Description

Beyond the surface of the world lies an ancient, terrifying reality. Arthur Machen invites you to look closely.

Welsh author and renowned mystic Arthur Machen was a master of supernatural horror who believed the veil between the known world and an older, pagan reality was frighteningly thin. This essential collection gathers his most chilling and enduring works, tales that delve into forbidden rituals, cosmic horror, and the unsettling idea that humanity is merely a thin layer over something infinitely ancient and malevolent.

Machen's genius lies in his ability to blend the mundane with the mystical, unsettling the reader with dark secrets lurking beneath the surface of civilised life.

This volume includes:

The Great God Pan: Hailed by Stephen King as one of the best horror stories ever written, this seminal novella explores a shocking experiment that tears the mind of a woman and unleashes a horror of cosmic, primal dimensions upon London society.
The Black and White Seals: Including The Novel of the Black Seal and The Novel of the White Powder, these stories investigate artifacts of terrifying power, hinting at a non-human race;a "Little People" that still dwells in the Welsh hills.
The Elemental Terror: Tales like The White People, The Terror, and Children of the Pool show Machen at his most unnerving, chronicling sudden, unexplained descents into madness and widespread panic caused by forces that defy all human logic.

A profound influence on H. P. Lovecraft and a favorite of W. B. Yeats and Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur Machen's fiction is an indispensable journey into the darkest regions of human lore and cosmic dread.

This modern edition includes a specially-commissioned new biography of the author, providing context on the real-life mystic who channeled his own preternatural experiences into these terrifying stories.