© Text Publishers, 2002
The Blessing of Pan is told from the perspective of Elderick Anwrel, the mild-mannered reverend of the community of Wolding. Anwrel is increasingly disturbed by a haunting, compelling tune played by a boy, Tommy Duffin, who has fashioned a pipe made from reeds. The tune, as the story unfolds, exercises an unwholesome influence on the population of Wolding. First the young women, then the young men, and then the other inhabitants – even Anwrel’s wife – are compelled to dance to the tune of the pipes on nearby Wold Hill; atop which is a megalithic site, the “Old Stones of Wolding”. Finally, Anwrel himself joins the people in their revelry, performing a pagan sacrifice. Anwrel is very much a part of the local community, but he is also tormented over what is happening to his flock and feels increasingly estranged from his community. This feeling is not reciprocal, however. Rather, the people of Wolding, if anything, are sorry for his lack of understanding...
Although The Blessing of Pan is at its heart concerned with the conflict between industrial modernity and the romanticising of nature, its unfolding throughout the novel is not overt – there is a quiet inevitability in Pan’s spreading influence over the community.
G. P. Putnam’s Sons 1927
Translated into: Russian
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