The Inmost Light, by Arthur Machen (1892)

 The Inmost Light (1892) is notable for a few reasons.  First, it is the first appearance of Dyson, Machen’s “occult investigator”, man of science, historian of London’s underbelly, and all around fact-finder for some of the weird happenings that occur within Machen’s early weird tales.  Second, it is arguably a slightly different version or retelling of Machen’s most famous tale, The Great God Pan (written in 1890), following a very similar plot from a different perspective, or at least with a slightly different outcome and point of focus.

Dyson, who puts the pieces of the mystery within the tale together, doesn’t largely figure into the actual narrative, and calling him an occult detective or anything similar (or, at least anything similar to the likes of Quinn’s De Grandin or Hodgson’s Carnacki) would be a disservice to readers looking for something within that genre.  He frames the tale, like many of Machen’s works told in an episodic, found clues fashion, but doesn’t have any lasting impact on the proceedings beyond being incredibly lucky (or unlucky) at being at the right place at the right time.

The tale itself, in brief, follows two old friends meeting up and discussing a weird occurrence, which they between them manage to unravel.  This time around the focus is on a doctor in a small London suburb who becomes embroiled in some mischief when his wife disappears, and later is found dead.  An examining doctor does an autopsy and discovers the woman’s brain is something wholly unlike a human’s or an animal’s, and tells Dyson later on that she seemed like some sort of devil and even her corpse frightened him.  Dyson, who previously saw the woman’s monstrous face (though she’s also described as beautiful) in a second story window, manages to piece things together through luck and circumstance, eventually finding a small wooden box owned by the doctor.  Within the box are a brilliant opal and a small book detailing what became of the wife.  Like the doctor at the start of The Great God Pan, there was some sort of occult influence on the doctor as he performed some sort of vaguely defined procedure on his willing partner, somehow inviting an outside force into her body and trapping her soul within the gem.  Startled by this and the unholy light emanating from the jewel he shatters the thing and the story ends.

Again, very similar to Pan in that a young woman is made a willing vessel to something from beyond our understanding, eventually leading to her corruption and the deaths of others, though in this case on a much smaller scale and with far less reason given to the reader for the occult practices.  That said, the way in which the woman’s possession is written and the seeming aftereffects of it are far more impactful than they are in the more frankly depicted ones in Machen’s more famous work.

Nobody wrote the corruption of the innocent (both in the spiritual and physical sense) like Machen and, despite being less fleshed out, the destruction of the young woman here really shines, not because of what we’re told happens to her, but because of the coercion of the doctor and the sad willingness of his wife to be utterly ruined by something no human can understand.  Her fear, sadness, guilt, and shame is written so perfectly within a few short paragraphs (within the found notes of the doctor) that it will stick with the reader even where the more gaudy Pan doesn’t.

Why, we have to ask ourselves, do the victims in these stories so willingly go along with the practices of predatory men?  In this case, unlike in Pan, the victim seems to be told entirely what will happen, and even goes so far as to ask the doctor to kill her should the procedure succeed.  She allows the thing to happen, knowing it will kill her body and damn her soul, but why? 

Machen seems to suggest there is something sexual in the ritual, and earlier within the tale a satyr is again mentioned (another theme throughout Machen’s weird tales), while the woman’s “shame” is mentioned as well – are we to suspect another rape via an otherworldly force?  Is this the reason she welcomes the corruption, and moreover why Machen goes out of his way to describe the woman as beautiful earlier in the tale?  The reader is given just enough to ponder these questions while Dyson and the reader are, unfortunately, left in the dark.

Pundits will surely point out that Machen’s tales seem to focus on female sexuality or liberation (via penetration?) and give one the point of view of a man afraid of a woman embracing her sexuality, and while that certainly can be gleaned from the tale, I feel like it’s a short-sighted take on things and ultimately robs the reader of what truly shines within Machen’s tales.

Unlike Lovecraft’s (who was very obviously influenced by this tale in both the use of the gem and the penetrative invasion by an outside influence on humanity) external corruption, the smaller scale, internal corruption here is perfectly done and really should be read and enjoyed by any fan of weird fiction. 

Note - Despite my take on the final pages of this tale, I will say that ultimately The Great God Pan is the better story, but the victim’s destruction in this story is better written.  While they both tread similar ground, both tales are more than worth reading on their own or as considered parts of a whole.