Arthur Machen THE GREAT GOD PAN + 1st 1894 + Decadent Horror + AUBREY BEARDSLEY

Description: ==URGENT UPDATE== PLEASE NOTE THAT I WILL NO LONGER SELL OUTSIDE OF THE UK AFTER 1ST FEB 2025 OWING TO EBAY'S NEW RULE WHICH WITHHOLDS PAYMENT UNTIL TWO DAYS AFTER DELIVERY. ==URGENT UPDATE== + First Impression + THE GREAT GOD PAN & THE INMOST LIGHT By Arthur Machen Publishing Details: Published by John Lane, The Bodley Head, London, 1894. 1st edn in original black grey boards with light grey decorative titles featuring an Aubrey Beardsley design of Pan figure to front and keys (symbolising the Keynotes Series) to spine and rear. Gilt titles to spine. 168pp + 4pp reviews + 16pp rear cat dated 1894, all edges rough trimmed. Condition: A very pleasing attractive copy. One small water mark to lower right corner of front board. Slight crushing to spine ends. Tiny rubs to corner tips. Endpapers tanned with minor spotting. Interior very clean, binding very firm. No inscriptions or cracking. Most of the rear catalogue remains sealed where the page edges have not been opened. These could easily be sliced open with a sharp blade. The photos are the best guide to condition. Context: Although not as famous or influential as "Frankenstein", "Dracula" or "Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde", "The Great God Pan" is both more disturbing and much better written. Admittedly the aesthetically pretentious affectations of the male protagonists can be a little off-putting, but the descriptive narrative flow holds much dark, subversive power. The stories linking the whole are nightmarish in atmosphere, building to a slow, truly shocking denouement. The femme fatale character Helen Vaughan - created via the rape of a simple adolescent girl by the pagan god Pan after she had been lobotomised by two of the aforementioned male protagonists - is perhaps the most ruthlessly predatory & immoral in English literature. Little wonder that shocked critics were left appalled and impressed in equal measure, as per the reviews quoted in the second printing of 1895. "The Great God Pan" is subversively erotic while also being spiritually critical of sexual immorality. Machen alludes to dark carnality in subtle yet clearly enthralled tones throughout the narrative, while the loftier moral message is that unfettered sexual abandon leads to dangerous, depraved outcomes. I personally view this book as falling in the same psychological territory as the poems of Charles Baudelaire, the films of David Lynch and the paintings of Edvard Munch. Anyway, a very handsome book and a very pleasing copy. Important Terms: Returns are not accepted. Books are accurately described. However, in the unlikely event that a relatively serious error in description has occurred, we will of course be happy to explore a mutually satisfactory resolution. If sent overseas, the book will be sent by Royal Mail'sInternational Tracked & Signedservice.At all stages you will be able to monitor the book's transit progress online, from dispatch to delivery. Other Rare Books: ELEGANT HORRORShas other similar titles. Please feel free to make speculative enquiries. 7.50 POSTAGE WITHIN THE UK (TRACKED) 25.00 ELSEWHERE (TRACKED AIRMAIL). + ELEGANT HORRORS + SUPERIOR CHILLS + + OFT COPIED + RARELY BETTERED +

Price: 950 GBP

Location: The Shire

End Time: 2025-02-07T23:48:44.000Z

Shipping Cost: 68.73 GBP