its millennial veil.We propose to our readers the poem Eleusinia, preceded by a beautiful biographical essay on Machen written and published in Chicago in 1918 by the American writer, journalist, and bibliophile Vincent Starrett: Arthur Machen: A Novelist of Ecstasy and Sin. An essay that, better than many others, has captured the authentic spirit of the great Welsh writer. Starrett, a great connoisseur and admirer of British literature, was a major enthusiast of Arthur Machen and was instrumental in bringing Machens work to an American audience for the first time.

RITUAL

Sulle coste gallesi una strana luce fa parlare di se?, mentre una chiesa di un paesino locale profuma improvvisamente di incenso...Questi fatti apparentemente insignificanti spingono il protagonista, amante del mistero e del meraviglioso a recarsi sul posto a indagare. Ben presto scoprira? che in quegli sperduti anfratti del Galles unantica leggenda ha ripreso vita.In appendice, un saggio dellautore sulla leggenda del Santo Graal.

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

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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 infactuated with her beauty, but great beauty has a price, and sometimes you have to pay with the only thing you have left...The Great God Pan was a sensation when published in 1894. Its author, Arthur Machen, was a struggling unknown writer living in London. He had translated Casanovas memoirs and was living on a small inheritance. He immediately became one of the most talked-about writers of the last years of the nineteenth century, while the publications marked the start of his ongoing influence on modern fantasy and horror.

A discussion between two men on the nature of evil leads one of them to reveal a mysterious diary in his possession. Written by a young girl in the care of a nurse, its pages detail a horrifying initiation into a world of witchcraft, folklore and ritual magic which may have culminated in tragedy.Originally published in 1904 and considered by E. F. Bleiler to be "probably the finest single supernatural story of the century, perhaps in the literature", this is one of Machens most celebrated stories, with its influence being seen in the works of genre greats such as H. P. Lovecraft (who called it "a triumph of skilful selectiveness and restraint") and T. E. D. Klein.

Strange arrangements of stones appear at the edge of a young mans property. When he and a friend attempt to decipher their meaning, they uncover something ancient dwelling deep underground - something best left untouched ... Originally published in 1895, this classic tale of subterranean prehistoric entities was acclaimed by genre legends such as H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, so much so that the latter would later write and publish a sequel of sorts - The Little People - in 1970.

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 beauty has a price, sometimes you have to pay with the only thing you have left.The Great God Pan was a sensation when first published in 1894. Its author, Arthur Machen, was a struggling unknown writer living in London. He had translated Casanovas memoirs and was living on a small inheritance. He immediately became one of the most talked-about writers of the last years of the nineteenth century, while the publication marked the start of his ongoing influence on modern fantasy and horror.Machens dark imaginings of the reality behind ancient beliefs feature again in the acclaimed, mesmerising short story The White People and the curious tale The Shining Pyramid, also in this volume.