Book excerpt: Decadent, perverse and unreal, the strange stories of Arthur Machen uncover a lingering, ancestral horror, distantly remembered in the language of fairy tales, pagan lore, and in the secret old games that nurses teach to children. Deeply controversial in their own time, some of Machen's stories had to wait decades to for changing social mores to permit their publication. This new collection by Lowood Press combines all of Machen's most celebrated works in one volume. Herein are his greatest short stories, including The White People, The Great God Pan, The Bowmen and The Shining Pyramid; his semi-autobiographical novel, Hill of Dreams; and the original, complete version of The Three Impostors, with its interconnecting tales of occult intrigue. An unrivaled master of sacred terror and pioneer of the weird fiction genre, Machen's work has directly influenced such notable horror writers as H. P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, and Stephen King-but it has yet to be surpassed.