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A descent into isolation. A life consumed by vision. The terror and ecstasy of the inner world.
The Hill of Dreams is Arthur Machen's most poetic, deeply psychological, and arguably most important novel. It is a haunting exploration of the mind of an artist and the terrifying nature of genius and isolation.
The narrative centers on Lucian Taylor, a sensitive and solitary young man living in a crumbling cottage near an ancient, brooding Roman hill-fort in the Welsh countryside. The novel chronicles his life as he attempts to pursue a literary career while being increasingly drawn into the mystical and pagan atmosphere of the hill.
The Hill of Dreams is a foundational work of literary weird fiction, celebrated for its lyrical, dreamlike prose and its profound statement on the artist's alienation. It suggests that the greatest beauty and the most terrible horror lie not in the outside world, but in the untamed, ancient depths of the human soul.
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.
