The Three Impostors, or, The Transmutations

My complete review of The Three Imposters is published at Before We Go Blog. “I have been grinding away at facts for thirty years; it is time for fancies.” The Three Imposters is Arthur Machen's best work and a classic of Gothic horror. As the novel opens, we are introduced to the three imposters, two......more

Machen's masterpiece, surely. All of the usual Machen ingredients are there: the eerie little stories, the twists and turns, the velvet-dark imagination combined with a deceptive lightness of style. And of course the intensely vivid descriptions of London, from street-crossings on The Strand to myst......more

Arthur Machen is the master of slow building dread and eerie atmosphere. I think that the following passage is a great example of the previous statement. "I knew, I thought, if I knew what there were to dread, I could guard against it; but here, in this lonely house, shut in on all sides by the olde......more

Every October, just before Halloween, I scan my shelves for some good fantasy/horror -- usually something from Dover Publications, who seem to have a lock on the field. This year, I read Three Impostors by the Welsh writer Arthur Machen. Although I finished the book just minutes ago, my mind is stil......more

This is a strange one, and whilst very short it took me a while to get through because the writing was quite small and the language was quite convoluted at times. The story follows two gentlemen in London, who travel around and meet other people who tell them various different stories which all becom......more