-
- Ritual and Other
Stories
- by Arthur Machen
- With an Introduction by R.B.
Russell
-
- 'The Flower-Tunicked Priest of Nightmare', Arthur
Machen (1863-1947) is best known for his horror and supernatural fiction
and has been a cult writer since the 1890s. The publication of this
revised third edition of Ritual and Other
Stories reflects the continued interest in Machen's work,
and collects together his more elusive short fiction. Through the
publication of Ritual and its companion
'best of' volume Tales of Horror and the
Supernatural, Tartarus has now reissued all Machen's short
stories in accessible form.
-
- As R.B. Russell writes in his new Introduction,
'the great strength of Ritual is that it spans Machen's career and
thus reveals his development as a writer'. As well as two early pieces
from the 1880s, Ritual contains from the
1890s stories that compare well with Machen's better-known decadent
work, such as The Great God Pan. These include
the exquisite prose-poem 'Rus in Urbe' (1890), and the stories from the
Ornaments in Jade collection, written in the
1890s but not published until 1924. Machen's much underrated later work
is represented by, amongst others, 'The Tree of Life' (1936), 'one of
the most sympathetic stories Machen ever wrote', and the title story
'Ritual', which although written in 1937 'could have been penned at any
time in his career, and is undeniably Machen at his best'.
-
- Ritual & Other
Stories contains:
- The Priest and the Barber, The Spagyric Quest of
Beroaldus Cosmopolita, The Town of Long Ago, Candletime, Cidermas, Over
the Gate, Of the Isle of Shadows, A Further Account of the Academy of
Lagado, Tales from Barataria, Sir John's Chef, Rus in Urbe, By the
Brook, The Autophone, The Brook Farm, A Remarkable Coincidence, A Double
Return, A Wonderful Woman, The Lost Club, An Underground Adventure,
Jocelyn's Escape, The Red Hand, The Rose Garden, The Turanians, The
Idealist, Witchcraft, The Ceremony, Psychology, Torture, Midsummer,
Nature, Holy Things, The Young Man in the Blue Suit, The Soldiers' Rest,
The Monstrance, The Dazzling Light, The Little Nations, The Men from
Troy, The Light That Can Never Be Put Out, Drake's Drum, A New Christmas
Carol, 7B Coney Court, Munitions of War, The Gift of Tongues, The
Islington Mystery, Johnny Double, The Cosy Room, Awaking, Opening the
Door, The Compliments of the Season, The Dover Road, The Exalted Omega,
The Tree of Life, Out of the Picture, Change, Ritual.
-
-
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- Ritual & Other Stories
is a sewn hardback book of 382+viii pages with silk
ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w.
-
- Fourth edition. ISBN 9781872621272
- It
is also available as an ebook.
-
-
- Reviews:
-
- Stories of
the macabre exert their pull from Hallowe'en onwards, such as
the stories of Arthur Machen, republished by Tartarus Press in
handsome editions, made for reading by a flickering fire. -
Suzi Feay, The Independent
(29/10/05)
-
- The Guardian reviews
our edition of Ritual and
Other Stories
-
- If you
want an overall picture of Machen the man . . . secure a copy of
Ritual from
Tartarus while stocks last. - Reggie Oliver,
All Hallows
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- Offering
genuine emotion and passages that reach the ecstasy for which
Machen so often attained, Ritual and Other Stories
delights and disturbs in equal
measure, embodying within its bewitching narratives an
alchemist's brew of wisdom and wonder. - William
P. Simmons, Cemetary
Dance
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-
  
- Five titles by Arthur Machen in print from the
Tartarus Press (from top left): The Secret of the Sangraal & Other
Writings, Dreads and
Drolls,
Ritual and Other Stories, The Hill
of Dreams,
and Tales of Horror and the
Supernatural.
Page updated 5th September 2009
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