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A riddle in a field. A message of terror. The sinister truth of a pre-human world.
Two amateur scholars and friends, Vaughan and Dyson, are enjoying a quiet country retreat when they stumble upon a chilling discovery. In a remote field, they find a pattern of small stones arranged in a precise, cryptic formation that resembles a miniature, shining pyramid. Next to it, there is a small parchment bearing a message written in an ancient, unknown language--a message clearly meant to summon aid.
Intrigued and disturbed, the friends use their scholarly knowledge of arcane languages and folklore to decipher the message. The translation reveals a terrifying tale: a young girl has been kidnapped and is being held captive by a terrifying, ritualistic cult in the hills nearby. The abductors are not ordinary humans; they are agents of the Little People, a subterranean, degenerate race that has always been the source of the darkest British folk legends.
Vaughan and Dyson quickly realize they are facing an ancient horror--a hidden race that continues the dark, pagan rites of human sacrifice. Their "shining pyramid" was a desperate plea for rescue from the victim. The two men embark on a dangerous mission to save the girl from the clutches of the grotesque, primitive cult before the final, unspeakable sacrifice can be completed.
The Shining Pyramid is a quintessential early work of Arthur Machen, perfectly fusing the atmosphere of the British countryside with the profound dread of a surviving, primeval race. It is a thrilling tale of intellectual detection leading to a confrontation with the ancient, enduring evil that lurks beneath the veneer of civilization.
A propos de l'auteur
Arthur Machen, baptized Arthur Llewellyn Jones-Machen, was a Welsh writer in the 19th and 20th centuries. He received a classical education as a boy; however, he couldn't afford to attend university, so he lived a life of relative poverty as he attempted to work in several professions before finding literary success.In 1897, Machen married his first wife, Amelia Hogg, who introduced him to A. E. White, who became close friends with Machen and helped him break into literary circles. Soon after, Machen also began receiving legacies from distant relatives, which allowed him to devote more time to writing.While he wrote fiction and nonfiction, Machen is best known for his supernatural and horror stories, which were inspired by Celtic, Roman, and medieval history as well as his own childhood in Wales. His books were popular, though his success fell after some unfortunate events-including a scandal from Oscar Wilde that hurt the reputation of the genres Machen wrote and the death of his first wife, and he was eventually forced to take on a full-time journalist position to provide for his family. This trend of success followed by poverty repeated throughout the years until an appeal was launched, naming Machen as a distinguished man of letters, which allowed him to finally live in some amount of comfort until his death in 1947.
