The House of Souls
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Product Description
Originally published in 1922. This volume from the Cornell University Library’s print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned take in to take in and pages may include inscription notations and additional marginalia present in the original volume.
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I had been wanting to check out Arthur Machen’s 1906 collection of fleeting tales, entitled “The House of Souls,” for reasonably some time; even since I had read two highly laudatory pieces written about this work and its leader. The first was H.P. Lovecraft’s comments in his widely referred to essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature,” in which he claims “Of living creators of cosmic dread raised to its most artistic pitch, few if any can hope to equal the versatile Arthur Machen.” And, in Jones & Newman’s brilliant overview volume “Horror: 100 Best Books,” T.E.D. Klein, in his essay on “The House of Souls,” refers to Machen as “fantasy’s pre-eminent artist.” Well, after years of looking, I finally managed to lay hands on a to some extent beaten-up copy of the 1928 Borzoi edition of this collection, and can now see what all the fuss has been about. My edition only contains four of the book’s original tales; “The Novel of the Black Seal,” “The Novel of the White Powder” and “The Red Hand” have been omitted. (Rumor has it that, the book has had a intricate publishing history.) What remains, but, has served as a very fine introduction to Machen (“rhymes with ‘blacken,’” Klein reveals) in my own case.
The Borzoi edition kicks off with the tale-part piece “A Fragment of Life,” which tells of a newlywed couple, the Darnells, living in a London suburb. Machen piles on an enormous amount of fine detail to illustrate the Darnells’ life; thus, we learn of their plans to redecorate a bedroom, how much they pay for groceries, the social life of their maid, the problems that Mrs. Darnell’s aunt is having, and on and on. It only gradually dawns on the reader, and on Mr. Darnell, that this is, factually, just a fragment of life, indeed; that all this mundane nonsense is just a masklike covering that hides a greater reality. Like many of the characters of Algernon Blackwood and, much later, P.K. Dick, Mr. Darnell seeks to pierce the illusion of our so-called reality, and this initially colorless tale winds up being reasonably an eerie and mystical ride as a result. The next tale in this collection, “The White People,” was Lovecraft’s second-favorite horror tale of all time, after Blackwood’s “The Willows.” In this one, a man is agreed the diary of a young girl by another man who wishes to demonstrate what the real scenery of evil is all about. The bulk of the tale consists of the girl’s seemingly naive and rambling notes in her journal, and we learn that she is a sorceress of sorts, being trained by her nurse is some kind of dark arts. Nothing is really spelled out for the reader in this piece; rather, through the use of narrated fairy tales, weird incidents and nearly hallucinatory journeys, a very unsettling aura is engendered. It is all very allusive and suggestive, demanding of the reader a fantastic exercise of the imagination. I suppose that Lovecraft had a greater imagination than mine (no fantastic surprise there, though!), because I was left wanting a bit more from this tale. Still, some pretty eerie stuff. The oft-anthologized “The Fantastic God Pan” is up next, to my mind the strongest tale of the bunch. In this one, a scientist performs a brain operation on a young woman to (again) pierce the veil that obscures an essential reality. Seventeen years later, a mysterious, debauched woman causes a rash of suicides in London high society, as a tiny group of men tries to figure out just what is going on. Reading like a late 19th century detective tale crossed with the supernatural, this is one bravura piece of work from Mr. Machen, and concludes in a suitably gruesome and gooey manner. The tale is a bit too dependent on coincidence in its telling, but remains most impressive. Finally, in my Borzoi edition, is “The Inmost Light,” still another tale of a scientist trying to peer behind the curtain to behold a truer reality. Here, another woman is the theme of an conduct experiment that produces horrifying results. The described image of Mrs. Black’s hideous face in an upstairs window, as seen by our narrator from some distance away, is one that lingers in the memory. As in “The White People” and “The Fantastic God Pan,” most of the horrors are suggested rather than spelled out in this tale, which may be a disappointment to a modern reader steeped in the current tradition of gore and grue, but there is no denying the chilling mood that these tales can evoke.
I should perhaps mention here that “The House of Souls” was NOT that simple a read for me. There are dozens of references to English life of a century or more ago that may mean small to the 21st century reader (just what IS an “A.B.C. girl,” anyway?), not to mention much British slang, Latin expressions and so on. A detailed street map of London proved invaluable to me as I read this book. Still, a small effort in these matters permanently results in a deeper appreciation, and there surely is much to appreciate in “The House of Souls.” It is certainly well worth any reader’s time. Thanks, T.E.D., and thanks, H.P.!
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
All of Machen’s work is worth reading, but of the four novellas in this collection “A Fragment of Life” is itself entirely worth the fee of admission. In this tale, Machen excels himself in making a moving, human tale, full of marvel and joy (and so unlike his more common “Buckets o’ Grue” material). A fine tale, plus three more that are effectively a bonus read.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I have to admit at the start that I am not a huge Machen fan; I only read him beacause he has influenced the greats, such as Lovecraft. That being said, this is a excellent book because it contains 2 of his huge “classics”: “The White People” and “The Fantastic God Pan”. These should be familiar to any reader of weird tales. I find The White People to be a small tedious but still should be read by all. The additional 2 novellas here are The Inmost Light and A Fragment of Life. I painstakingly loved The Inmost Light because I am a fantastic fan of “The Occult Detective” and this tale surely fits that genra. It has a excellent plot that drives toward a satisfying conclusion. Alas, I cannot say the same for the opening piece “A Fragment of Life”. This is a meandering monstrosity that goes nowhere very slowly. I will admit that I never finished it. After slogging through the main couple a)worrying over furnishing a room b)worrying over buying a oven and c)worrying over their mad aunt moving in with them I had had reasonably enough! Perhaps the end is appealing but I haven’t enough time in this lifetime to wade through all the preliminary stuff. The distress with Machen is that he tends to babble on and this tale is an example of him at his worst. But 3/4 of the tales are excellent. I remain more of a Blackwood fan.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
Machen (1863-1947) stands as one of the fantastic facts in “weird”, or supernatural, literature. This unadorned but functional reprint of the 1922 U.S. edition of “The House of Souls” contains two of his finest works in the genre – “The White People” and “The Fantastic God Pan”.
The book opens with an introduction, penned by Machen, which provides insight into the writing of the pieces within and into Machen himself.
The first of the four novellas, “A Fragment of Life”, concerns the awakening of an “ordinary” man to his mystic and real self. This piece, rather devious and slow moving, may require rereading for full appreciation.
“The White People” takes us into the pages of a journal written by a young girl who has been privy since early childhood, via her nursemaid, to very ancient and arcane secrets. The journal is the gist of this tale and is reasonably a gripping mix of fantasy and myth (yes, there is a difference). The narrative framework around the journal introduces us, via the discussion of two protagonists, to Machen’s fascinating theories about excellent and evil.
“The Fantastic God Pan” concerns the appearance of the title entity into the everyday world of men through the agency of a more or less predictable “mad doctor”; or, as Machen describes the character, a practitioner of “transcendental medicine”.
The fourth and final tale, “The Inmost Light”, is not among my favorites in the Machen cannon. Nonetheless, the narrative about another doctor dabbling in occult realms is an effective mystery and an enjoyable read.
All in all, an brilliant collection from an brilliant writer and requisite reading for any serious student of supernatural fiction.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5