About this title: Born in Wales in 1863, Machen was a London journalist for much of his life.Among his fiction, he may be best known for the allusive, haunting title story of this book, "The White People, " which H.P. Lovecraft thought to be the second greatest horror story ever written (after Blackwood's "The Wilows"). This wide ranging collection also includes the crystalline novelette "A Fragment of Life, " "The Angel of Mons, " (a story so widely reported that it was imagined true by millions in the grim initial days of the Great War), and "The Great Return, " telling of the stately visions which graced ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Chaosium
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9781568821726ISBN:1568821727
Description: New. Born in Wales in 1863, Machen was a London journalist for much of his life. Among his fiction, he may be best known for the allusive, haunting title story of this book, "The White People, " which H.P. Lovecraft thought to be the second greatest horror... read more
"well, I must say that Volume II in this series (Chaosium/Call of Cthulhu Fiction) was a tremendous letdown after Volume I. For some reason, Machen had been criticized for his earlier works because he had been writing in the style of Robert Louis Stevenson, and considering his situation at the time, was probably trying to do much to sell his works. However, personally, I think he should have left his style all alone. The earlier stories (from Vol. I) were so much more well written than these.
This is, of course, an anthology and you sort of expect that there are going to be some rather less likeable stories contained within. But at least in my opinion, that's an understatement in this case.
I can't go through the entire contents list but I will give you the stories that were my favorites:
1. The Red Hand - Another story featuring that indomitable duo, Dyson & Phillipps. I'm going to check to see if there is a collection of these stories in print somewhere so they're all together. This story was wonderful, mysterious, and fun to watch being solved.
2. The White People - In this story, a young girl is slowly being introduced to otherworldly forces as set forth in her memoirs found in a book. Very eerie, and the descriptions are vivid, enabling the reader to capture in his or her mind the settings of the story. Simply a phenomenal story.
3. The Great Return - A marvelous story, invoking legends of the Fisher King and holy grail.
4. The Terror - I think I would label this one as an anti-war story. Aside from the White People, this was my favorite. Eerie happenings turn nature against man. Is it because of a German secret weapon? Or what? This story was set during the time of WWI, and really gives a perspective on war as a universal concept.
Overall...the book was fine. I really liked how Machen used landscape as a character throughout the book. Many authors try this and bomb, but in his work, which also tends to conjure up Celtic mythology, his use of this device is excellent. I feel bad that his works were not popular at the time, but then again, at least we have the opportunity to read them now.
Recommended if you want to get some insight into where HP Lovecraft got a lot of his ideas (they're all through this book and Vol. I) or if you want to take on a bit of the supernatural without having to resort to the hack-em slash-em stuff out there on the market."
"I have a few differnt collections of Machen's work, but this is a great place to start for anyone who hadn't read him before as it contains most of his more famous stories."
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