Arthur Machen: The Great God Pan

I'm guessing that the name Helen Vaughan was taken from Diana Vaughan of the Leo Taxil scandal in France during the same period Pan was written. Check out The Prague Cemetary written by Umberto Eco. Diana Vaughan was a creature of Satan.

I bought this because Stephen King said he liked it. But the book itself is a poorly produced paperback and the writing and story are boring. The IDEA of the God Pan being summoned through a bizarre surgical procedure is interesting but the novel itself is not.

This is a Victorian , decadent curio. You can't help but be reminded of THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY.All kinds of unspeakable horror and evil is swirling around but never described.You can guess at it but probably can't quite figure out what it is .In part it's a product of change.What Machen or even Wilde thought as unspeakably horrible is today a Miley Cyrus video.Our sense of horror is hurting peoples feelings.In the old days people worried about sin and sex.Now we know sex is therapy.Sin is hang ups , what's the problem?Pan now must be a positive force. What of pandemonium? By nature it can not exist in the progressive modern world which has no shadows.You see how you got a character like H.P.Lovecraft?He was a a rebel or as Houellebecq put it against the world , against life. Machen helped lay the foundation for all of this.Houllebecq is Machens successor.

Although considered a classic and one of the inspirations for the Cthulhu mythos a few years later by H.P. Lovecraft, this horror short form novel is not a great read, and draws more from the sort of spotty narrative style that Bram Stoker used in Dracula.

There is very little in the way of 'on stage' action, except for dialogue, between some of the characters. The author writes in that painful style that was common in some circles of the Victorian age where a paragraph may last several pages, if not an entire chapter.

The line of logic that connects events, is rather tenuous and feels more like a leap of intuition rather than based on facts (as one might find in say a Sherlock Holmes mystery in the period) and the reasoning for the events is spoken of in such obscure tones that they seem just plain wrong from modern eyes reading it.

bought it because i bought Revival by Stephen King, and he references it as an influential book in his life. It's an interesting short story, but I was waiting for something to happen and it never really materialized. Lots of references about these horrifying events and sights, but you never get the payoff. Need a big imagination... which may be why it's affected SK his whole life, and not really us "unimaginative" folk who need descriptive books.

As mentioned in most of the other reviews, this is a terrific story, easily digested in one sitting. Unfortunately, the publishing house for this version failed to really proof their work. I found at least 3 errors. No really big deal, but the story is only 94 pages long. Take some time and give Machen's work the respect it deserves.

This book is a great blend of mystery and supernatural. Arthur Machen explains landscapes and detail without being too descriptive like a Steven King as a example. I am glad I stumbled across this writer as I can see he will quickly become my new obsession. His style and writing materal is right up my alley. Easily stands with the greats of horror fiction, H.P Minecraft and ect. Highly recommended

Arthur Machen was a major inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft, and based on this book, they have a similar writing style and presentation. I suppose that for the end of the 19th century, this was the height of horror and risque, but by today's standards it is pretty tame. It was still worth reading, considering it was free.

This is supposed to be a classic horror novel, which I thought would be an interesting read with Halloween around the corner. It is a really fast read, but I was a little disappointed that nothing much actually happened in the story.

I guess this is one of those stories where nothing is really described, and your mind is left to fill in the ghastly details that were such a terror to the men that associated with Helen. It was an OK read, but I guess some of the subtleties were lost on me.

This is supposed to be a classic horror novel, which I thought would be an interesting read with Halloween around the corner. It is a really fast read, but I was a little disappointed that nothing much actually happened in the story.

I guess this is one of those stories where nothing is really described, and your mind is left to fill in the ghastly details that were such a terror to the men that associated with Helen. It was an OK read, but I guess some of the subtleties were lost on me.

Honestly I don't remember a thing about this book except that when I was reading it I wanted to smash my Kindle so I could stop reading because when I start a book I finish it even if my brain shuts down and I'm just running my eyes over the words. I also considered stabbing my eyes out. Absolutely nothing about this book stuck other than I hated it

This review is specifically for the Kindle edition by the publisher "Public Domain Books". There are several typographical errors in this edition that are not present in other versions; the formatting is poor, with no block-quoting for long quoted passages; and most glaringly, a whole paragraph is left out near the beginning of the book (early in chapter 2).

Skip this version, and get the higher-quality version from Project Gutenberg.