Paganism and Victorian shenanigans...

First published in 1890, this is considered to be a classic of the genre, influential on later writers from HP Lovecraft to Stephen King.

Clarke has been asked by his friend Dr Raymond to witness an experiment in his laboratory in far away Wales (Machen's native land), the culmination of the work of years. He proposes to carry out a brain operation on his young ward, Mary, which, he claims, will allow her to look into the spiritual world closed off to our normal brains – to see the Great God Pan, as he puts it. Of course, it all goes horribly wrong, and poor Mary is left a “hopeless idiot”.

This is all in the nature of a prologue. The story then jumps forward some twenty years or so and the scene shifts to London. Clarke has remained interested in the occult and makes a habit of gathering strange stories. These stories are relayed to the reader as a series of snippets or brief sketches with a variety of narrators. To the people involved these incidents seem entirely random at first. But after a while, Clarke begins to see a pattern emerging. His subsequent investigations take him into the dark belly of London's seamy underworld, on the trail of a mysterious woman who has been connected to some of the strange and horrible events...

* * * * *

While I wasn't exactly terrified, I thought this was a jolly good story. Mad science, that great love of Victorian horror and science fiction writers, mingled with paganism and a good deal of hinting at immoral and quite possibly unnatural sexual shenanigans, there's also plenty of typically Victorian, fine descriptive writing, both of nature in the countryside and of the dark and gloomy streets of London at night. The Great God Pan is no cuddly pipe-playing faun in this one – he's satanic, possibly in fact Satan, and we all know what happens to innocent young girls who fall in the path of that old cloven-hoofed goat. Being Victorian, we are spared the details, but Machen manages to get his meaning across. Of course, the woman is the one who succumbs to the dark pagan powers – but then the men succumb to the equally dark force of female sexuality. (They're called Victorian attitudes for a reason...)

Combine that with Clarke's familiarity with the seamy side of London life, where he cheerfully admits, with no attempt at concealment, “I have always been fond of diving into Queer Street for my amusement, and I found my knowledge of that locality and its inhabitants very useful.” Even worse, that he is there on the trail of a society lady who also likes to head to the lower levels to take her pleasure. No wonder it was considered pretty shocking at the time! (So disgusted were the morally upstanding Victorians, in fact, that it apparently shot to the top of the best-sellers list...)

It might be a little less shocking now, but it's well told and one can easily see its place in the chain that links horror writers of different generations. It's almost like a bridging link from the older ones, – the Gothic style of Poe, for example – through his contemporaries – his dark London having much of the feel of Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde – and onto those who followed, like Lovecraft, who acknowledged his debt to Machen. Great stuff! I read this as the title story in the new Oxford World's Classics edition, The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories - I'll post a review of the full collection later. Spoiler alert - it'll get 5 stars!

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I wasn't sure about The Great God Pan when I started it. Although I was enjoying the language (I'm a fan of elaborate, discursive, evocative writing), the various chapters, and the incidents described therein, seemed haphazard, disconnected. Ah, but as I read my way through the tale, patterns began to manifest, characters and locations and occurrences began to mesh, and all began to connect and point to the denouement. I was greatly pleased because these connections were not terribly blatant or overt, no deus ex machina was employed, but instead emerged gradually, as if from an obscuring mist, and greater understanding and full enlightenment by the end flowed into the reader's mind in a very natural and seemingly uncontrived fashion. A delectable sensation.

The tale contains strong elements of horror and the supernatural, but it also had wonderful elements of mystery to it as well. The story, as I worked my way through it, reminded me in some ways of the writing and stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, Sax Rohmer, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan Poe. That being said, The Great God Pan is very much its own voice; I am a voracious reader and I can sincerely say that never before have I read anything quite like it.

As a side note, I want to mention that there is a Canadian occult-rock band called Blood Ceremony who are quite excellent. They perform a song called "The Great God Pan" (one of my favorite songs from them) and during my read of Machen's story, this song was playing, unintentionally but delightfully, in the back of my head. A sample of the song's lyrics: "We see the horned one, we see his shape assume/The form of laughing wines and sandalwood fumes." Blood Ceremony are brilliant; perhaps give their music a try.

This book is too short, the ending rushed and unsatisfying. It did get me invested in it, though, which is perhaps why I was surprised (and disappointed) when I turned the page to find out it was the last one.

Not bad. Very of its time.

The book could easily be read in about an hour, so if you have an afternoon and want to read a good well written classic, I highly recommend it. I only gave it the low rating because for me the book lacked details and I failed to find it scary, even in the horror upon the soul inflicting kind of way.

Interesting style of writing. It was interesting trying to assume the authors point of view based on the resources available in the late 1800's (which is when it was written). He keeps you engaged through the end.

A Victorian sexual horror tale that hints at the horrors without enumerating them in gory detail. Especially chilling in a modern light due to the themes of consent and women’s rights.

This book was pretty reminiscent of creepypasta, so if you like that kind of thing, you'll probably enjoy it. I do wish the denouement had been expanded a little more.