Precious balms

"Precious Balms" by Arthur Machen is a collection of literary criticism and press notices written in the early 20th century. Framed by a wry introduction, it assembles chiefly adverse reviews of the author’s earlier books—alongside a few appreciative pieces—to showcase the odd sport and sociology of criticism. The likely focus is how his macabre and mystical fiction (and his critical treatise Hieroglyphics) were received, and how blame can be as instructive—and entertaining—as praise.

The opening of the volume presents a limited-edition notice, a playful letter to publisher Harry Spurr apologizing for a joking prospectus line that American readers mistook as a real prison term, and a contents list. The introduction argues that hostile reviews are invigorating, that silence is the only truly fatal verdict, and recounts notable cases—from a front-page denunciation that coyly hid the book’s title to a paper that tried to erase the author’s very existence—while praising light, witty dismissal over moralistic thunder. It then segues into a substantial run of clippings on The Great God Pan and The Three Impostors, where reviewers repeatedly call the horrors vague, indecent, derivative of Stevenson and Poe, and more laughable than terrifying. Further excerpts on Hieroglyphics attack the “ecstasy” test for literature as whimsical special pleading, while notices on The House of Souls mix admiration for one tender tale with charges of nauseous morbidity and artificial shock tactics. The section closes midstream in a long moral critique that sets “public decency” against fantasy’s license, underscoring the book’s central game: letting the critics speak, loudly and often, for themselves. (This is an automatically generated summary.)