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A review by roxanamalinachirila
The House of Souls 1922 by Arthur Machen
4.0
Hey, look! A book that's out of copyright and available on Project Gutenberg! Yay!
"The House of Souls" contains four stories that may or may not take place in the same universe; the atmosphere and details sound very much like they might, but it's never explicitly stated.
"A Fragment of Life" (1904) is the first one, but I think I'd have preferred it to be the last. It's a long story about a young, newly wedded couple that receives a sum of money, invests nine tenths of it and debates how to spend the remainder.
As they go back and forth on the decision, we find out more about their lives and the lives of those they know: the mysterious actions of an uncle, the oddness of an old woman, the husband's past explorations of London and discovering it as if it were a new and magical place.
It's a slow story, and it has a certain magic to it. It's almost a sort of magical realism before the genre came into being. But it ends like this:
It would be impossible to carry on the history of Edward Darnell and of Mary his wife to a greater length, since from this point their legend is full of impossible events, and seems to put on the semblance of the stories of the Graal. It is certain, indeed, that in this world they changed their lives, like King Arthur, but this is a work which no chronicler has cared to describe with any amplitude of detail.
So, after a normal, vaguely magical story, we're told it becomes a fantasy novel we'll never read. OH WELL.
The next three stories, however, are deeply mystical and filled with to the brim with the supernatural.
The White People (1904) is a story-within-a-story. The story is a dialogue between men about sainthood and pure evil, which is... eh. But the story-within is the deranged journal of a teenage girl who gets involved in magic and abominations that are never quite described on page, but are always hinted at.
It's quite brilliant, splendidly conveying unpleasantness and evil, as well as hinting at a larger world of eldritch magic.
The Great God Pan (1894) is told in multiple parts, some of which don't seem connected at first. A scientist does an experiment on a woman who is rendered mad for the rest of her life. In London and abroad, a mysterious woman causes the ruin and suicide of a number of men.
The Inmost Light (1894) is a story about a doctor's wife who dies under mysterious circumstances. A passer-by who saw her at the window was shocked by the evil in her figure and determines to find out what happened to her.
----
Machen's style is beautiful and his atmosphere is mysterious and horrifying, really conveying the feeling of abomination and supernatural terror.
At a more careful look, however, his plots tend to rely on coincidence, which isn't great, although I'll allow it.
The women are the oddest thing. When they aren't a manifestation of evil incarnate, they're strangely passive. Both "The Great God Pan" and "The Inmost Light" have them willingly lay down their lives and sanity for the sake of the experiment of the most important man in their lives (like lambs to the slaughter). One thinks that the question "Can I drill into your skull and probably drive you insane?" would be answered with a resounding "No", but here we are, with two replies of "Yes" that are never explained in-universe (one is "Yes, but you need to kill me afterwards."). What the heck?
"The House of Souls" contains four stories that may or may not take place in the same universe; the atmosphere and details sound very much like they might, but it's never explicitly stated.
"A Fragment of Life" (1904) is the first one, but I think I'd have preferred it to be the last. It's a long story about a young, newly wedded couple that receives a sum of money, invests nine tenths of it and debates how to spend the remainder.
As they go back and forth on the decision, we find out more about their lives and the lives of those they know: the mysterious actions of an uncle, the oddness of an old woman, the husband's past explorations of London and discovering it as if it were a new and magical place.
It's a slow story, and it has a certain magic to it. It's almost a sort of magical realism before the genre came into being. But it ends like this:
It would be impossible to carry on the history of Edward Darnell and of Mary his wife to a greater length, since from this point their legend is full of impossible events, and seems to put on the semblance of the stories of the Graal. It is certain, indeed, that in this world they changed their lives, like King Arthur, but this is a work which no chronicler has cared to describe with any amplitude of detail.
So, after a normal, vaguely magical story, we're told it becomes a fantasy novel we'll never read. OH WELL.
The next three stories, however, are deeply mystical and filled with to the brim with the supernatural.
The White People (1904) is a story-within-a-story. The story is a dialogue between men about sainthood and pure evil, which is... eh. But the story-within is the deranged journal of a teenage girl who gets involved in magic and abominations that are never quite described on page, but are always hinted at.
It's quite brilliant, splendidly conveying unpleasantness and evil, as well as hinting at a larger world of eldritch magic.
The Great God Pan (1894) is told in multiple parts, some of which don't seem connected at first. A scientist does an experiment on a woman who is rendered mad for the rest of her life. In London and abroad, a mysterious woman causes the ruin and suicide of a number of men.
The Inmost Light (1894) is a story about a doctor's wife who dies under mysterious circumstances. A passer-by who saw her at the window was shocked by the evil in her figure and determines to find out what happened to her.
----
Machen's style is beautiful and his atmosphere is mysterious and horrifying, really conveying the feeling of abomination and supernatural terror.
At a more careful look, however, his plots tend to rely on coincidence, which isn't great, although I'll allow it.
The women are the oddest thing. When they aren't a manifestation of evil incarnate, they're strangely passive. Both "The Great God Pan" and "The Inmost Light" have them willingly lay down their lives and sanity for the sake of the experiment of the most important man in their lives (like lambs to the slaughter). One thinks that the question "Can I drill into your skull and probably drive you insane?" would be answered with a resounding "No", but here we are, with two replies of "Yes" that are never explained in-universe (one is "Yes, but you need to kill me afterwards."). What the heck?