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Title: The Hill of Dreams
Author: Arthur Machen
Narrator: Arthur Vincet
Format: Unabridged
Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
Language: English
Release date: 04-13-17
Publisher: Audioliterature
Genres: Classics, World Literature
Publisher's Summary:
Generally by now thought to be Machen's greatest work, the novel, published in 1907, recounts the life of a young man, Lucian Taylor, focusing on his dreamy childhood in rural Wales, in a town based on Caerleon. "The Hill of Dreams" of the title is an old Roman fort where Lucian has strange sensual visions, including ones of the town in the time of Roman Britain. Later it describes Lucian's attempts to make a living as an author in London, enduring poverty and suffering in the pursuit of art.
©2017 Audioliterature (P)2017 Audioliterature
Members Reviews:
I had never read Arthur Machen before. This book ...
I had never read Arthur Machen before. This book lives up to its title. The dreamworld is both dark, vivid, and strange. And the main character is definitely an archetypal tortured artist that most of us creative folk can very much relate to. And I did not expect it to end the way it did. Well worth the read.
Pleasantly Surprised
Thought this book was out of print, but was pleasantly surprised that it was available for ordering. Bought as a gift & recipient was elated at my purchase. Packed sufficiently enough & arrived rather quickly. Great job!
Arthur Machen's autobiographic masterpiece
Arthur Machen, one of the 20th Century's most talented writers of supernatural horror fiction, published Hill of Dreams, his autobiographic novel, in 1907. The novel concerns a gifted young writer, Lucien Taylor, whose calling to write great (not just good) works of literature dooms him to self-destruction.
The novel follows Lucien's life from boyhood until his mid-twenties. Lucien grows up in a rural village in Wales near the ruins of an ancient Roman fortress (Machen himself grew up in Caerleon, Wales near the ruins of the Roman citadel, Isca Silurum). While exploring these ruins, Lucien undergoes a mystical awakening and becomes fascinated with ancient Roman culture, paganism and the supernatural. His imagination is so captured, it is only a matter of time until he starts to write fiction with supernatural and pagan themes.
While still in his teens, Lucien sends a manuscript to a publishing firm. The publisher rejects the manuscript. A few months later, Lucien purchases a newly-published novel which contains entire chapters lifted from his "rejected" manuscript. Saddened and angered, Lucien again wanders to the Roman ruins. There, he happens to meet a neighbor girl and has a sexual encounter which he associates with the fauns and nymphs of Roman mythology.
Lucien's imagination is so active that the border between reality and fantasy is sometimes blurred. In an effort to reach new heights of imagination and expression, Lucien begins to induce mystic experiences and trances. He dabbles in the occult, engages in masochistic rituals and starves himself to induce visions. His neighbors and relatives notice the changes in Lucien and encourage him to eat, to get plenty of rest, to give up writing and to pursue a real occupation.
Unexpectedly, Lucien receives an inheritance which enables him to move to London and devote himself to writing full time. By this time, Lucien is caught in a downward spiral of increasingly disturbing visions, induced by a number of unhealthy methods. He manages to completely erase the border between fantasy and reality, but ironically, he has so disabled himself that he can no longer write coherently.
Machen's story reads almost like poetry and is told in an artful, subtle fashion.
