The White People and Other Weird Stories by Arthur Machen

Trade paperback format.  Foreword by Guillermo del Toro, Introduction & notes by S. T. Joshi.

Classic tales of the fantastic, creepy and weird, with a foreword from the award-winning director of The Shape of Water Guillermo Del Toro 

Machen’s weird tales of the creepy and fantastic finally come to Penguin Classics. With an introduction from S.T. Joshi, editor of American Supernatural Tales, The White People and Other Weird Stories is the perfect introduction to the father of weird fiction.

The title story “The White People” is an exercise in the bizarre leaving the reader disoriented and on edge. From the first page, Machen turns even fundamental truths upside-down, as his character Ambrose explains, “there have been those who have sounded the very depths of sin, who all their lives have never done an ‘ill deed'” setting the stage for a tale entirely without logic.

"As a selection of ‘weird’ short stories, The White People is a fine example of the precursor to what has become a popular subgenre of fantasy fiction, as well as a window on to the spiritual concerns of the Welsh author Arthur Machen (1863-1947): the veil separating the phenomenal world and the supernal realm is thin. While we may have forgotten the rituals, spells, charms and wards once used to commune with the spirits, the spirits have not forgotten us."

— Times Literary Supplement