NOTE: This is VERSION 2 - but it doesn't say that on the upload. I fixed about 20 screens of screwed-up lines, so it should read much better. You should delete your earlier version - especially if you love this "novel" - and replace it with this one.

One of the most influential books of horror ever written.

From one source: "The Three Impostors is an episodic novel by British horror fiction writer Arthur Machen, first published in 1895 in the Bodley Head's Keynote Series. Its importance was recognized in its later revival in paperback by Ballantine Books as the forty-eighth volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in June 1972."

And more: Two of the novel's inset tales, "The Novel of the Black Seal" and "The Novel of the White Powder", have been cited as major influences on the work of H. P. Lovecraft. In his survey Supernatural Horror in Literature, Lovecraft suggested that these stories "perhaps represent the highwater mark of Machen's skill as a terror-weaver."

More: "The Novel of the Black Seal" has been cited as a model for some of Lovecraft's best-known stories: "The Call of Cthulhu",[2] "The Dunwich Horror",[3] and "The Whisperer in Darkness".[4] "The Novel of the White Powder", which Lovecraft said "approaches the absolute culmination of loathsome fright",[5] is pointed to as an inspiration for Lovecraft's stories of bodily disintegration, such as "Cool Air" and "The Colour Out of Space".

If you like your horror suble and literate, then you should love this book.

I hope you enjoy it.

Please: If you find errors, let me know and I'll do my best to correct them.

NOTE: This is a somewhat lonely business putting these together, but it sure is fun.

Arthur Machen makes me turn all the lights on at night.

Brrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Awesome stuff!

I just discovered a slight problem with a long letter buried deep in one of the stories. I'm fixing this and will post a V2 in a few hours.

I feel the same way about his work. I especially love the The Hill of Dreams.

Don

I just don't understand the attraction of reading "horror" books. I don't want to lie awake at night with all the lights on :grin:

Doesnt' say that in the header, but 20 screens of broken lines have been fixed.

Sorry.

Hmm. How can I explain? I guess it's the same reason I scuba dive, or like to lean real low on corners on my Mororcycle, or jump off a local bridge in the summer... Or rock climb.. Well.. used to rock climb.. Skii real fast etc, etc, etc.

The slight chill, the thrill of delicious false fear that crawls up my spine.. The creaking of my house and the start, the sudden quickening of my heart and the quick glance behind me, then the chuckle and telling myself. :"You lame-o! Its nothing... Or.. is it?"

Plus, and I hope i dont sound too pretentious here.. Machen is just flat 'Spiritual.' He reminds me that we are surrounded by an unseen world that is on the edge of breaking in on this one and is in fact, linked to and influencing this one. Machen sort of.. Tears aside the veil for a few moments. ESPECIALLY Hill of Dreams. I HIGHLY recomend that one. If you read no other Machen give that one a shot. At least for 50 pages. I wager if you go 50 pages, you'll go whole hog and enjoy it.

I might just give it a go :grin:.

Wonderfull writer.Ive only read the two noted by Lovecraft,which ones are worth a read as well?

Wonderfull writer.Ive only read the two noted by Lovecraft,which ones are worth a read as well?

I would recommend The Great God Pan: http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/book/457

Oh,ive read that.I meant from the Book.Ive done "The White People" and "The Shining Pyramid" as well.

Roy, you recommend Machen for a good dose of my daily 'eldritch horror?'

I like that idea of "pulling back the veil." It reminds me of Paul Bowles' Sheltering Sky . We need pretty blues and whites so we never truly contemplate our place and have a massive super freak-out that leaves us raving lunatics in an asylum, advising our doctors to burn our research assistants in acid.

Clive Barker is another 'gives me goosechills and makes me take quick looks over my shoulder when I'm reading in the middle of a room at night.

only read Weaveworld from Barker.But-I kinda dont like where mainstream modern horror is going.

Hmm.Okay,read "NOVEL OF THE DARK VALLEY" as well and I must say it was prety good.Basicly,whats labelled a "Novel" can be read separately.Im preparing to read "Novel of the Iron maid" too.

Okay,finished LE BOOK,and,apart from a very good ending,I kinda am confused by some things,though I get the general picture.Anyhow,the edition I read was without "the novelof the iron maid",is that common?

Hmm.Okay,read "NOVEL OF THE DARK VALLEY" as well and I must say it was prety good.Basicly,whats labelled a "Novel" can be read separately.Im preparing to read "Novel of the Iron maid" too.

Yes, the "Novels" are separate "reads," but there's a frame that ties the intire book together. This is a wonderful book [read: novel] that has many admirers.


Don

Ive sort of a dilema.Ive finished the whole book,but the edition of it I have doesnt include "the novel of the iron maid" .Whats up with that?

Also:anyone else read "the novel of the dark valley"?

Hmmmm....let me check.

However, I no longer have the LRF file, but I'll check on this.


don

Ive sort of a dilema.Ive finished the whole book,but the edition of it I have doesnt include "the novel of the iron maid" .Whats up with that?

Also:anyone else read "the novel of the dark valley"?

What's up with that is this:

I did some research on the title, and apparently Machen himself excluded two short pieces (one of which is the "Novel of the Iron Maid") when he edited the book for a later printing.

Some recent editors, most notably Lin Carter in the 1970s during his editorship of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, included the two pieces.

My download of this title and subsequent assemblage of this into an LRF did not include these two short "stories."

I hope this answers your question. You are more than welcome, of course, to find these two "missing" sections and assemble them for us. ---- Hey! You'll find it's good practice for future and longer projects!:)

Don

Oh-then I have a link to the COMPLETE text online.Anyway,the Iron maid novel couldve been REALY briliant,if Machen would indicate the man invited the guy in his house to show him his torture colection in "MORE WAYS THEN ONE"-this way,it seems kinda-

Drib-I REALY wanna talk to you about it,cause it a hell of a powerfull tale,I mean "make your amends and then I swear to god,we'll burn you alive at that tree."