The Angels of Mons

Description

Arthur Machen’s name rings the bell to the fans of ghost stories as the writer of the horror novella The Great God Pan. The Angels of Mons and Other Legends of the War is an extraordinary collection by the master of spooky stories, just as decadent, suspenseful and dark as his most well-known story.

The Angels of Mons contains stories about World War I. The title story is based on a legend about the British Army during the Battle of Mons and about the help that the soldiers received from a group of angels. The Battle of Mons was the first major battle fought by the outnumbered British Army against the Germans. The British were forced to retreat and with information about the defeat quickly getting out, the media was badly in need of a way to keep up the optimism of the general public.

It was Arthur Machen who rescued the situation by publishing a short story entitled The Bowmen. It featured phantom, angel-like bowmen who fought on the side of the British, devastating the German Army. Machen’s story quickly became a legend, retold again and again, giving the British hope that defeating the Germans was possible after all and helping the media in its efforts to keep up optimism related to the outcome of the War. The title story is followed by others that put the Germans into a very bad light, while presenting the British as heroes helped by other supernatural forces.

In the Preface to the collection, Machen tries to straighten his act and he informs his readers that the legend of the angels of Mons is entirely his creation. However, the belief in the angels of Mons continued and strengthened in the following years, a process sometimes helped by British officials as a means to boost the morale of the public.
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