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The Red Hand
Arthur Llewelyn Jones (1863-1947) who wrote under the pen name Arthur Machen was a leading Welsh author. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is also well known for his leading role in creating the legend of The Angels of Mons (1915). In 1884, he published the pastiche The Anatomy of Tobacco, and secured work with the publisher and bookseller George Redway. Around 1890, Machen began to publish in literary magazines, writing stories influenced by the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, some of which used gothic or fantastic themes. This led to his first major success, The Great God Pan. From the beginning of his literary career, he espoused a mystical belief that the humdrum ordinary world hid a more mysterious and strange world beyond. His gothic and decadent works of the 1890s concluded that the lifting of this veil could lead to madness, sex, or death, and usually a combination of all three. He also wrote The Three Impostors, The Terror, The Inmost Light, The White People, The Novel of the Black Seal, The Novel of the White Powder, The Red Hand, A Fragment of Life, The Shining Pyramid and A New Christmas Carol.
52 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1895
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About the author
Arthur Machen
1,055 books983 followersArthur Machen was a leading Welsh author of the 1890s. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His long story The Great God Pan made him famous and controversial in his lifetime, but The Hill of Dreams is generally considered his masterpiece. He also is well known for his leading role in creating the legend of the Angels of Mons.
At the age of eleven, Machen boarded at Hereford Cathedral School, where he received an excellent classical education. Family poverty ruled out attendance at university, and Machen was sent to London, where he sat exams to attend medical school but failed to get in. Machen, however, showed literary promise, publishing in 1881 a long poem "Eleusinia" on the subject of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Returning to London, he lived in relative poverty, attempting to work as a journalist, as a publisher's clerk, and as a children's tutor while writing in the evening and going on long rambling walks across London.
In 1884 he published his second work, the pastiche The Anatomy of Tobacco, and secured work with the publisher and bookseller George Redway as a cataloguer and magazine editor. This led to further work as a translator from French, translating the Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre, Le Moyen de Parvenir (Fantastic Tales) of Béroalde de Verville, and the Memoirs of Casanova. Machen's translations in a spirited English style became standard ones for many years.
Around 1890 Machen began to publish in literary magazines, writing stories influenced by the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, some of which used gothic or fantastic themes. This led to his first major success, The Great God Pan. It was published in 1894 by John Lane in the noted Keynotes Series, which was part of the growing aesthetic movement of the time. Machen's story was widely denounced for its sexual and horrific content and subsequently sold well, going into a second edition.
Machen next produced The Three Impostors, a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895. The novel and the stories within it were eventually to be regarded as among Machen's best works. However, following the scandal surrounding Oscar Wilde later that year, Machen's association with works of decadent horror made it difficult for him to find a publisher for new works. Thus, though he would write some of his greatest works over the next few years, some were published much later. These included The Hill of Dreams, Hieroglyphics, A Fragment of Life, the story The White People, and the stories which make up Ornaments in Jade.
At the age of eleven, Machen boarded at Hereford Cathedral School, where he received an excellent classical education. Family poverty ruled out attendance at university, and Machen was sent to London, where he sat exams to attend medical school but failed to get in. Machen, however, showed literary promise, publishing in 1881 a long poem "Eleusinia" on the subject of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Returning to London, he lived in relative poverty, attempting to work as a journalist, as a publisher's clerk, and as a children's tutor while writing in the evening and going on long rambling walks across London.
In 1884 he published his second work, the pastiche The Anatomy of Tobacco, and secured work with the publisher and bookseller George Redway as a cataloguer and magazine editor. This led to further work as a translator from French, translating the Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre, Le Moyen de Parvenir (Fantastic Tales) of Béroalde de Verville, and the Memoirs of Casanova. Machen's translations in a spirited English style became standard ones for many years.
Around 1890 Machen began to publish in literary magazines, writing stories influenced by the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, some of which used gothic or fantastic themes. This led to his first major success, The Great God Pan. It was published in 1894 by John Lane in the noted Keynotes Series, which was part of the growing aesthetic movement of the time. Machen's story was widely denounced for its sexual and horrific content and subsequently sold well, going into a second edition.
Machen next produced The Three Impostors, a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895. The novel and the stories within it were eventually to be regarded as among Machen's best works. However, following the scandal surrounding Oscar Wilde later that year, Machen's association with works of decadent horror made it difficult for him to find a publisher for new works. Thus, though he would write some of his greatest works over the next few years, some were published much later. These included The Hill of Dreams, Hieroglyphics, A Fragment of Life, the story The White People, and the stories which make up Ornaments in Jade.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
May 8, 2020
Dyson and Phillips are after the murder of Dr. Thomas Vivian. The murder of Vivian's was a mystery and they have to solve it, that's pretty much about the story, they found some clue but couldn't solve the real reason of the murder scene and the ending was kind of mystical. Quite a read I would say...
April 22, 2016
Älskar Arthur Machen! Den är bra, men inte alls lika hänförande som "Den store guden Pan". Fortfarande mystisk, lite läskig och spännande.
July 12, 2020
I go upon the theory of improbability. The theory is unknown to you? I will explain. Don't you see that two lines which are not parallel are gradually approaching one another, drawing nearer and nearer to a point of meeting, till at last they do meet, and improbability has vanished altogether?
The Red Hand might be Machen's weakest work. It stars Dyson and Phillips, a pair of sleuths who also appear in The Three Impostors (which is, btw, my favorite novel ever). However, I found this short story, or novella, a bit boring and overly long. The unsettling conclusion makes up for it a little, though.
Incidentally, Machen's phraseology and overall style sound a lot like Oscar Wilde. But Machen would probably disavow it, anyway.
The Red Hand might be Machen's weakest work. It stars Dyson and Phillips, a pair of sleuths who also appear in The Three Impostors (which is, btw, my favorite novel ever). However, I found this short story, or novella, a bit boring and overly long. The unsettling conclusion makes up for it a little, though.
Incidentally, Machen's phraseology and overall style sound a lot like Oscar Wilde. But Machen would probably disavow it, anyway.
February 19, 2018
Recommended for Arthur Machen completists. This novella stars Dyson and Phillips, recurring characters in Machen's work who are self-important antiquarians who can be at times stupefyingly naive or deductively brilliant as suits Machen's purpose. The mystery in this tale is set up convincingly and I read quickly, wanting to know what was going on. I found the ending a bit of a letdown - you might not. If you haven't read anything with Dyson and Phillips, The Three Imposters might be a better place to start.
November 12, 2021
An interesting crypto-anthropological whodunit. But the "return on the track of evolution" quotation is an indicator of an ignorant credulity vis-à-vis an au courant Darwinism which Machen's smarter contemporary A.C.D. admirably resisted.
Note: Evolution has only been proven to produces entropic variation and not anti-entropic progression. In fact, the reductio ad absurdum progression surmise is the reason evolution (in the Darwinian context) remains only a theory.
Note: Evolution has only been proven to produces entropic variation and not anti-entropic progression. In fact, the reductio ad absurdum progression surmise is the reason evolution (in the Darwinian context) remains only a theory.
August 16, 2022
I'm a big fan of Arthur Machen and hadn't read this short story. I must say it's not Machen's best work, though it has its moments. There is the aspect of ancient, malevolent forces in the story, however these intriguing moments are overshadowed by what felt like Machen's attempt to do a Sherlock Holmes type story, which took away from what could have been a good horror tale. It's still an okay read, just don't go in expecting anything on the level of his other works
August 4, 2012
Another in the books by Arthur Machen that were mentioned by H.P. Lovecraft in his essay Supernatural Horror and which is being read aloud by the podcast of the same name. I am really enjoying these Machen stories even more than Lovecraft's and it is very easy to see his influence upon H.P.
March 3, 2013
Sir Thomas Vivian is murdered, apparently with an ancient stone axe, and the image of a red hand close by remains the strangest of clues for Dyson and Phillips...
Can be read on-line: http://www.strangeark.com/cryptoficti...
Can be read on-line: http://www.strangeark.com/cryptoficti...
December 22, 2020
Most short stories from Arthur Machen, contrary to what some collections might tell you, are not really horror stories. If anything, they are poorly concealed mystery stories in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, failing to approach the fun and personality of the mystery series that it so avidly borrows from. "The Red Hand" is an easily disposable mystery story without good characters, good twists, or creative scenarios. It has some nice prose and a few pronounced moments of unsettling images (the vividly unsettling "red hand" comes to mind), but, outside of these two minor pleasantries, this short story has little to offer its readers.
December 1, 2024
Πολύ καλό διήγημα, όμως υπάρχει και "αλλά". Έχει όλα τα στοιχεία του είδους: Κοσμικός τρόμος, προαιώνια μυστικά, ένας μυστήριος κόσμος στις σκιές πίσω από τον πραγματικό. Ακολουθεί τη φόρμα του αστυνομικού μυστηρίου whodunnit. Και το τέλος βρίσκει τον αναγνώστη χωρίς σαφείς απαντήσεις για το κίνητρο διάπραξης της δολοφονίας, που μένει στην δική του ερμηνεία. Δυστυχώς.
November 8, 2018
Machen continues with his "little people" being a separate, lost, mystical race of humans from a bygone era as a cause of all human misery. And here we have a murder mystery thrown in with a rather shoddy, hand-waving resolution at the end.
My Rating - 2/5
My Rating - 2/5
March 7, 2018
Probably too contrived for modern tastes but very entertaining.
December 20, 2019
Not one of Machen's best, but has that aura of pagan mystery I enjoy about his works.
March 17, 2023
Sama w sobie jest ok ale zaczynam zauważać że wszystkie książki tego gościa są zbyt podobne, mają ten sam format
May 18, 2025
Not as good as Pan
February 12, 2017
A pretty early, pretty wordy, supernatural short story, which is free kindle at the moment. Machen [1863-1947] also wrote horror.
November 2, 2011
I enjoyed this short story by Machen. I feel like the unravelling of the murder mystery was interesting and involving. Add to that the dynamic of a touch of the supernatural and I found it quite entertaining.
February 18, 2014
Quite innovative - and in some respects unsettling - mystery
March 2, 2014
Although a very interesting premise, this story was a bit of a disappointment. I think I expected the earlier magic, which seemed absent from this. It seemed too contrived.
August 16, 2016
Not as good as the Great God Pan, but a fairly intriguing story none the less.
August 22, 2016
Not Machen's best by any means. But a nice mystery.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews