I mean to read again this story (from The House of Souls), which seems to be passed by as a rule. If anyone wants to discuss it -- here's a place for that. Darkly Bright may be bringing out an edition of the story one of these days and I might be writing an essay to go with it.

I read the story many years ago and if my memory serves me right, it is not a horror tale (is it an autobographical fragment of Machen‘s life?). I can recall it had a very sad vibe but otherwise it made no great impression on me. The only thing I can remember is how the husband and wife were planning buying an oven or something like that for the meagre flat.

It's not a horror story. It was written independently of "The Great God Pan," "The White People," and "The Inmost Light," the other stories in The House of Souls, but it makes good sense to have it as the first, as well as the longest, story in the book. It helps to a coherent interpretation of them, or so I would probably be prepared to argue.

But I read it again yesterday and loved it. It is a major achievement. It reminded me of the epilogue of Crime and Punishment and of Sir Thomas Browne's statement, in Religio Medici, that his life was a "miracle" that must seem to be a "piece of poetry."

It might be that philosophical commitments of other ED folk would make it difficult for them to enjoy "A Fragment of Life," but it's essential for understanding Machen. Esquire magazine about 50 years ago asked two major writers "If you could ask one question about life, what would the answer be?" "No," said Eugene Ionesco. "Yes," said Isaac Bashevis Singer. For all their sense of evil, Machen, like Singer, is a yea-sayer, where the Weird Tales gang were all, I suppose, nay-sayers.