The Terror, Arthur Machen
The Terror, Arthur Machen
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The Terror

Author: Arthur Machen

Narrator: Luke Harrison

Unabridged: 3 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/17/2025

Categories: Fiction, Horror, Fantasy


Synopsis

"The Terror," a gripping novel by Arthur Machen, is set against the harrowing backdrop of World War I in a rural Welsh community plagued by bizarre and horrifying occurrences. The story explores themes of fear, paranoia, and the unknown, as local residents confront unexplainable disappearances and sinister deaths that suggest a malevolent force is at play.
Machen creates an unsettling atmosphere shaped by wartime dread, immersing the reader in the pervasive anxiety of the era. In the small town of Meirion, the protagonist draws troubling connections between the chaos of war and the horrors invading his home. 
Tension escalates as the protagonist becomes obsessed with the disappearance of a child amid a string of tragic events. What should be ordinary scenes twist into the macabre, enhancing the sense of menace. 
As the novel progresses, readers encounter a landscape overshadowed by terror, with hints that these events may stem from something deeper within humanity itself. Machen invites readers to explore the darkness beneath the surface, ultimately reflecting on fear’s power to unravel ordinary life.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on August 27, 2019

This short novel may not be Machen's best work, but it is his only serious—albeit indirect—attempt to address the effects of the international trauma which I believe precipitated his literary decline: the cumulative horror of the trenches of World War I. “The Coming of the Terror,” a short story firs......more

Goodreads review by Matteo on June 06, 2022

Videorecensione: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Jim on January 30, 2022

3.5 stars. Most essential Machen work is from the 1890s, but The Terror is his most fully developed horror tale from his later career and of interest for those of us who prefer his darker fiction. This often waffling novella is meandering and less focused than his dark folk masterpieces The Hill of D......more

Goodreads review by Oscar on May 28, 2013

Esta es una de las historias menos conocidas de Arthur Machen; apenas se cita, y sin embargo es una joya imprescindible. Los hechos que se cuentan en ‘El terror’ transcurren en el año 1915, en plena Primera Guerra Mundial, cuando el mundo civilizado estaba amenazado por Alemania. Machen juega con los......more

Goodreads review by Temucano on August 10, 2025

Libro corto, de una prosa evocadora rebosante de atmósferas naturales, sombrías y misteriosas, aunque esta vez con un final más razonado, si se compara con otras cosas más etéreas del autor. Es un terror inmerso en lo más profundo de nosotros, atávico del origen de los tiempos. Quizás la idea daba p......more