<b>The Hill of Dreams</b> is a semi-autobiographical novel by the Welsh writer <b>Arthur Machen</b>.<br />The novel recounts the life of a young man, Lucian Taylor, focusing on his dreamy childhood in rural Wales, in a town based on Caerleon. The Hill of Dreams of the title is an old Roman fort where Lucian has strange sensual visions, including ones of the town in the time of Roman Britain. Later, the novel describes Lucian&#39;s attempts to make a living as an author in London, enduring poverty and suffering in the pursuit of art and history.<br /><br /><b>Arthur Machen </b>(3 March 1863 &ndash; 15 December 1947) was the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century.<br />He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella <b>The Great God Pan</b>&nbsp;has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror, with Stephen King describing it as &quot;<i>maybe the best horror story in the English language</i>&quot;.<br />He is also well known for <b>The Bowmen</b>, a short story that was widely read as fact, creating the legend of the Angels of Mons.