The Three Impostors by Arthur Machen

[Nemonymous]

I have just finished my review of THE THREE IMPOSTORS by Arthur Machen:
https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com...arthur-machen/
Remember, in the UK and maybe elsewhere, a Dyson is a form of hoover or vacuum cleaner.

I was stirred to re-read this because of the forthcoming Sarob Press book with three new novellas inspired by 'The Three Impostors'.

PS: I am now told that the three novellas (by John Howard, Mark Valentine and Ron Weighell) are inspired by Machen's work in general - but the Sarob Press owner called them the 'three (new) impostors'! But I am very pleased that my slight misunderstanding stirred me to re-read this amazing work by Machen after so many years.

[Stu]

I finally got round to reading The Three Impostors last year after having a copy sitting on my shelf for ages. I enjoyed it.

Sorry, that's as good as my reviews get.

[Ancient History]

Quote Originally Posted by Nemonymous

I was stirred to re-read this because of the forthcoming Sarob Press book with three new novellas inspired by 'The Three Impostors'. PS: I am now told that the three novellas (by John Howard, Mark Valentine and Ron Weighell) are inspired by Machen's work in general - but the Sarob Press owner called them the 'three (new) impostors'! But I am very pleased that my slight misunderstanding stirred me to re-read this amazing work by Machen after so many years.

I hadn't heard about this, thanks!

It's interesting to reflect on what some of the critics thought about this phase of Machen's writing - mainly that with the episodic, story-in-a-story structure he was too much aping Robert Louis Stevenson's New Arabian Nights. While that may be true, I think it works better than you might expect it to in that regard, if only because the revelation at the end - hinted at in the very title! - is so tremendous. The individual novellas are good enough to stand on their own, but gain more power when put together, which gives it a definite rise over the stitch-up novel it might otherwise have been.

[nihilsum]

I just finished reading the Three Impostors in its entirety (though I've read the "Novel of the Black Seal" and "Novel of the White Powder" chapters in their entirety beforehand). Those two stories are still two highlights of Machen's work I believe.

I still am scratching my head a bit, wondering why the impostors would take the time to tell such fabulous stories to strangers like Dyson if they're not directly related to the person whom they're searching for!

The story makes little sense, and the convoluted structure is all over the place, but its utilisation of London as a labyrinthine dream world is powerfully effective, and those two stories are gems. Machen learned from his mistakes when writing the perfect novel The Hill of Dreams and near perfect novel The Secret Glory.

[Druidic]

Interesting point. Why tell such elaborate tales of evil?

Personally, I would have liked it if Machen had implied that these stories were, in some way, true but cleverly disguised. In other words the innocent sister of the White Powder victim might be telling a tale with a kernel of truth in it: the story of how a woman led a young man to his colorful doom through the use of a rare and evil drug. In another, the "innocent victim" of a gang that kidnapped, tortured and murdered for gold might just be the gang's old leader instead...

In other words, the evil trio might just be succumbing to the urge to brag about their fabulous crimes.

Just recently I discovered Borges, in a piece he was working on at the time of his death, included the novel among his favorite 100 books.

In any case, my favorite Machen work and I've read 'em all.

[Druidic]

In Durrenmatt's brilliant "The Execution of Justice," there's a scene near the end where a horrible dwarfish woman and her giant oriental bodyguards rape a young woman in a villa surrounded by monstrous statues. Even the setting sun seems to reflect the crime.

Ah, Durrenmatt always loved his "evil fairy tales." I've wondered if that scene was an outrageous tip o' the hat to Machen's book or just a wild coincidence. (One of the reasons I had little enthusiasm for the film "The Pledge," is that element of evil was totally missing. The film reminded me of a musical work that gets all the notes right but loses all of the feeling.)

There's also an interesting scene in "The Execution of Justice," where a cult leader burns his eyes into blackish pits by intentionally staring at the Sun. When he invites his followers to do the same they run mad. It almost has a Lovecraftian feel to it, regarding the nature of Truth. Like Conrad, F. D. --to paraphrase Ligotti--"evokes" the supernatural but rarely "invokes " it.

[Druidic]

Yep, that book was an influence but I don't think it rules out the possibility that the gruesome stories could, in disguised part, be gruesomely real accounts of the Imposters baroque depravity...after all, the ghastly fate of the Young Man shows these folks weren't tyros and implies they had a history of 'artistic' atrocities.

It would have been fascinating to discuss the novel with Borges who was also a Stevenson champion.