6 h 36 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 36 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if every stranger has a story to tell—and a reason to make you believe it?
In Arthur Machen’s The Three Impostors; or, The Transmutations, London’s fog and gaslight conceal a web of chase and deception. Dyson, a man of letters drawn to the city’s odd corners, and his cautious friend Phillipps meet a stranger. Stories follow, each asking them—and you—to decide whom to trust.
The tales lead from city streets to quiet houses and Welsh hills, where ancient powers wait beneath ordinary life. In the Novel of the White Powder, Francis Leicester’s medical treatment brings troubling change. In the Novel of the Black Seal, Professor Gregg studies strange relics and inscriptions, drawn toward knowledge that may prove dangerous.
What you’ll discover
- Stories within stories Follow different voices through nested tales, with a chase and deception linking their strange accounts.
- A city of masks Walk with Dyson and Phillipps through encounters where false names make trust a dangerous choice.
- Medicine meets the unexplained Watch Francis Leicester’s treatment lead toward changes that challenge Dr. Haberden’s training and common sense.
- Secrets in the hills Join Professor Gregg’s search among old stones, strange objects, and traces of hidden people.
- Dread beneath ordinary life Feel familiar places grow unsettling as Machen hints at powers beyond the everyday world.
Who will love it
For readers who love tales within tales, atmospheric dread and horror that hints more than it shows, with ancient powers, deceptive strangers and mysteries in gaslit London.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two friends meet a stranger in London
- Tales are nested like boxes
- A medicine changes a young man
- Old stones and hidden people in the hills
- Everyone wears a mask
- How Machen tells it
Who’s who
- DysonA man of letters who loves the odd corners of London and tries to read meaning in strange encounters.
- PhillippsDyson's friend and walking companion, more cautious and ordinary, who shares the adventure and weighs what he hears.
- Francis LeicesterA young law student in poor health whose treatment by a doctor leads to troubling change.
- Dr. HaberdenA physician who trusts his training and common sense and who must face facts that his science cannot explain.
- Professor GreggA scholar of ancient peoples and strange relics, whose curiosity draws him toward dangerous knowledge.
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- Audiobook
- 6 h 36 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Die drei Betrüger oder Die Verwandlungen
by Arthur Machen · 1895
Two friends meet a stranger on a London street, where tales of ancient powers make every voice a matter of trust.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Three Impostors is a novel made of stories that sit inside one another. Arthur Machen published it in 1895, when London was full of gaslight, fog and fashionable talk of the occult.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two friends meet a stranger in London
The frame of the book follows two gentlemen of leisure, Dyson and Phillipps. Dyson is a man of letters with a taste for odd corners of the city. Phillipps is his friend, a more cautious and ordinary companion. They are the people through whom the reader first enters the book.
Their walk through London brings them into contact with a young man in spectacles. He seems to be a person with something to say and perhaps something to hide. From this first meeting the book sets its method. A casual encounter on the pavement opens a door, and what lies behind it is stranger than the street.
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What is The Three Impostors about?
It is a novel made of linked tales. Two friends in London meet strangers who tell stories of strange medicine, ancient powers and deception. The book asks you to doubt each speaker and to look behind ordinary appearances.
When was The Three Impostors written?
Arthur Machen published it in 1895, in the years of Victorian gaslit London. It is a work of fiction, though it draws on real interests of its time such as folklore, science and the occult.
Who are Dyson and Phillipps?
They are two friends in London who form the frame of the book. Dyson is a man of letters who likes strange things. Phillipps is his more cautious companion. Through them the reader meets the stories.
The author
Arthur Machen
1863–1947 · Welsh horror and fantasy writer
Arthur Machen was a Welsh writer of supernatural fiction whose work profoundly influenced modern horror, including H. P. Lovecraft. The Great God Pan (1894), his most notorious tale, scandalized Victorian readers and is now regarded as a cornerstone of weird fiction.
More by Arthur Machen
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