Showing results by author "Arthur Machen" in All Categories

Dubbed the greatest horror story in English by Stephen King, The Great God Pan is an eerie and otherworldly mystery about a diabolical operation and its terrifying repercussions. After rescuing a young woman from the streets of London, Dr. Raymond uses her as a test subject for brain surgery aimed at "lifting the veil" of reality, to see the supernatural and the "great god Pan". The operation is a disaster and leaves the subject lobotomized. Years later, London becomes afflicted with a strange series of male suicides connected to a beautiful but sinister woman.

Arthur Machen’s novella explores the disturbing consequences of toying with the line between the earthly world and the spiritual realm. The Great God Pan centers around an ominous woman named Helen, who lives in the woods and invites morbid happenings. The book faced harsh censure upon its publication in 1894 for its explicit content, but today it is considered a hallmark of horror fiction. Stephen King himself called it “one of the best horror stories ever written”, making it essential reading for any dedicated fans of the genre.

Lucian Taylor dreams of becoming an author, but not just any author, the best of authors. Obsession with perfection drives him to extremes of self-deprivation, which leaves him in a state where reality and fantasy blend. FNH Audio presents an unabridged reading of the classic tale of writing and obsession that Lord Dunsany rightly admired. Indeed the text itself appears to almost reach the perfection sought by its protagonist in word choice and pacing.

Lucian Taylor, the hero, is damned either through contact with an erotically pagan "other" world or through something degenerate in his own nature, which he thinks of as a "faun". He becomes a writer, and when he moves to London he becomes trapped by the increasing reality of the dark imaginings of this creature within him, which become increasingly real. One of the first explorations in fiction of the figure of the doomed artist, who is biographically so much a part of the decadent 1890s.

An excellent collection of creepy ghost stories from some of the most notable names of early horror fiction, including: “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood, “The Shadows On The Wall” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, “The Messenger” by Robert W.Chambers, “Lazarus” by Leonid Andreyev, “The Beast With Five Fingers” by W.F. Harvey, “The Mass Of Shadows” by Anatole France, “What Was It” by Fitz-James O’brien, “The Middle Toe Of The Right Foot” by Ambrose Bierce, “The Shell Of Sense” by Olivia Howard Dunbar, and more!

The Three Impostors (1895) by Arthur Machen is a combination of horror story and mystery novel. It features the likable detective, Dyson, who is somewhat pretentious and mostly ineffectual. The work is separated into a number of episodes, from "The Adventure of the Gold Tiberius" to "The Adventure of the Deserted Residence".

The tale begins with an experiment to enable a woman named Mary to experience the supernatural realm, which turns her into an idiot. Then follows an account of a series of mysterious occurrences and deaths surrounding a sinister woman named Helen Vaughan. The protagonists eventually confront Helen and forces her to kill herself. Before dying, she undergoes a series of spooky transformations that reveals her to be the daughter of the ill-fated Mary and the god Pan. 

The short stories written during and about World War I are often overshadowed by the excellent verse of the War Poets. Yet the short story is perhaps their equal in other ways. Within these succinct little time capsules of words are captured ideas, attitudes, feelings and life that are expressed in a few minutes just as movingly, imaginatively and tellingly as in any other form. Some of these stories will be familiar, but some may not. From Virginia Woolf to Katharine Mansfield and John Buchan to C. E. Montague, various writing styles try to make sense of this world at war.

A young woman, Helen Leicester, becomes concerned about her brother Francis when he begins spending all of his time locked in his room studying. At first Francis insists that he is fine, but eventually admits that he is not feeling well and agrees to see the family physician. The doctor prescribes a medication - a white powder which is mixed with water - and Francis begins to feel better. However, this "cure" doesn't last very long and Francis begins exhibiting peculiar and disturbing behavior.

A wonderful collection of 50 phenomenal stories by the world’s great short story writers. 

In the remote hills of deepest old England, Vaughn is worried when he discovers inexplicable changing symbols next to his home. With no one else to ask for help, he seeks out his old friend and investigator Dyson. Together they work to uncover the mysterious truth about the changing symbols. 

I collect snippets from newspapers, special interesting snippets. The unusual, the weird, the unexplained. These things have always interested me. Yet when I found my old hometown was the subject of a sudden rush of strange and inexplicable events, I felt I was being drawn back.... 

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author and mystic, best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy and horror fiction. The Red Hand is a mysterious horror story which tells the peculiar tale of the strange murder of Sir Thomas Vivian, the famous heart surgeon. Why was he murdered with an ancient flint weapon when there was an unused, brand-new knife at the scene? What was the meaning of the bizarre letter in the dead man's pocket, written in a very strange hand? And what could be the meaning of the peculiar symbol of a red hand chalked on the wall above the corpse?

Stranded in London during the summer vacation period and caught up in a sudden rain shower, two friends sought shelter in an archway. One of them vaguely remembered having heard that there was a club down this alleyway. From this point events become very strange. A mutual friend appears, who is able to introduce the two into the mysterious club. All the members are well known figures in London society...and they are all there for a bizarre and terrifying ceremony. Each member must open an old book, and whoever turns up the black page will face an unknown and horrifying fate.

Award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti reads "The Monstrance" from The Angels of Mons by Arthur Machen, detailing the agony of a German soldier driven mad by the vision of an atrocity he committed earlier in the war. WWI was going badly for the English, and Machen’s tales of a supernatural power on the side of the embattled British troops brought hope to the nation.

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author known for his works of horror and the fantastic. He is recognized as an influence on modern writers of supernatural fiction. Holy Terrors (published in 1946, a year before his death) is a collection of 14 short stories of which nine are very short and are included in this recording. They are: “The Rose Garden”, “Psychology”, “The Soldier's Rest”, “The Cosy Room”, “The Ceremony”, “Holy Things”, “The Turanians”, “The Happy Children”, and “Munitions of War”.

 An entrancing collection of 50 great short stories by leading classic writers.  

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author known for his works of horror and the fantastic. He is acknowledged as an influence on modern writers of supernatural fiction. His story "The Red Hand" (1895) tells of a grisly murder committed with the most unusual of weapons, an ancient stone axe.

'The Bowmen' is perhaps the most famous of Machen's tales. It is the iconic story of an incident from the First World War trenches. Faced with inevitable death and defeat, a battalion of English soldiers is saved by the mysterious and miraculous intervention of Saint George and a company of English bowmen who had last fought at Agincourt.

Volume 7 starts off with Edgar Allan Poe's story of a gifted boy hounded by his shadow, "William Wilson". We take to the sky's with a pilots investigation into unexplainable events thousands of feet above ground in Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Horror of the Heights". Next up, Ambrose Bierce plays with time in "The Suitable Surroundings".