The White People and Other Weird Stories
by Arthur Machen
Machen was one of the first great British writers of supernatural horror fiction. I think his greatest story is The White People
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“The White People is probably my favourite weird tale. It has a philosophical preface, with two very English people talking about the nature of sin and this and that. But the bulk of it purports to be the diary of a seventeen-year-old girl. This girl has been raised in the countryside, and her parents are absent. Her father’s alive, but he doesn’t have any time for her. She’s very alone. She doesn’t mention any friends. She pretty much just has her governess, and she spends a lot of her time rambling in the countryside. As she’s narrating events, she keeps making references to strange things…It’s clear that her governess is some kind of witch – not a sinister witch who’s trying to do anything, just someone who inherited very old practices, and because she’s in charge of her, she teaches her these things.” Read more...
“Machen was one of the first great British writers of supernatural horror fiction. He was Welsh, and wrote in the 1890s and early 20th century. He conveyed a sense of spiritual dread in a way that nobody had before. I think his greatest story is “The White People”, which is mostly in the form of an adolescent girl’s diary. Nothing is directly shown. The surface of this story is absolutely innocent, and yet the implications are quite terrifying.” Read more...
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