The Great God Pan and Other Weird Tales cover art

The Great God Pan and Other Weird Tales

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The Great God Pan and Other Weird Tales

By: Arthur Machen
Narrated by: Peter Wickham
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About this listen

Dubbed the greatest horror story in English by Stephen King, The Great God Pan is an eerie and otherworldly mystery about a diabolical operation and its terrifying repercussions. After rescuing a young woman from the streets of London, Dr. Raymond uses her as a test subject for brain surgery aimed at "lifting the veil" of reality, to see the supernatural and the "great god Pan".

The operation is a disaster and leaves the subject lobotomized. Years later, London becomes afflicted with a strange series of male suicides connected to a beautiful but sinister woman named Helen. Just who is she, and what is her connection to Dr. Raymond's failed experiment?

First published in 1890, The Great God Pan influenced many writers of the genre, including the unrivalled master H.P. Lovecraft. It makes perfect listening for a dark and rainy evening.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2017 Naxos AudioBooks Action & Adventure Classics Dark Fantasy Fantasy Ghosts Horror Scary

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All stars
Most relevant  
EDIT: THE ISSUE HAS NOW BEEN FIXED

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
Arthur Machen is legendary for a reason, and so is The Great God Pan. The stories in this collection are a great way to get a sense of Machen's work. On top of that, Peter Wickham does a great job reading, especially given Machen's proclivity for elaborate prose. HOWEVER the book is missing pieces and it makes listening an incredibly frustrating experience since chapters begin part way through the text. The result is a disorientating experience that I cannot recommend, as much as I wish I could. Please Audible, fix this and then this book would be well-worth its cost.

Great Content, Great Performance, Missing Pieces

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The Narrator of the stories was excellent, and the stories themselves are by one the masters of supernatural literature. So why only 3 stars? Weel the audiobook is a colledction of novels and short stories, including 'The Great God Pan', The Inmost Light', 'The White People' and many more. However the audiobook just divides them up into 30 or so chapters, without a clue which chapter is which story. If you bought a music CD would you think it acceptable to not know what each track was? The supplementary material gives some clue, but that just tells you what tracks are on the CD version, not the audible version. Very frustrating

Great Stories, but a familiar problem with Audible

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It begins with a deep voice telling the pan story, then most of it is a twittering male voice telling other tales. I found it all excellent to send me to sleep.

Excellent sleep stories

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Really enjoyed this one.
A new twist on legends and folklore.
And the entire atmosphere was light and refreshing, like spring while Lovecraft is more like autumn.
Just give it a try.

If you love Lovecraft but want something new...

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Contents:
The Great God Pan
The White People
The Green Book
The Inmost Light
The Novel of the Black Seal
The Novel of the White Powder
The Red Hand
The Shining Pyramid
A Fragment Of Life

The title novella, written in 1890, reviled upon its publication, is now a celebrated work of Decadent Weird fiction and holds a high seat at the table of the modern folk-horror movement. It is possibly best known for its clear and acknowledged influence upon H.P. Lovecraft (Machen is a far more elegant stylist but lacks the pulp excitement that galvanises much of Lovecraft's work). As with many of the pieces collected here, it reflects those High Victorian strains of Gothic Horror, speculative fiction and florid melodrama that were popular at the time.

Queer sort of opinion to get from a man of science

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These stories are exceptional examples of weird or uncanny fiction. The depth of imagination really shines through each tale and the delivery is mostly excellent. I find the narrator's emulation of female and working-class voices a little jarring but it's not a major issue and I've heard worse. Overall, very much recommended.

Brilliant stories wonderfully told

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Didn't really like it. All the stories and characters were very samey. Listened a few hours most days of the week while working. Have had long audio books before and been very happy listening but only made it about 2/3rds through this one before being bored silly. Can't bring myself to finish it. Wasted a credit on it but at least I didn't pay full whack for it. Some interesting early concepts in the stories regarding the hidden/spiritual world but I've read and listened to enough fantasy novels that surpass the concepts in this book while still holding my attention. The language is modern enough to make sense to me as some older texts can lose me with their overly flowery and metaphorical writing. I'd prefer to hear collected fairy and folk tales to this book. It's the opposite of H.P Lovecraft which is cosmic horror whereas this is like fantasy/mystery horror or something. Narrator isn't bad although not an expansive repertoire of voices which didn't help with the characters monotony.

Didn't like it

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This is one of my favourite audio books. I very much enjoy the style and the vocabulary. It smacked wonderfully of Sherlock Holmes. It certainly set the scene very evocative, and faintly disturbing.

The narrator was perfect for this work. I've searched under his name for other work spoken by this gentleman. A classic voice.

This audiobook has been a brilliant introduction to the work of Arthur Machen and the signposting to the work of Lovecraft. It seems I'm not very "well read" when discussing this genre.

Thank you...

Highly Recommended

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