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A review by nonesensed
The House of Souls by Arthur Machen
3.0
A collection of highs and lows, at least for me. Here are my impressions of the four short stories:
A Fragment of Life - Dear me, I've rarely been so bored reading a story. It's got a dash of interesting hints of the fantastical peppered throughout, but it's 90% a story about a married couple considering what to do with a sum of money the wife got for a birthday a while back and other such domestic troubles. Sure, the husband of the pair has strange "vibes" now and then, butthe story literally stops once it gets interesting. Yes, literally. It just cuts off with a "the rest of these people's lives is too strange to describe, here's a weird poem the husband wrote, hope you enjoyed all that talk about household economy~!" Not worth the struggle getting through it. Skip it, is my advice.
The White People - My favorite of this collection, as well as of Machen's work in general. It's full of unanswered questions in the best way of eerie horror. The framing device of the two middle-aged men discussing the contents of the actual story I can take or leave, but the Green Book is wonderfully creepy. You can of course go the "witches worshiping the devil" route if you want to be pragmatic, but to me this reads as a young girl who's gotten involved with the fae (and not in the Young Adult romance way, as much fun as such stories can be) or even better, involved with powers or creatures utterly unknown and unknowable to humans. Excellent mood throughout, loved how the rambling storytelling style was used. This story also inspired one of my favorite horror novels, The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, which is an extra plus in its favor! I'd recommend reading this short story first and then digging into Kingfisher's book.
The Great God Pan - An interesting enough read. The ending left me a little wanting for a better reasoning behind how it all came to go down like that, but there's plenty of excellent "too horrible to be mentioned" situations. It's also about a medical professional who happens to be a well-off man tricking a much less well-off and much younger woman to participate in brain surgery that is extremely harmful to her. Bit too real there, Machen, wish you'd gone the route of the results of said horrific experiment doing more to the messed-up doctor who performed the surgery. All in all, pretty creepy! Though fair warning, a lot of children are victims in this story. If that ruins your enjoyment of a horror tale do not read this one.
The Inmost Light - More medical men doing terrible things to the women in their lives. Doctor Black got what he deserved, in my opinion, but not soon enough. Poor Mrs Black. Not as intriguing or complex as the "medical mystery" in The Great God Pan, but it still has its moments.
A Fragment of Life - Dear me, I've rarely been so bored reading a story. It's got a dash of interesting hints of the fantastical peppered throughout, but it's 90% a story about a married couple considering what to do with a sum of money the wife got for a birthday a while back and other such domestic troubles. Sure, the husband of the pair has strange "vibes" now and then, but
The White People - My favorite of this collection, as well as of Machen's work in general. It's full of unanswered questions in the best way of eerie horror. The framing device of the two middle-aged men discussing the contents of the actual story I can take or leave, but the Green Book is wonderfully creepy. You can of course go the "witches worshiping the devil" route if you want to be pragmatic, but to me this reads as a young girl who's gotten involved with the fae (and not in the Young Adult romance way, as much fun as such stories can be) or even better, involved with powers or creatures utterly unknown and unknowable to humans. Excellent mood throughout, loved how the rambling storytelling style was used. This story also inspired one of my favorite horror novels, The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, which is an extra plus in its favor! I'd recommend reading this short story first and then digging into Kingfisher's book.
The Great God Pan - An interesting enough read. The ending left me a little wanting for a better reasoning behind how it all came to go down like that, but there's plenty of excellent "too horrible to be mentioned" situations. It's also about a medical professional who happens to be a well-off man tricking a much less well-off and much younger woman to participate in brain surgery that is extremely harmful to her. Bit too real there, Machen, wish you'd gone the route of the results of said horrific experiment doing more to the messed-up doctor who performed the surgery. All in all, pretty creepy! Though fair warning, a lot of children are victims in this story. If that ruins your enjoyment of a horror tale do not read this one.
The Inmost Light - More medical men doing terrible things to the women in their lives. Doctor Black got what he deserved, in my opinion, but not soon enough. Poor Mrs Black. Not as intriguing or complex as the "medical mystery" in The Great God Pan, but it still has its moments.