Black Crusade [Arthur Machen]

[GOAT] [Horror] [Classic]

Black Crusade

Arthur Machen

Corgi Books, London. 1966. Paperback edition. This is a fairly worn copy; creases to front and rear cover, yellowing to text block, some water staining near the beginning of the text some foxing. Boards are attached, delicately, but attached. 

"Three people, two men and a woman, are leaving a suburban house where, quite clearly, they hve been about some unpleasant business. We do not learn the exact nature of that business until the book's last appalling paragraphs, but it is typical that the least perturbed of the three conspirators should be a pretty girl, and that the neat paper she holds in her hand should be dripping with blood. She has cut off a finger, it appears, as she partially unfolds the appear to show the others, from somebody's right hand, and this finger will do nicely, she suggests gaily, for the doctor's museum".

Is Machen the best? Maybe. This book certainly pushes the case along. Exceedingly rare stuff, available for a good price.