•
Rating: Arthur Machen (1863-1947), a Welsh writer of horror fiction, is today considered one of the masters of the genre. His decadent and measured prose, far removed from the overly laden adjectives and delirious images of his follower H.P. Lovecraft, fits well within the tradition of Anglo-Saxon fantastic literature. Machen has enjoyed relative success in Italy; his books continue to be published even recently. The Great God Pan has been reprinted by Tre Editori and Adiaphora, The Three Impostors by Fanucci, while Providence Press and Hypnos have made The Green Round and A Fragment of Life available, texts previously unpublished in our country. The Machen special contained in Zothique 4 and this Arthur Machen: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a booklet just published by Bietti edited by Paolo Mathlouthi (which includes three interesting essays by Alessandra Colla, Marco Maculotti, and Andrea Scarabelli) confirm the interest surrounding his figure. Despite this, Machen, unlike Lovecraft and despite tributes from Lovecraft, Stephen King, and Guillermo Del Toro, has never broken through to the mainstream audience (unlike Lovecraft), but the reason is that we are dealing with a particular author, light-years away from easy horror that readily appeals to readers. For Fruttero and Lucentini, he was an extremely refined and niche writer (they found his style too reticent and, for this reason, omitted The Great God Pan from the Einaudi ghost stories anthology though they considered The Terror a masterpiece) while for Borges, he was a "minor" writer without any negative connotation from the famous Argentine author. Certainly, Machen is my favorite "weird" writer.
The aforementioned novel The Great God Pan is discussed extensively in Arthur Machen: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. In particular, Marco Maculotti in his article Arthur Machen, Prophet of the Advent of The Great God Pan, highlights how the publication in 1894 of the Welsh writer's novel marks a real watershed in the conception of the nature of this deity. While Pan was previously seen as a pastoral god, from then onwards he would be considered in his infernal and occult aspects until the end of the Great War which, with all its load of horrors, almost fulfills the ominous predictions of Machen's book. The aforementioned story The Terror is discussed with great expertise by Alessandra Colla, who also delves into the writer's biography. Andrea Scarabelli highlights instead the importance of the reading that Jacques Bergier did of Machen first in the cult book The Morning of the Magicians (which contained the beginning of The White People, perhaps the best Machen story ever) and then in Praise of the Fantastic where there was an entire chapter dedicated to him. In retrospect, perhaps Bergier exaggerated his stay in the Golden Dawn: Machen was a sensitive person in search of inspiration and must have drawn something from these experiences, but his condemnation of spiritualism and its harmful aspects is well known today. Here too, the discussion ends up being about The Great God Pan and its reception by critics who initially panned the book. Conversely, it was praised by writers like Maurice Maeterlinck and Paul Jean Toulet. For those who are ardent fans of Machen, Arthur Machen: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a mandatory purchase.
Available on Bietti's website: http://www.bietti.it/categoria-prodotto/critica/.
Arthur Machen: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Various Authors
Edited by Paolo Mathlouthi
Publisher: Bietti
Series: Minima Letteraria
Pages: 102
Cover Price: Paperback €4.99; ebook €2.69
Loading comments slowly
