Wednesday 1 February 2012

The Three Impostors by Arthur Machen, The Everyman Library edition.

Far more of a challenge than your typical novel, this is the story of three men too absorbed by their own literary interests to realise the truth, or otherwise, of the events unfolding around them. These are Dyson, in thrall to his own imagination, Phillipps, an adherent to science, and Russell, who simply considers himself a realist.
  Structurally based upon R. L. Stevenson’s ‘New Arabian Nights,’ thirteen chapters here act as anecdotal short stories, delivered to Dyson and Phillipps by supporting characters inveigling upon them their recent plights, and on whom we – and they – must trail to decide upon the truth of their motive and intent. If this sounds dry, it is only because to describe it effectively at all on one reading is in itself a challenge.
It’s necessary to place the work in the context of its time.
  First published in 1895, this era of supposed ‘decadence’ amongst the monied classes incrementally seeps through our consciousness. For though only sketched, Dyson, Phillipps and Russell still evoke the lazy wit, diffidence and nonchalance of stoned Sixties rock stars. They seem to live for kicks, their own amusement, and little else. They appear bored, dissolute and need adventure. Only, there is the growing, unnerving feeling in this reader that Dyson in particular cares only for the sating of this need over and above the fate of those who may require his help. Machen doesn’t force us to believe this; he simply plays it out. Such progress through the dark makes the work – if not entirely successful – the page-turner it needs to be.
  So, what’s interesting is what author Machen himself thinks of their status. Is he contemptuous of the three? - not obviously. Does he approve of their self-absorption? - it is never made clear. (As literary impostors, who are they pretending to be?) A clue might lay in the work he released in its wake. The novel ‘The Hill of Dreams’ (1897) may be the longest suicide note in history, in its part-autobiographical depiction of a failing writer whose talent and unique personal vision is overlooked to the point where madness fatally perverts whatever it was he’d earlier harboured. Here, the author seems to be predicting his own fate; what may – and may yet – happen to him if he listens to all those who think he should give up his art and get a ‘proper job.’
  Oh, how we can relate to it…
This was also, remember, the time of Chesterton’s sledgehammer metaphors in ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’ and ‘The Club of Queer Trades,’ and Belloc’s satirical sketches. So, it is possible Machen - to a certain extent – is satirising himself and his generation in the former book.
  Two anecdotal ‘stories’ in particular have co-existed in neat isolation from the rest of ‘The Three Impostors’ for at least the last seventy years. Both ‘The Novel of the Black Seal’ and ‘The Novel of the White Powder’ episodes have rightly made countless horror anthologies through the 20th Century and done so again in the imminent, and welcome, Penguin Classics reissue, ‘The White People & Other Weird Stories.’ With their contemporary themes of archaeological intrusion and unchallenged drug addiction resonating down the decades, Lovecraft, Howard and their offspring have been milking those particular seams ever since.

3 comments:

  1. Man I'm bummed! I'm in the middle of "Hill of Dreams" right now and was wondering where it was going. Now I know! LOL. I HAVE read "The Three Impostors" and liked it. Machen is very much a predecessor to modern weird fiction, more so I believe than Blackwood. The only thing that weakens his impact is that in our jaded times we have seen every kind of decadence imaginable, and then some, so when he hints at it in his work it just doesn't have any firepower. It's not unspeakable any more. I'm about a third of the way though his collected Kindle works. Lots of material! Looking forward to the rest. I just found your blog through Weirdfictionreview.com and am enjoying it!

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  2. Cheers, 'Unknown'; and thank you for being my first commenter. Yes, I've always considered 'Hill Of Dreams' as something of a warning to we writers, tho' he's spot on with the 'when-are-you-going-to-get-a-proper-job' attitude of the main character's detractors. Obviously autobiographical. Would be interested to know what you make of Machen's short fiction. I agree that the decadence hasn't whethered the last hundred years, but the real beauty of his prose remains.

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  3. And I thought the Three Impostors referred to the three sadistic folk in pursuit of the young man with spectacles. It does open with them farewelling their various disguises and pseudonyms. I just finished the story, and adored it... I had previously read 'Black Seal' and 'White Powder', but they were given a whole added dimension as a result of the whole ghastly tale.

    It seems proper to revisit the prologue after you finish the last chapter.

    "Well," said the girl, "it is done at last. I shall hurry no more on the track of the young man with spectacles."

    "We owe a great deal to you," said Mr. Davies politely; "the doctor said so before he left. But have we not all three some farewells to make? I, for my part, propose to say good-by, here, before this picturesque but mouldy residence, to my friend Mr. Burton, dealer in the antique and curious," and the man lifted his hat with an exaggerated bow.

    "And I," said Richmond, "bid adieu to Mr. Wilkins, the private secretary, whose company has, I confess, become a little tedious."

    "Farewell to Miss Lally, and to Miss Leicester also," said the girl, making as she spoke a delicious courtesy. "Farewell to all occult adventure; the farce is played."

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