The Horned God: Weird Tales of the Great God Pan

(Paperback)

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'and then the music was so loud, so beautiful that I couldnt think of anything else. I was completely lost to the music, enveloped by melody which was part of Pan.' In 1894, Arthur Machens landmark novella The Great God Pan was published, sparking the sinister resurgence of the pagan goat god. Writers of the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, such as Oscar Wilde, E. M. Forster and Margery Lawrence, took the gods rebellious influence as inspiration to spin beguiling tales of social norms turned upside down and ancient ecological forces compelling their protagonists to ecstatic heights or bizarre dooms. Assembling ten tales and six poems along with Machens novella from the boom years of Pan-centric literature, this new collection revels in themes of queer awakening, transgression against societal bonds and the bewitching power of the wild as it explores a rapturous and culturally significant chapter in the history of weird fiction.

Author Bio

MICHAEL WHEATLEY is a practice-based researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London, whose work explores weird fiction in the age of climate crisis. He lectures at the University of Worcester and published the experimental short story collection, The Writers Block, in 2019.