The Great God Pan and the Inmost Light

London: John Lane, 1894. First edition. 8vo, [vi], 2-168 plus 16pp publisher's ads at rear. Illustrated title and cover design by Aubrey Beardsley. Publisher's illustrated black cloth, spine stamped in gilt. Spine slightly cocked, spine ends and corners bruised. Pale stain to bottom edge of rear board. Former owner's name on ffep else clean and sound internally and very good.

First edition of this influential collection from the Welsh mystic and author, Arthur Llewellyn Jones, or Arthur Machen (1863-1947).  Bleiler writes in his Guide to Supernatural Fiction:

...Stevenson[ian] in style, narrative technique, and in the concept of London as a Baghdad of the Arabian Nights -- i.e., a place where anything strange might happen, and curious stories almost automatically turn up."


The title novella was in fact a big influence on H.P. Lovecraft in the coming years, especially on his famous story, The Dunwich Horror.  He openly praised Machen's work:

"No one could begin to describe the cumulative suspense and ultimate horror with which every paragraph abounds."

A cornerstone of fin de siè·cle horror fiction.  

Barron, Fantasy and Horror 199.  Bleiler 1070.  Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy Pg. 147.  .