The Complete Fiction of Arthur Machen
Evans
and enjoying them greatly. When I have some more spare time I must
read some of his autobiographical material.
Now I know much of his fiction is still in copyright. I was wondering
what collections I should go about buying in order to get a complete
collection of these stories. Anyone got any suggestions?
Thanks for your time everyone.
huw....@gmail.com
There is no 'complete' collection of his fiction, as such, but I would
recommend the following:
Tales of Horror and the Supernatural
Ritual and Other Stories
Ornaments in Jade
The Penguin collection Holy Terrors overlaps which some of the above,
but includes 'Opening the Door', which isn't in any of the other
books.
You might also want to find a copy of The Three Imposters (Tales of
Horror and the Supernatural and Ritual include excerpts from this),
and the novella A Fragment of Life. Much of Machen's best writing has
recently been published by Tartarus Press, but there are also many
earlier editions on the secondhand market from publishers like Knopf,
Penguin, Dover, Martin Secker, Arkham House and others.
There are many other collections of essays and articles that are worth
reading (if you like Machen), and, of course, the novels and
autobiographical books.
Huw
Evans
Thanks for that information it'll be really helpful in tracking some
of the stuff down.
huw....@gmail.com
You're welcome. You might also want to check out the Friends of Arthur
Machen, a UK-based society (with an international membership) devoted
to all things Machen.
Huw
Evans
Thanks Huw - I know about the old Machen Society, I was thinking of
joining but I decided I ought to read some more of Machen's stuff
before.
hopfrog
I have the three paperback volumes edited by S. T. Joshi for
Chaosium: THE THREE IMPOSTORS AND OTHER STORIES, THE WHITE PEOPLE AND
OTHER STORIES, THE TERROR AND OTHER STORIES. This series is sub-
titled "The Best Weird Tales of Arthur Machen," which suggests that
it's not complete -- but I think most of the stories are there and
that it excludes only some of the novels. Each volume has a
substantial introduction. In the third volume "The Terror" is
published unabridged as Machen intended it to appear. They're dead
good volumes, and shouldn't be too difficult to find online.
Evans
Yah I'm planning to get The Three Imposters and Other Stories from
that series. I believe thru misses a few short stories from Ornaments
in Jade but I might be wrong there. (I remember making a content list
for those volumes somewhere which I will have to dig out) The Tartarus
Press collection looks rather tempting though.
I may be able to look into some of the non-fiction without acutely
having to purchase it. British libraries are a bit funny about out of
county loans but I think there maybe a chance of sucess.
Dr Walpurgis
> British libraries are a bit funny...
Full of NUTTERS.
--
"Ha! Chritmas Eve and this lot are going to be stuck in at home
watching horror movies!! Wot a sad lot of wankers!!!!!!" - Varizo,
22/12/06
Dan Clore
I guess I would say:
Get the three Chaosium volumes, and The Hill of Dreams (Dover edition).
That covers the best of his work.
If you want more (you do!), Tales of Horror and the Supernatural is
mostly overlap with the Chaosium volumes, but does have some late
stories that Joshi didn't consider good enough to include. They aren't
very good, true enough, but I do find them of interest anyway. Likewise,
The Green Round isn't really a very good novel, but it has some
interesting material, some of which is related to that in "N", one of
the stories Joshi didn't include.
You also might want to read The Line of Terror and Other Essays, with
some of his literary criticism, and the book-length treatise
Hieroglyphics: A Note Upon Ecstasy in Literature. And then there are the
three volumes of autobiography.
It's also worth keeping in mind that he was the sort of writer whose
work was uneven, but even the poorer works often have something
interesting in them.
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://tinyurl.com/2gcoqt
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"
cynick
> that series. I believe thru misses a few short stories from Ornaments
> in Jade but I might be wrong there. (I remember making a content list
> for those volumes somewhere which I will have to dig out) The Tartarus
> Press collection looks rather tempting though.
I've only got the Chaosium collections. Contents are as follows:
THE THREE IMPOSTERS
The Great God Pan
The Inmost Light
The Shining Pyramid
The Three Imposters
THE WHITE PEOPLE
The Red Hand
Ornaments in Jade
The White People
A Fragment of Life
The Angels of Mons
The Great Return
Out of the Earth
The Coming of the Terror
The Happy Children
THE TERROR
The Terror
The Lost Club
Munitions of War
The Islington Mystery
Johnny Double
The Cosy Room
Opening the Door
The Children of the Pool
The Bright Boy
Out of the Picture
Change
The Dover Road
Ritual
The Literature of Occultism
Hope that helps...
Evans
Thanks cynick - now to begin cross referancing with with the list on
fantastic fiction.
Al Smith
All these works should be in public domain, right? Does anyone know
where they have been collected together on the Internet for download?
-Al-
Evans
I'm not sure... I know all of his pre 1923 stories like the White
People and The Three Imposters are but anything after that is likely
to remain in copyright till 2017. Machen's daughter passed away last
year so I'm not sure who would be the current holder of those
copyrights. When my eyes are better I would like to have a shot at
doing some audio recordings of the ealier ones.
Al Smith
Machen is a fine writer. I've been re-reading some of his better
known stories in connection with work I'm doing on the Lovecraft
mythos. I'd love to have a complete set of his supernatural stories.
-Al-