Where is (neo-)romanticism in modern fiction?

[Extollager]

But I think Machen became more a horror writer....

I don't much like The Hill of Dreams, and I have mixed feelings about some of his well-known horror stories, but Machen's first autobiographical book especially, Far-Off Things, is a favorite. Of course this wasn't recent -- and that's what you asked about, not books 90 years old.

 

[Randy M.]

Machen's "Hill of Dreams" I would certainly place in the Romantic camp (I first heard of it in another book on Paul Nash, funnily enough). In fact, its basic plot -- isolated teenage boy has weird, sort-of erotic experience in a place where ancient history and nature combine, and then wastes away the rest of his truncated life pining for whatever it was he may or may not have experienced -- might seem to be almost a parody of the Romantic because it ticks all its boxes so well. (The description almost fits the plot of Kearney's A Different Kingdom too.) But I think Machen became more a horror writer and from what I know, his influence seems to have been felt more by people like Lovecraft.

I'm far from a Machen scholar, but that wasn't the impression I received while reading Tales of Horror and the Supernatural. The earlier work felt more like horror ("The Great God Pan"; "The Novel of the Black Seal") while the later stories in the collection felt more like a kind of ecstatic (?) fantasy with horrific moments, and a reversion to the occasional horrific tale ("N" -- which seems like a precursor to the "cozy catastrophe" novels of the 1950s).

After reading that and The Three Imposters, I'm more of a mind that Machen was a fantasist whose works occasionally move into the horrific because while he's open to nature, he doesn't see it as without danger. From that perspective, Mythago Wood is Machen-like fantasy with horror-like moments, while Adam Nevill's The Ritual and Phil Rickman's Curfew are Machen-like horror novels.

I haven't read The Hill of Dreams yet, but your plot summary reminds me of M. John Harrison's The Course of the Heart, which I thought a powerful novel. It doesn't really tie to Machen's perspective on nature, but to Machen's approach to the numinous, in this case enriching or maybe infecting the lives of Harrison's protagonists.


Randy M.

 

[HareBrain]

Thanks Randy. You've certainly read more Machen than I have. I'm not sure I'd recommend Hill of Dreams -- I found the first part haunting, but from about halfway through it became a real slog, with no dialogue and (it seemed from my skimming of it) lots of misery. Thanks for the Harrison recommendation -- reviews of The Course of the Heart suggest it's definitely worth a read.

 

[svalbard]

I have given this a lot of thought over the last few days(maybe too much). In film, a different medium to what we are discussing, I think elements of Terence Malik's movies falls under the genre. His use of nature in his movies, lack of dialogue, long lingering shots, use of colour are all there to be considered. Although many find his movies pretentious, even boring (understandable)I would be a big fan.

 

[Liese]

Some books by Juliet Marillier as "Wildwood Dancing" come into my mind.
Actually, I think all retellings of fairy tales would count, as the collecting and polishing of fairy tales was a central part of romanticism.

If you read French I recommend the books by Anne Fakhouri. Heavily influenced by romanticism: "classic" fairies, the sandman in his darker aspects...