Arthur Machen 
The Great God Pan 

The God Great Pan …

A terrifying tale about the god of wild places.

The tale opens in Wales, at the home of a scientist, Dr. Raymond, who’s explaining an upcoming experiment to his nervous friend, Clarke. Raymond’s a brain specialist, a student of ‘transcendental medicine, ‘ who intends to operate on a seventeen-year-old girl named Mary; he’ll sever a part of her brain tissue so that she may ‘lift the veil’ and see a more profound, spiritual world. There are risks, perhaps, but according to Raymond, ‘I rescued Mary from the gutter, and from almost certain starvation, when she was a child; I think her life is mine, to use as I see fit.’ He performs the operation, and after a moment of apparently seeing some exalted vision and then absolute horror, Mary’s left with profound mental retardation.

Several years later, Clarke is living in London, severely affected by Raymond’s experience; he shuns the supernatural and everything that is not commonplace – except for an attempt to compile a book of ‘Memoirs to Prove the Existence of the Devil, ‘ which has led him to acquire accounts of the life of a girl named Helen V., a girl adopted in a village on the border of Wales. Over the course of some years, Helen was seen having odd dealings with strange little men from a nearby forest, later leading another girl to a strange encounter in the woods, then leaving the village mysteriously. The scene then shifts to a man named Villiers, who encounters an old friend named Charles Herbert, in some way ruined or driven half-mad by his wife, who has since abandoned him. Villiers investigates Herbert’s case, learning more about his peculiar wife, and discusses the matter with Clarke, who happens to be Villiers’ friend; Clarke recognizes a picture of Herbert’s estranged wife as very nearly the image of Raymond’s Mary. Villiers discusses the strange situation with his friend, Austin, and discovers that Mrs. Herbert was in some way involved in the mysterious death of a talented painter in South America.