The House of Souls: A Fragment of Life / The White People / The Great God Pan / The Inmost Light

The House of Souls is a collection of four masterpieces of horror and mystery by Arthur Machen first collectively published in 1906. A Fragment of Lifetells of a young couple the Darnells living in a London suburb. Machen gives an enormous amount of detail to illustrate the Darnells life only to convince the reader (and Mr. Darnell) that this is just a fragment of life or part of a greater but hidden reality. The White Peoplewas written in the late 1890s and first published in 1904 in Horlicks Magazine. A discussion between two men on the nature of evil leads one of them to reveal a mysterious Green Book he possesses. Its a young girls diary in which she describes in ingenuous evocative prose her strange impressions of the countryside in which she lives as well as conversations with her nurse who initiates her into a secret world of folklore and ritual magic...The Great God Panwas widely denounced by the press on publication in 1894 as degenerate and horrific because of its decadent style and sexual content. Today it is recognised as one of the greatest classics of horror. Machens story was only one of many at the time to focus on the Greek God Pan as a useful symbol for the power of nature and paganism. The Inmost Lightinvolves a doctors scientific experiments into occultism and a vampiric force instigated by his unrelenting curiosity regarding the unseen elements. A mysterious gemstone is the vampire mediator soaking the soul of the doctors wife and replacing it with something demonic. Dr. Black his own energy is then gradually sucked up by the stone too. In attempting to enter the forbidden and dark zone of the other worldly... about Arthur Machen in the Post Scriptum of The House of Souls. Preview on vamzzz.com Read more