This collection makes for both an inspiring and a melancholy reading experience, for here we see Machen first at the height of his powers and then at the beginning of his decline.The pieces that begin this collection are worthy of high praise. “The White People”—although not as viscerally terrifying as some of Machen’s earlier tales—is superb in its subtle use of a naïve narrator to evoke, by degrees, a sense of existential menace. The prose poems in“Ornaments in Jade”—experimental attempts to f...

The White People and Other Stories:The Red Hand – What if a primitive man walked upright in London and murdered citizens as part of some obscure pagan ritual? Thus, is the basis for this tale that follows a somewhat familiar deductive plotline to catch a murderer lurking in the streets of London. Although the tale is somewhat derivative at the beginning it is nonetheless very engaging and suspenseful and the ending and payoff in the story are worth waiting for.Ornaments in Jade – Beautiful prose...

In this second volume of Chaosium's Machen trilogy we start to see a lot of also-rans in terms of content. Fully a quarter of the book is given over to the author's novella "A Fragment of Life," which is about as weird fiction as my stories of changing the cat box, and another thirty-odd pages to what Joshi charitably refers to as prose-poems, which read like an artist's warm-up sketch. Thankfully, there are a few of the more known works collected here, including "The Red Hand" (which I enjoyed)...

Frankly,I was bored by this second installment of Machen.I think because the first book was so good I am very let down by this one.I also didn't bother to finish it because of one of the stories dragging on into everyday home life.Frankly,there was nothing very weird going on and I found that I just couldn't finish the story or the book.I will probably try to read it again because I know that the reviews were pretty good and maybe I am being impatient.I tend to want something to be going on that...

As I read through these collections of Machen's weird tales the themes that he was pre-occuppied with become more readily apparent. Perhaps it's because, as he went on, he got increasingly frustrated by society's refusal to heed his word, and made his points in more heavy handed and explicit ways.In this collection, increasingly under attack is the rational materialism that Machen feels too completely dominates his contemporary society. Our spiritualist side is dwindling and, as a consequence, o...

I don't know why Machen isn't more regarded or known. He influenced Lovecraft! These stories are super creepy and weird. Some are way too long with too much description, but almost all are well worth a read.

[image error]Arthur Machen (March 3, 1863 – December 15, 1947; Caerleon, Monmouthshire, Wales) was a leading Welsh author of the 1890s. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. He also is well known for his leading role in creating the legend of the Angels of Mons.http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...The White People: Exploring the nature of good and evil - and the origins of sin. (written 1899; published 1904) A young girl's diary, recounting tales tol...

I found it was a mix of stories I enjoyed, and stories I rapidly leafed through. I had expected a bit more, having read that this was one of the authors that HP Lovecraft was inspired by, and Lovecraft is one of my favorite authors, so was disappointed somewhat. I do not believe I will look for any others by Machen.

The second volume of Chaosium's three collecting most of Arthur Machen's novellas and short stories features another couple of the 'heavy hitters' of his bibliography in the title story and 'The Bowmen', infamous of course as the source of a cultural meme that still has legs over a century later. As before, the layout is fairly spartan, the text densely packed, and Joshi's intro mildly informative though inessential.The longest work here is 'A Fragment of Life', which I'm inclined to think is to...

An excellent followup to the first volume of Machen's works. Though the collection becomes less formalized or genre-oriented as it progresses, this volume is definitely worth reading not only for the disturbing title story but for the genre-defying "A Fragment of Life," which could well be required reading for early-20th century English genre fiction. Machen treads closely the line between the mundane and the supernal, managing to make the connection between the two more facile and sympathetic t...

To be clear, I rated this based on my own inability to understand and/or appreciate what Arthur Machen was writing about. Some of the stories made sense, my favorite being The Coming of the Terror. But others were too vague for me to understand, and that interferes with the likability of a story to me. Also, I don't suggest this as a first book of Machen's work. Perhaps his other works will make more sense to me.

Some of these stories like The Novel of the Black Seal, The Novel of the White Powder, The White People, and The Inmost Light I really enjoyed. Others I didn't care so much for like A Fragment of Life. Overall, I like Machen's righting because they aren't outright horrific--instead, they build in ominousness and horror. They are very subtle. Overall, I've come to really enjoy this sort of writing as it's very different than most contemporary writers like Stephen King.

Another of the four writers that H. P. Lovecraft states greatly influenced his work and writing style, I like Machen much better than most of the others. The stories are still not high on my list of favorites thought. Recommended if you are a Lovecraft fan.

I rate The White People as one of the greatest supernatural horror stories of all time, and, along with The Willows, the most frightening such story I have ever read. Even the philosophical discussion in the framing story very nearly causes me to tear up with dread.

I only read the eponymous short story.The plot and 'meaning' was sufficiently elusive, evoking an unsettling, pagan slant on an adolescent's burgeoning sexuality. 'Weird' in atmosphere, if not in content.