The White People
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| The White People | |
| Author | Arthur Machen |
|---|---|
| Country | Wales |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror short story |
| Publisher | Horlick’s Magazine (serial) |
| Publication date | 1904 |
| Media type | Print (Serial, Hardcover) |
| ISBN | NA |
The White People is a short occult-fantasy story by Welsh writer Arthur Machen.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
A discussion of two men on the nature of Evil leads one of them to reveal a mysterious Green Book he possesses. It is a young girl's diary which outlines in strange and evocative writing her day to day life, and conversations with her nurse. Her book makes curious allusions to nymphs," Dols," voolas," "white, green, and scarlet ceremonies," "Aklo letters," the "Xu" and "Chian" languages, and "Mao games," among other things. The girl's tale gradually develops a mounting atmosphere of suspense with suggestions of witchcraft.
Some of the strange words and names are actual occult terms, but most were invented by Machen for the story; some were picked up by other authors of the weird in later years, notably Aklo which was used by Lovecraft in connection with the "Sabaoth" invocation in The Dunwich Horror.
[edit] Major themes
The idea of the Green Book as a false document is an old idea in the Gothic novel and is of course similar to the many such items used by H. P. Lovecraft like the Necronomicon and Wilbur Whateley's diary in The Dunwich Horror.
[edit] Literary significance and criticism
The story was written in the late 1890s as part of a longer unfinished novel, some sketches from which went into his book Ornaments in Jade.[1] Fans of supernatural fiction often cite this story as a classic in the genre[citation needed]. It is frequently reprinted. Lovecraft called it the second greatest work in weird fiction after Algernon Blackwood's The Willows[citation needed]. Lovecraft used many of Machen's strange references in the tale in his stories in the Cthulhu Mythos (the "Aklo" appears in The Dunwich Horror, for instance). Machen's own occult experiences of ritual magic in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, may form a basis for some of the ideas in the story. T. E. D. Klein's novel The Ceremonies also was heavily influenced by the story while the plot for Pan's Labyrinth also may draw on it[citation needed].
[edit] References
- Machen, Arthur (1904). The White People, 1st (serial), Horlick’s Magazine.
[edit] External links
