Arthur Machen had an a substantial career as a novelist and storyteller, but nothing he did in the course of a lifetime made the impact he made in 1890 with _The Great God Pan._ The tale literally caused a furor in London -- for it seemed to many readers to bring horror and prurient sexuality together in a way that echoed their moment, foreshadowing the decadence of our own. In Supernatural Horror in Literature, H. P. Lovecraft praised the story, saying: "No one could begin to describe the cumulative suspense and ultimate horror with which every paragraph abounds"; he added that "the sensitive reader" reaches the end with "an appreciative shudder."