The Secret Glory

The Secret Glory is a strange and satirical novel by Arthur Machen, written around 1907 and published in 1922. It follows Ambrose Meyrick, a sensitive and mystical schoolboy who is bullied and misunderstood at a brutal English public school, and who turns away from its worship of games and worldly success toward a private vision of beauty and the sacred. Machen uses the boy’s story both to mock the cruelty and philistinism of the schools of his day and to hint at the survival of the Holy Grail and an older, hidden Christianity. Part biting satire and part spiritual quest, it is one of his most personal and unusual books. This free PDF and EPUB offers the complete novel.