The Great God Pan: A Quick Read edition

Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read.
This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter.
- Reading time of the complete text: about 2 hours
- Reading time of the summarized text: 7 minutes

"The Great God Pan" is a novella written by Arthur Machen in 1890. The story is about a doctor named Raymond who performs an experiment to open the mind of a patient to experience the spiritual world. The experiment results in the patient becoming an "idiot". Years later, a woman named Helen Vaughan causes mysterious happenings in her town. It is revealed that Helen was the wife of a man named Herbert, who died of fright after seeing something in their home. Helen disappears and is later found to have taken part in disturbing orgies in the Americas. The novella has been classified as Gothic horror, science fiction, and Decadent literature. It has influenced the work of horror writers such as Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King. Machen's inspiration for the story came from his childhood visits to the ruined Roman temple at Caerwent, which he believed was dedicated to the god Nodens. The novella has been adapted for the stage twice and has been highly influential on the circle of writers around H. P. Lovecraft.