About this title: Some of the finest horror stories ever written. Arthur Machen had a profound impact upon H.P. Lovecraft and the group of stories that would later become known as the Cthulhu Mythos. This first volume of Chaosium's Arthur Machen collection begins with the chilling "The Three Impostors" in its complete form, including the rarely seen sections "The ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Acceptable. 2007-Paperback----Used-Acceptable-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Chaosium
Date Published: 2005-02-28
ISBN-13:9781568821320ISBN:1568821328
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781568821320. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Date Published: 1923
Description: Very Good. Mustard yellow cloth. Mild spine dustiness, some cover staining else a clean copy. An Early reprint.; 8vo 8"-9" tall. read more
Binding: hb
Publisher: Martin Secker, London
Date Published: 1926
Description: Bound in original apple green cloth with gilt lettering. Slim 8vo, pp. 203. Volume 15 in "The New Adelphi Library". Spine sunned, former owner's bookplate, light shelf wear; else g/vg condition. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf
Date Published: 1930
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Some wear to edges. Some darkening to spine. Former owners name inside front cover. Hardback, 17.5cm, 288 pages. (Borzoi pocket book). read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf, New York
Date Published: 1923
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Signed by previous owner. 1923 reprint of a book that first appeared in 1895. In pictorial color dust jacket with 1/4 inch chip along spine bottom not affecting text. read more
Edition: REPRINT
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Chaosium
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781568821320ISBN:1568821328
Description: New. Some of the finest horror stories ever written. Arthur Machen had a profound impact upon H.P. Lovecraft and the group of stories that would later become known as the Cthulhu Mythos. This first volume of Chaosium's Arthur Machen collection begins with... read more
Edition: First Edition, Second Printing Private Press
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Chaosium, Inc., USA
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781568821320ISBN:1568821328
Description: Fine. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" Tall 234pp. The Great God Pan / The Innmost Light / The Shining Pyramid / The Three Impostors (complete). read more
Edition: 2nd Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, New York
Date Published: 1923
Description: Used-Acceptable. 12mo-6 3/4"-7 3/4" Used-Acceptable cond. Name inked to backside of FFEP. 287 pp. The Three Impostors (1895) is essentially a collection of short stories linked together in a single frame: the most often reprinted have been "The Black Seal", the story of an anthropologist who discovers a tribe of throwback hominids living in the Welsh mountains, and "The White Powder", which concerns an unfortunate young man's degeneration into primeval slime. All of these stories can be seen as ... read more
""The Three Imposters and Other Stories" contains the title novel, plus the novella, "The Great God Pan," and two short stories, "The Inmost Light" and "The Shining Pyramid." I would rate the novella and short stories as four out of five, with the novel being a three.
The novel holds the same structure as the short stories, more or less, with one character (a man named Dyson in all but one of the stories contained in this book) investigating and being told a strange story by another character. The novel has Dyson and an associate of his being told stories by various characters, and the episodic nature of the novel even allowed for some of these stories to be published on their own in the late 1800's.
I was not familiar with Arthur Machen before reading this book, and only knew that his early work (represented here) was an influence on Lovecraft. That's certainly obvious after reading the first story, "The Great God Pan," with its themes of gods and monsters just beyond our world, able to be seen by those who can manage to get through to the "other side." The editor of the book provides some valuable commentary (at least, valuable to someone like me, who doesn't always pick up on everything right away), and points towards some Lovecraft stories which were influenced by Machen's writing (one that occurred to me, which he didn't mention, is Lovecraft's "From Beyond," of which "The Great God Pan" reminded me).
I like the style of Machen's writing and will probably pick up anther collection of his in the near future. The episodic and sometimes confusing nature of the novel made it a little less enjoyable to read than the short stories, but overall, this is definitely a good collection."
"To classify this book as a "horror" novel is not doing the author justice; it is truly a work of genius. Machen is probably best known for his story "The Great God Pan," which has been featured in several horror anthologies, but I must say that while that one is terrific, his "Three Impostors" was sheer genius. Machen's horror is cerebral; you're not going to find hack-'em/slash-'em type "horror" in here -- the most horrific parts are left to the reader's vision. When a writer can produce a piece of genius work without devolving into a blow-by-blow account of blood, gore, guts hanging out everywhere etc, and still produce the kind of gut-wrenching pull on your emotions, then he has truly succeeded to get inside your skin and your head. Machen's work does this. I can see why he influenced so many writers, none the least of which was my favorite, HP Lovecraft.
The contents list: The Great God Pan The Inmost Light The Shining Pyramid The Three Impostors : " Adventure of the Gold Tiberius " The Encounter of the Pavement-Novel of the Dark Valley " Adventure of the Missing Brother-Novel of the Black Seal " The Incident of the Private Bar " " The Decorative Imagination/ Novel of the Iron Maid "" The Recluse of Bayswater/Novel of the White Powder " Strange Occurrence in Clerkenwell/History of the Young Man with Spectacles " Adventure of the Deserted Residence
The Three Impostors, as I noted, was my favorite part of this book; stories within the story and what great stories they are. If you want some intelligent horror, then you're going to want to read this book. I can't recommend this one highly enough, and if you're a Lovecraft aficionado, you're absolutely going to love this."
""The Three Imposters" is strange little book, a narrative about a secret society's efforts to retrieve a Roman coin ("The Gold Tiberius"), but this "novel" appears to be little more than a convenient device for telling a serious of marvelous, horrific tales. Two of these tales--"The Novel of the Black Seal" and "The Novel of the White Powder"--are first-class works of imaginative fiction. The entire book itself is charming, however, reminiscent of Stevenson's "New Arabian Nights"; its descriptions of London--conveyed in musical, Swinburnian prose--make of this nineteenth century metropolis something as exotic and fantastic as the Baghdad of Haroun al-Rashid. This book also contains two short stories and a novella, "The Great God Pan," which is one of the acknowledged classics of the weird tale. Its Chinese box structure--the horror revealed in fragments, in various voices, with lacunae which must be supplied by the reader--makes the narrative all the more compelling and terrifying for its obliqueness. (Lovecraft used this structures as his model for "The Call of Cthulhu.") "The Great God Pan" has an interesting plot as well, in that it is an inversion of the Ripper murders which occurred only a few years before. Instead of lower-class women murdered in the slums by an unknown male slasher, we have wealthy young men committing suicide in the most fashionable sections of London--and this time a mysterious woman seems to be involved."
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