Brightly Dark

001  Brightly Dark: The Dreadful Ecstasy of Arthur Machen

For more on Arthur Machen, visit Machen Studies & Visitations

OUT OF PRINT: The work of Arthur Machen resembles rings on a disturbed pond, each story a ripple on the surface of a mirror, briefly upsetting the illusion about us before slipping away. The placidity returns, but somehow we remember the ripple and what it briefly suggested to us. Here is a rare writer who can hold two truths in the same moment. While composing stories in a frightening vein, he could also weave pieces saturated with holy dread, that delicate and difficult art of describing man becoming undone in the face of absolute Love—that is, God revealing Himself. This paradoxical bright darkness sets Machen apart from so many better known writers of his generation. 

Brightly Dark: The Dreadful Ecstasy of Arthur Machen represents a newly curated collection which provides a rich introduction to this unique and wonderful writer. 

Contents
Fiction: The Holy Things (1908) / The Young Man in the Blue Serge Suit (1913) / Candletime (1890) / Change (1936) / Out of the Earth (1915) / Excerpt from The Terror: Chapter One (1917)
Non-Fiction: The World to Come (1908) / Excerpts from Hieroglyphics: Note & Chapter One (1902)

Published September 2017
5×8 Softcover, 104 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-36-6271188-1
Out of Print