The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen

An experiment into the sources of the human brain through the mind of a young woman has gone horribly wrong. She has seen the great God Pan and will die giving birth to a daughter, Helen Vaughan. Helen Vaughan becomes the source of much fevered speculation when, twenty years later, she is feted as a society hostess of great charm. Many men are infatuated with her beauty, but great beauty has a price, sometimes you have to pay with the only thing you have left. "The Great God Pan" was a sensation when first published in 1894. Its author, Arthur Machen, was a struggling unknown author living in London. He had translated Casanova's memoirs and was living on a small inheritance. He immediately became one of the most talked about writers of the last years of the nineteenth century.