Odes to Light & Shadow

Odes to Light and Shadow:
The Novels of Arthur Machen

During a prolific publishing career lasting six decades, Arthur Machen left us only five novels, each sparkling and glistening as a jewel doused in dancing tongues of firelight. Crafted by hard labor, every Machen novel is an idiosyncratic stage in the author’s lifelong quest to bring forth a sense of ecstasy and wonder. Punctuated by long gaps, the story behind these stories tell of doubt and skill, as well as failure and triumph. In the following months, we’ll be exploring these often neglected works, each crucial to the understanding of Arthur Machen as a supreme stylist and artist.

Part One:
Odyssey of the London Streets / The Anti-Occult Narrative of The Three Impostors (1895)

Part Two:
Dreamt in Fire / The Personal Odyssey of The Hill of Dreams (1907)

Part Three:
War on Earth / The Fall of Creation in The Terror (1917)

Part Four:
Worked in Clay / The Failure and Ecstasy of The Secret Glory (1922)

Part Five:
Return to the Mystic Tumulus / Periochoresis in The Green Round (1933)