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The Book of Wonder
Come with me, ladies and gentlemen who are in any wise weary of London: come with me: and those that tire at all of the world we know: for we have new worlds here. In the morning of his two hundred and fiftieth year Shepperalk the centaur went to the golden coffer, wherein the treasure of the centaurs was, and taking from it the hoarded amulet that his father, Jyshak, in the years of his prime, had hammered from mountain gold and set with opals bartered from the gnomes, he put it upon his wrist, and said no word, but walked from his mother’s cavern. And he took with him too that clarion of the centaurs, that famous silver horn, that in its time had summoned to surrender seventeen cities of Man, and for twenty years had brayed at star-girt walls in the Siege of Tholdenblarna, the citadel of the gods, what time the centaurs waged their fabulous war and were not broken by any force of arms, but retreated slowly in a cloud of dust before the final miracle of the gods that They brought in Their desperate need from Their ultimate armoury. He took it and strode away, and his mother only sighed and let him go.
41 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1912
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About the author
Lord Dunsany
648 books803 followersEdward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, eighteenth baron of Dunsany, was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist, notable for his work in fantasy published under the name Lord Dunsany. More than eighty books of his work were published, and his oeuvre includes hundreds of short stories, as well as successful plays, novels and essays. Born to one of the oldest titles in the Irish peerage, he lived much of his life at perhaps Ireland's longest-inhabited home, Dunsany Castle near Tara, received an honourary doctorate from Trinity College, and died in Dublin.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 125 reviews
November 3, 2011
Geek that I am I actually read this to prepare for the Tolkien Professor’s Faerie & Fantasy podcast seminar that covers the book. I am rather conflicted about Dunsany in general and this book in particular. After finishing the first half I found that _The Book of Wonder_ more or less confirmed for me my initial impressions of Dunsany gathered when I first read _The Hashish Man and Other Stories_ many years ago. Namely that while Dunsany is an excellent prose stylist and creator of many arresting images in his short tales there is still something missing. The missing elements are pretty major: plot and character. Of the first few stories only “The Bride of the Man-Horse” and “Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance” struck me with their images and ideas in a meaningful way, the others came across more as fragments that may have presented some interesting imagery, but they were not enough to really maintain my interest. As I continued on with the second half of the book, however, I started to feel that maybe these arresting images were enough and the stories seemed to gather more steam.
In many ways Dunsany, in his short tales at least, has always been for me less a writer and more a painter of prose pictures. Many of his tales from _The Book of Wonder_ are probably best taken in conjunction with the lush and beautiful drawings of them made by Sydney Sime since it often felt to me like they didn’t really have a beginning or an end, though they generally gave me a vivid picture of some arresting image or idea. Whether this was the gloomy house of the doomed Sphinx, the majestic and exhilarating ride of the centaur Shepperalk, or the final hopeless venture of the thief Thangobrid we are given by Dunsany what amounts to a painting in words, but it isn’t a story (or it is only part of one). When a writer like Tolkien makes an offhand reference to some other place or person in his tales it carries with it the weight of a true tale and the depth of history, we know that it isn’t merely a colourful name inserted for flavour…with Dunsany I do not always get this impression.
The comparison to pictures is instructive in that it points out both Dunsany’s strengths and his weaknesses. He is a vivid writer of poetic prose, able to evoke emotions and an almost painful nostalgia for the magical and the dreamlike, a yearning for what has been, or soon will be, lost. On the other hand he can be, at his worst, two dimensional. I think this is why I have always preferred Dunsany’s longer works such as _The Charwoman’s Shadow_ or _The King of Elfland’s Daughter_ to his shorter ones. In these longer works he is constrained by the demands of his form to have at least the semblance of plot and character and even the minimal skeleton he builds in this regard is enough to carry his lush prose and beautiful images beyond being mere pictures. They now have context that makes the heartsick longing meaningful.
And yet…and yet. As I finished this volume I kept coming back to the ability of Dunsany as a prose stylist. At first I was content with the thought that I should simply treat my visits to his work as a trip to a fantastic museum where I would be treated to some startling paintings; or better yet a sampling from the amuses bouches of a master confectioner that may give me food for thought and a sip from an inexplicable draught, but for real nourishment I would have to look elsewhere. As I finished the volume, however, I felt that I had to perhaps re-evaluate this position. Tales like “The Hoard of the Gibbelins”, “How Nuth would have Practiced his Art upon the Gnoles”, “How One Came, as was Foretold, to the City of Never”, and especially the somewhat thematically twinned tales “The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap“ and “The Wonderful Window” either seemed to come together more coherently as stories or had such well expressed ideas and images of wonder that I had to admit that Dunsany had achieved something meaningful here.
I still think that if I want lush prose and vivid, weird imagery I am more likely to go to Clark Ashton Smith, who married these strengths to more elements of plot and character than I am likely to find in Dunsany, but I am starting to see that perhaps I am merely expecting something from Dunsany’s tales that he never intended to deliver, and that his contribution to the genre as a founder and necessary first step can’t be denied.
In many ways Dunsany, in his short tales at least, has always been for me less a writer and more a painter of prose pictures. Many of his tales from _The Book of Wonder_ are probably best taken in conjunction with the lush and beautiful drawings of them made by Sydney Sime since it often felt to me like they didn’t really have a beginning or an end, though they generally gave me a vivid picture of some arresting image or idea. Whether this was the gloomy house of the doomed Sphinx, the majestic and exhilarating ride of the centaur Shepperalk, or the final hopeless venture of the thief Thangobrid we are given by Dunsany what amounts to a painting in words, but it isn’t a story (or it is only part of one). When a writer like Tolkien makes an offhand reference to some other place or person in his tales it carries with it the weight of a true tale and the depth of history, we know that it isn’t merely a colourful name inserted for flavour…with Dunsany I do not always get this impression.
The comparison to pictures is instructive in that it points out both Dunsany’s strengths and his weaknesses. He is a vivid writer of poetic prose, able to evoke emotions and an almost painful nostalgia for the magical and the dreamlike, a yearning for what has been, or soon will be, lost. On the other hand he can be, at his worst, two dimensional. I think this is why I have always preferred Dunsany’s longer works such as _The Charwoman’s Shadow_ or _The King of Elfland’s Daughter_ to his shorter ones. In these longer works he is constrained by the demands of his form to have at least the semblance of plot and character and even the minimal skeleton he builds in this regard is enough to carry his lush prose and beautiful images beyond being mere pictures. They now have context that makes the heartsick longing meaningful.
And yet…and yet. As I finished this volume I kept coming back to the ability of Dunsany as a prose stylist. At first I was content with the thought that I should simply treat my visits to his work as a trip to a fantastic museum where I would be treated to some startling paintings; or better yet a sampling from the amuses bouches of a master confectioner that may give me food for thought and a sip from an inexplicable draught, but for real nourishment I would have to look elsewhere. As I finished the volume, however, I felt that I had to perhaps re-evaluate this position. Tales like “The Hoard of the Gibbelins”, “How Nuth would have Practiced his Art upon the Gnoles”, “How One Came, as was Foretold, to the City of Never”, and especially the somewhat thematically twinned tales “The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap“ and “The Wonderful Window” either seemed to come together more coherently as stories or had such well expressed ideas and images of wonder that I had to admit that Dunsany had achieved something meaningful here.
I still think that if I want lush prose and vivid, weird imagery I am more likely to go to Clark Ashton Smith, who married these strengths to more elements of plot and character than I am likely to find in Dunsany, but I am starting to see that perhaps I am merely expecting something from Dunsany’s tales that he never intended to deliver, and that his contribution to the genre as a founder and necessary first step can’t be denied.
January 28, 2019
Da grande lettore di H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith e J. R. R. Tolkien, come non potevo leggere qualcosa di Lord Dunsany, diciamo il punto di inizio, del fantasy classico?
Così la mia ricerca mi ha portato a questo libro: "Il libro delle meraviglie", preso in biblioteca, perchè è fuori catalogo da anni ormai e nell'usato si fatica a trovarlo, anzi penso sia introvabile.
Quindi un ringraziamento alle biblioteche, grandi spazi della nostra cultura...
Inizio a leggerlo, ma c'è qualcosa che mi distrae, allora lo chiudo e lo lascio lì in bella vista per un futuro più roseo. Intanto leggo altro, ma questo libro è sempre lì che cerca di farsi notare, come a dirmi: "Dai, perchè mi hai lasciato qui, così?". Cerco di non farci caso, perchè leggere un libro, soprattutto un libro di questo genere, in un momento non adatto, rovinerebbe tutto. Così passano i giorni e si avvicina la data per riportarlo in biblioteca. Lo riprendo, lo sfoglio, provo a leggere qualche pagina e sembra essersi acceso uno spiraglio in lontananza, che mi da speranza. Continuo, e lo spiraglio diventa sempre più visibile, tanto che...
Insomma questo libro mi ha aperto mondi straordinari, si differenzia da Lovecraft (forse il suo massimo estimatore), dal fatto che quello che Lovecraft ne fa fulcro dei suoi racconti, il terrore, in Dunsany è, bellezza.
Sembra pazzesco che due autori così diversi, per concetto, si siano trovati ed abbiano collaborato ampiamente.
I racconti qui raccolti, sono librati in aria, come stare in un mondo dove l'attrazione gravitazionale non c'è, sono così eterei, di primo achito forse anche evanescenti, ma racchiudono tutto ciò che è il sogno. Ci porta sul palmo della sua mano, o sul tappeto volante e lui, Dunsany, ci racconta di queste avventure fantastiche, visionarie, oniriche, con una delicatezza rara.
Per chi ama il fantastico, penso che questa sia un'opera imprescindibile, consigliato!
Così la mia ricerca mi ha portato a questo libro: "Il libro delle meraviglie", preso in biblioteca, perchè è fuori catalogo da anni ormai e nell'usato si fatica a trovarlo, anzi penso sia introvabile.
Quindi un ringraziamento alle biblioteche, grandi spazi della nostra cultura...
Inizio a leggerlo, ma c'è qualcosa che mi distrae, allora lo chiudo e lo lascio lì in bella vista per un futuro più roseo. Intanto leggo altro, ma questo libro è sempre lì che cerca di farsi notare, come a dirmi: "Dai, perchè mi hai lasciato qui, così?". Cerco di non farci caso, perchè leggere un libro, soprattutto un libro di questo genere, in un momento non adatto, rovinerebbe tutto. Così passano i giorni e si avvicina la data per riportarlo in biblioteca. Lo riprendo, lo sfoglio, provo a leggere qualche pagina e sembra essersi acceso uno spiraglio in lontananza, che mi da speranza. Continuo, e lo spiraglio diventa sempre più visibile, tanto che...
Insomma questo libro mi ha aperto mondi straordinari, si differenzia da Lovecraft (forse il suo massimo estimatore), dal fatto che quello che Lovecraft ne fa fulcro dei suoi racconti, il terrore, in Dunsany è, bellezza.
Sembra pazzesco che due autori così diversi, per concetto, si siano trovati ed abbiano collaborato ampiamente.
I racconti qui raccolti, sono librati in aria, come stare in un mondo dove l'attrazione gravitazionale non c'è, sono così eterei, di primo achito forse anche evanescenti, ma racchiudono tutto ciò che è il sogno. Ci porta sul palmo della sua mano, o sul tappeto volante e lui, Dunsany, ci racconta di queste avventure fantastiche, visionarie, oniriche, con una delicatezza rara.
Per chi ama il fantastico, penso che questa sia un'opera imprescindibile, consigliato!
May 1, 2019
Take the worst kind of second rate fantasy and the worst kind of Alice in Wonderland nonsense, and it turns out two wrongs do make a right :) . This isn't amazing but it does work. The best part is that so many of the tales feel allegorical.. except your never quite sure what they're allegories of :lol .
I also don't think these tales should be read in order, at least for me the best section is a run of three stories near the end, 'City of Never', 'Coronation of Mr.Shap', 'Chu-Bu and Sheemish'.
I was also quite impressed that two of the tales appear to be about online gaming addiction, i didn't even know they played Warcraft in the 1920s :P , or perhaps that's another allegory i misinterpreted ;) .
I also don't think these tales should be read in order, at least for me the best section is a run of three stories near the end, 'City of Never', 'Coronation of Mr.Shap', 'Chu-Bu and Sheemish'.
I was also quite impressed that two of the tales appear to be about online gaming addiction, i didn't even know they played Warcraft in the 1920s :P , or perhaps that's another allegory i misinterpreted ;) .
July 30, 2019
Dunsany possibly at his peak -- this is a short collection of short stories (mostly in the 3-4 page range) and vignettes, but what stories they are, all told in Dunsany's poetic, King James-inflected prose.
Highlights include Distressing Tale of Thanogbrind the Jeweller, Probable Adventures of the Three Literary Men, Chu-bu and Sheemish and, of course, The Hoard of the Gibbelins.
If you're only going to read one Dunsany collection, this is probably the one to pick. (With The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories as a close second and reasonable alternative.)
Highlights include Distressing Tale of Thanogbrind the Jeweller, Probable Adventures of the Three Literary Men, Chu-bu and Sheemish and, of course, The Hoard of the Gibbelins.
If you're only going to read one Dunsany collection, this is probably the one to pick. (With The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories as a close second and reasonable alternative.)
October 18, 2020
Horrible.
Read
March 22, 2019A succinct book review, so you have more time left for reading books!
You will be drowned in an ocean of prose, and you will like it, because it will feel like breathing in for the first time the scent of the sweet honey blossoms of the tree of eternal youth and pleasantness in the realm of the great god Fa-deed-dl-dee-da which is inhibited only by the most beautiful and short-lived butterflies and one vicious guard dog that has torn to shreds exactly nine and one-half humans and one unfortunate katydid.
You will be drowned in an ocean of prose, and you will like it, because it will feel like breathing in for the first time the scent of the sweet honey blossoms of the tree of eternal youth and pleasantness in the realm of the great god Fa-deed-dl-dee-da which is inhibited only by the most beautiful and short-lived butterflies and one vicious guard dog that has torn to shreds exactly nine and one-half humans and one unfortunate katydid.
February 28, 2016
Some of the stories are okay, but in many cases they feel a little dated. The ones about politics, however, are quite funny.
July 30, 2019
Wonder, Irony, Horror, Poetry, and Fantasy
“Come with me, ladies and gentlemen who are in any wise weary of London: come with me: and those that tire at all of the world we know: for we have new worlds here.”
That's the preface of Lord Dunsany’s The Book of Wonder (1912). The fourteen short stories following his invitation are full of fanciful wonder, whimsical irony, sly horror, rich imagination, and poetic style. They explore and transcend the boundaries between the “real” world of London and careers and business etc. and the “imaginary” world of Faerie and gods and monsters etc., usually depicting protagonists who undertake some impossible feat of “Romance.” There is a centaur, a pirate, a troubadour, an idolator, an idol, a young man from Sussex, a straight-laced young lady of London, two bored businessmen of London, and several thieves. Sometimes the heroes and anti-heroes fail in their essays, but even or especially then their attempts are sublime.
Here is an annotated list of the stories.
In “The Bride of the Man-Horse,” a lusty young centaur takes up the legendary war-horn of his people and sets off across “the mundane plane” and past numerous cities on a quest to win Sombelene, the mortal daughter of a half-centaur, half-god father and a half-sphinx, half-lioness mother.
After opening with an ominous cough, “The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweler, and of the Doom that Befell Him” recounts how Thangobrind took up his sword Mouse and tried to steal the Dead Man’s Diamond (reputed to always find its way back home) from its spider idol maker.
In “The House of the Sphinx” the narrator escapes a malevolent forest by seeking refuge in the House of the Sphinx, whose paramour is Time and children gods, only to find that the flimsy door of the House can’t protect the resigned Sphinx from an imperious and ghastly doom.
“The Probable Adventure of the Three Literary Men” features three thieves sent by their nomadic poem-less tribe to steal a gold box full of choice poems. When pursued by a giant implacable guardian, is it better to flee, hide, or jump over the edge of the world?
After offending the etiquette of the gods in "The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo the Idolator," Pombo turns iconoclast till an arch idolater tells him about a Little Disreputable God residing at the edge of the world.
“The Loot of Bombasharna” features pirate captain Shard, his ship the Desperate Lark, the beautiful city Bombasharna (looking “far off like a pearl, shimmering still in its haliotis shell, still wet from the sea”), the Queen of the South, and a floating island.
In “Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance” a staid young upper-class London lady is ravished away by a gold dragon out of the prime of romance, and, forgetting advertisements for pills and political cant, defeats time with her kidnapper.
Because the icy beautiful queen (like “a sun-stricken mountain uplifted alone”) in “The Quest of the Queen’s Tears” will only marry the man who can make her cry, the troubadour-king Ackronnion embarks on a quest to collect the tears of the Gladsome Beast.
In “The Hoard of the Gibbelins” Alderic, famed Knight of the Order of the City and the Assault and hereditary Guardian of the King’s Peace of Mind, decides to rob the absurdly rich Gibbelins, who “eat, as is well known, nothing less good than man.”
In “How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles” a “likely lad” is taken by his master thief teacher into Faerie to rob the dread gnoles, ignoring ominous portents like “the skeleton of some early Georgian [fairy] poacher nailed to the door in an oak tree.”
"How One Came, as Was Foretold, to the City of Never" recounts how a lad from Surrey flies off on a hippogriff in search of the City of Never in wonder’s native haunt, twilight. But isn’t there a fairer city and “a deed unaccomplished”?
In “The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap” a “plausible” man of business escapes the beastliness of his London life by building a beautiful fantasy city, and then, “unwisely insatiate,” annexes all lands of wonder.
"Chu-Bu and Sheemish" depicts the rivalry between the established idol Chu-Bu and the upstart idol Sheemish, whom the priests one day start worshiping. “The situation called for immediate miracles,” like an earthquake.
One day in “The Wonderful Window” a young man of business, who’s liable to gaze into the distance as if “the walls of the emporium were of gossamer and London itself a myth,” buys a window from a mysterious man (who bought it in Baghdad and installs it in the young man’s flat) and starts looking through the window at a golden city full of dragons dancing on flags.
Dunsany could write--
--pure ecstasy: “For joy he was as a song.”
--cool poetry: “The wind blew bleak from the stars.”
--dry humor: “There the Gibbelins lived and discreditably fed.”
--creepy horror: “The moment that Tonker touched the withered boards, the silence that, though ominous, was earthly, became unearthly like the touch of a ghoul.”
--cosmic horror: “falling from us still through the unreverberate blackness of the abyss.”
--philosophical questioning: “For who knows of madness whether it is divine or whether it be of the pit?”
--and beautiful fantasy: “Built of a stone unknown in the world we tread were its bastions, quarried we know not where, but called by the gnomes abyx, it so flashed back to the twilight its glories, colour for colour, that none can say of them where their boundary is, and which the eternal twilight, and which the City of Never; they are the twin-born children, the fairest daughters of Wonder.”
I listened to two LibriVox audiobook readings of Dunsany’s book, and much preferred the reading of Sandra Cullum, who has a clear and appealing manner and British accent. Her reading surprised me with the pleasure (to the point of grinning) of Dunsany’s prose. I also found online and was mesmerized by Sydney Sime’s detailed, decadent, and beautiful drawings that apparently inspired Dunsany’s stories.
Fans of imaginative fantasy and rich style should find Dunsany’s writing wonderful, as Tolkien and Lovecraft did.
“Come with me, ladies and gentlemen who are in any wise weary of London: come with me: and those that tire at all of the world we know: for we have new worlds here.”
That's the preface of Lord Dunsany’s The Book of Wonder (1912). The fourteen short stories following his invitation are full of fanciful wonder, whimsical irony, sly horror, rich imagination, and poetic style. They explore and transcend the boundaries between the “real” world of London and careers and business etc. and the “imaginary” world of Faerie and gods and monsters etc., usually depicting protagonists who undertake some impossible feat of “Romance.” There is a centaur, a pirate, a troubadour, an idolator, an idol, a young man from Sussex, a straight-laced young lady of London, two bored businessmen of London, and several thieves. Sometimes the heroes and anti-heroes fail in their essays, but even or especially then their attempts are sublime.
Here is an annotated list of the stories.
In “The Bride of the Man-Horse,” a lusty young centaur takes up the legendary war-horn of his people and sets off across “the mundane plane” and past numerous cities on a quest to win Sombelene, the mortal daughter of a half-centaur, half-god father and a half-sphinx, half-lioness mother.
After opening with an ominous cough, “The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweler, and of the Doom that Befell Him” recounts how Thangobrind took up his sword Mouse and tried to steal the Dead Man’s Diamond (reputed to always find its way back home) from its spider idol maker.
In “The House of the Sphinx” the narrator escapes a malevolent forest by seeking refuge in the House of the Sphinx, whose paramour is Time and children gods, only to find that the flimsy door of the House can’t protect the resigned Sphinx from an imperious and ghastly doom.
“The Probable Adventure of the Three Literary Men” features three thieves sent by their nomadic poem-less tribe to steal a gold box full of choice poems. When pursued by a giant implacable guardian, is it better to flee, hide, or jump over the edge of the world?
After offending the etiquette of the gods in "The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo the Idolator," Pombo turns iconoclast till an arch idolater tells him about a Little Disreputable God residing at the edge of the world.
“The Loot of Bombasharna” features pirate captain Shard, his ship the Desperate Lark, the beautiful city Bombasharna (looking “far off like a pearl, shimmering still in its haliotis shell, still wet from the sea”), the Queen of the South, and a floating island.
In “Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance” a staid young upper-class London lady is ravished away by a gold dragon out of the prime of romance, and, forgetting advertisements for pills and political cant, defeats time with her kidnapper.
Because the icy beautiful queen (like “a sun-stricken mountain uplifted alone”) in “The Quest of the Queen’s Tears” will only marry the man who can make her cry, the troubadour-king Ackronnion embarks on a quest to collect the tears of the Gladsome Beast.
In “The Hoard of the Gibbelins” Alderic, famed Knight of the Order of the City and the Assault and hereditary Guardian of the King’s Peace of Mind, decides to rob the absurdly rich Gibbelins, who “eat, as is well known, nothing less good than man.”
In “How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles” a “likely lad” is taken by his master thief teacher into Faerie to rob the dread gnoles, ignoring ominous portents like “the skeleton of some early Georgian [fairy] poacher nailed to the door in an oak tree.”
"How One Came, as Was Foretold, to the City of Never" recounts how a lad from Surrey flies off on a hippogriff in search of the City of Never in wonder’s native haunt, twilight. But isn’t there a fairer city and “a deed unaccomplished”?
In “The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap” a “plausible” man of business escapes the beastliness of his London life by building a beautiful fantasy city, and then, “unwisely insatiate,” annexes all lands of wonder.
"Chu-Bu and Sheemish" depicts the rivalry between the established idol Chu-Bu and the upstart idol Sheemish, whom the priests one day start worshiping. “The situation called for immediate miracles,” like an earthquake.
One day in “The Wonderful Window” a young man of business, who’s liable to gaze into the distance as if “the walls of the emporium were of gossamer and London itself a myth,” buys a window from a mysterious man (who bought it in Baghdad and installs it in the young man’s flat) and starts looking through the window at a golden city full of dragons dancing on flags.
Dunsany could write--
--pure ecstasy: “For joy he was as a song.”
--cool poetry: “The wind blew bleak from the stars.”
--dry humor: “There the Gibbelins lived and discreditably fed.”
--creepy horror: “The moment that Tonker touched the withered boards, the silence that, though ominous, was earthly, became unearthly like the touch of a ghoul.”
--cosmic horror: “falling from us still through the unreverberate blackness of the abyss.”
--philosophical questioning: “For who knows of madness whether it is divine or whether it be of the pit?”
--and beautiful fantasy: “Built of a stone unknown in the world we tread were its bastions, quarried we know not where, but called by the gnomes abyx, it so flashed back to the twilight its glories, colour for colour, that none can say of them where their boundary is, and which the eternal twilight, and which the City of Never; they are the twin-born children, the fairest daughters of Wonder.”
I listened to two LibriVox audiobook readings of Dunsany’s book, and much preferred the reading of Sandra Cullum, who has a clear and appealing manner and British accent. Her reading surprised me with the pleasure (to the point of grinning) of Dunsany’s prose. I also found online and was mesmerized by Sydney Sime’s detailed, decadent, and beautiful drawings that apparently inspired Dunsany’s stories.
Fans of imaginative fantasy and rich style should find Dunsany’s writing wonderful, as Tolkien and Lovecraft did.
October 18, 2016
Ritratto di un sognatore...
September 22, 2009
This is the thrid book I've read by Lord Dunsany, and he has quickly moved into my top five best authors list. This book is similar to "Time and the Gods", in that it's more of a collection of shorts than a novel. Everyone of them was awesome, I particularly liked the stories that involved men who got a glimpse of the fantastical realms that Dunsany created and then decided to leave the world we know. Also, there were several stories that did not have happy endings, which I really enjoyed.
Dunsany tells his tales with such elegance, he writes with a classic style that I have come to treasure. It is this elegant style, so difficult to find and impossible to recreate these days, that gives his prose magic.
Dunsany tells his tales with such elegance, he writes with a classic style that I have come to treasure. It is this elegant style, so difficult to find and impossible to recreate these days, that gives his prose magic.
April 16, 2015
Dunsany's magic is palpable in all elements in his stories. These short stories, in some cases, left me wanting for more, in others, I was rather bored and just wanting it to end. I believe that were Dunsany truly shines is when he creates a vast world where his characters can evolve and more than that, affect the world where they live and also affect the magic. In most books, magic has an effect in the world; with Dunsany, magic is so present, that characters can affect its course, its power and also its appearance. I love Dunsany's work!
January 12, 2020
Absolutely charming. Highly recommended.
February 19, 2022
This review contains no spoilers.
As a lifelong fan of fantasy fiction, I had, of course, heard of Lord Dunsany's work, but I'd never read any of it. I needed a low-cost book to wrap up a gift card order about a month ago, and I spotted this low-cost leaflet. Seemed like a wonderful opportunity to see what the buzz around this progenitor of the genre was all about, so I threw it in the cart.
The book consists of 14 short stories, and they are *extremely* short. In the version I had, most stories were about 4 pages long, and the longest ones were perhaps 6 pages. It is rather shocking, though, how much imagination and, well, *wonder* Lord Dunsany is able to inject into such small packages. You can really see why masters of fantasy like Tolkien and Le Guin are said to have drawn inspiration from this foundational author's work. A number of the stories read like starter tales, little teasers that are nowhere close to being fully fleshed out but nevertheless explode in your head with pure creativity.
Packed into these tiny stories are other delights: heroic character names (Alderic, Thangobrind, Shepperalk), fascinating place names (Bombasharna, the pits of Snood, the city of Zretazoola), and intriguing magical quests and artifacts (the Dead Man's Diamond, the Quest of the Golden Box, the Hoard of the Gibbelins). Many of these are the focus of their particular stories, and others are simply mentioned in passing. It's those brief references that really inflamed my imagination. They imply a vast catalog of adventure that lurks in Dunsany's head, which is both amazing and inspiring.
Of all the stories, my very favorite was "The Quest of the Queen's Tears". I also thought the hilarious "Chu-Bu and Sheemish" was delightful. I liked both stories so much I asked my wife to read them (and she enjoyed them, too). "The Wonderful Window," which concludes the volume, was excellent, as well. The others were fine, and many of them had fascinating little twists, which was surprising in such small stories.
Overall, I'd say this isn't a must-read collection but it's a worth-reading collection. There's enough going on here to entertain you without your having to invest too much reading time to do so. If you envision creating similar worlds of wonder of your own, you might even be inspired by the boundless creativity of these tales. I will likely keep my eyes peeled for future deals on other stories by the fascinating Lord Dunsany.
As a lifelong fan of fantasy fiction, I had, of course, heard of Lord Dunsany's work, but I'd never read any of it. I needed a low-cost book to wrap up a gift card order about a month ago, and I spotted this low-cost leaflet. Seemed like a wonderful opportunity to see what the buzz around this progenitor of the genre was all about, so I threw it in the cart.
The book consists of 14 short stories, and they are *extremely* short. In the version I had, most stories were about 4 pages long, and the longest ones were perhaps 6 pages. It is rather shocking, though, how much imagination and, well, *wonder* Lord Dunsany is able to inject into such small packages. You can really see why masters of fantasy like Tolkien and Le Guin are said to have drawn inspiration from this foundational author's work. A number of the stories read like starter tales, little teasers that are nowhere close to being fully fleshed out but nevertheless explode in your head with pure creativity.
Packed into these tiny stories are other delights: heroic character names (Alderic, Thangobrind, Shepperalk), fascinating place names (Bombasharna, the pits of Snood, the city of Zretazoola), and intriguing magical quests and artifacts (the Dead Man's Diamond, the Quest of the Golden Box, the Hoard of the Gibbelins). Many of these are the focus of their particular stories, and others are simply mentioned in passing. It's those brief references that really inflamed my imagination. They imply a vast catalog of adventure that lurks in Dunsany's head, which is both amazing and inspiring.
Of all the stories, my very favorite was "The Quest of the Queen's Tears". I also thought the hilarious "Chu-Bu and Sheemish" was delightful. I liked both stories so much I asked my wife to read them (and she enjoyed them, too). "The Wonderful Window," which concludes the volume, was excellent, as well. The others were fine, and many of them had fascinating little twists, which was surprising in such small stories.
Overall, I'd say this isn't a must-read collection but it's a worth-reading collection. There's enough going on here to entertain you without your having to invest too much reading time to do so. If you envision creating similar worlds of wonder of your own, you might even be inspired by the boundless creativity of these tales. I will likely keep my eyes peeled for future deals on other stories by the fascinating Lord Dunsany.
July 28, 2017
Classic fantasy from one of the great masters. Published in 1912, this was not the first nor the last book of short stories from Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (what a moniker that was!) It was, however the only one that was created with the illustrations done first. Sidney Sime, who illustrated many of Dunsany's works, had complained that he always had to draw what the editors wanted. Supposedly Dunsany told Sime to draw what he liked, and the stories could be invented based on the illustrations. So it was done.
Alas, the ebook version I borrowed did not have the illustrations, and I'm going to have to go looking for them as the stories are mostly "wonders" indeed. Using the florid language of his time and especially that of fantasy writers at that time, Dunsany created marvelous names and places, and turned what might have been ordinary events into magical phenomena.
Among those I found particularly memorable were these:
"The Quest of the Queen's Tears"
"The Hoard of the Gibbelins"
"How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles"
and "Chu-Bu and Sheemish"
However, each of the fourteen stories has its merits. Oftentimes the endings are not what you expect. Dunsany definitely didn't promise a "happily ever after" to every fairy tale. Irony, tragedy, mockery, and simple justice are all in evidence here. Rather than leave spoilers, I won't reveal any of the endings. This is a book to be taken slowly and carefully, with consideration of each tale.
Alas, the ebook version I borrowed did not have the illustrations, and I'm going to have to go looking for them as the stories are mostly "wonders" indeed. Using the florid language of his time and especially that of fantasy writers at that time, Dunsany created marvelous names and places, and turned what might have been ordinary events into magical phenomena.
Among those I found particularly memorable were these:
"The Quest of the Queen's Tears"
"The Hoard of the Gibbelins"
"How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles"
and "Chu-Bu and Sheemish"
However, each of the fourteen stories has its merits. Oftentimes the endings are not what you expect. Dunsany definitely didn't promise a "happily ever after" to every fairy tale. Irony, tragedy, mockery, and simple justice are all in evidence here. Rather than leave spoilers, I won't reveal any of the endings. This is a book to be taken slowly and carefully, with consideration of each tale.
maybe
March 6, 2014CONTENTS
PREFACE
THE BRIDE OF THE MAN-HORSE
DISTRESSING TALE OF THANGOBRIND THE JEWELLER
THE HOUSE OF THE SPHINX
PROBABLE ADVENTURE OF THE THREE LITERARY MEN
THE INJUDICIOUS PRAYERS OF POMBO THE IDOLATER
THE LOOT OF BOMBASHARNA
MISS CUBBIDGE AND THE DRAGON OF ROMANCE
THE QUEST OF THE QUEEN'S TEARS
THE HOARD OF THE GIBBELINS
HOW NUTH WOULD HAVE PRACTISED HIS ART UPON THE GNOLES
HOW ONE CAME, AS WAS FORETOLD, TO THE CITY OF NEVER
THE CORONATION OF MR. THOMAS SHAP
CHU-BU AND SHEEMISH
THE WONDERFUL WINDOW
EPILOGUE
April 7, 2024
He sang of the malignity of time
Maybe more like 3 1/2, but I'm giving it a bump up because I could see the clear influences on Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser) and Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories. (And for those stories me must be thankful.) My previous encounter with Dunsany, beyond the short novels (The Charwoman's Shadow and The King of Elfland's Daughter), was a Penguin selected stories (In the Land of Time and Other Fantasy Tales), which was edited by Dunsany and Weird Fiction scholar S.T. Joshi. Interestingly Joshi is somewhat dismissive of this collection, saying that this collection was at heart a deliberate parody of Dusany's previous high fantasy style. I have no idea, though I've seen high praise from (the great) Ursula K. Le Guin, so I consider the better guide in this instance.
I enjoyed most of the 14 or so stories well enough. Some of them seemed awfully sligh, there were times I wondered if Dunsany was simply cleaning out his desk. I don't think there's a story longer than 7 pages, and most are 5 pages long or less. That said, some goofy names aside, they are always entertaining. You just wish with a few of them that he had developed them into longer pieces. Overall the theme across most of the stories seems to be the effects of time, even on the escapes of human imagination. I was surprised at the darkness in many of these stories. Some of them bordered on Horror. But there are some delightful ones as well. My favorite story, and arguably the center piece of the collection, is "Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance," which balances out Dunsany's critique of Modernity and the necessary escape via the Imagination. The ending, with its sad "Pop" strikes me as exactly Dunsany wanted to make with this collection. Other favorites: "The Wonderful Window," "The Coronation of Thomas Shap," "The Quest of the Queen's Tears," and (the funny) "Chu-Bu and Sheemish."
(Note: I read this collection in the Kindle Delphi omnibus collection for Lord Dunsany. Probably no longer 100 - 120 pages.)
Maybe more like 3 1/2, but I'm giving it a bump up because I could see the clear influences on Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser) and Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories. (And for those stories me must be thankful.) My previous encounter with Dunsany, beyond the short novels (The Charwoman's Shadow and The King of Elfland's Daughter), was a Penguin selected stories (In the Land of Time and Other Fantasy Tales), which was edited by Dunsany and Weird Fiction scholar S.T. Joshi. Interestingly Joshi is somewhat dismissive of this collection, saying that this collection was at heart a deliberate parody of Dusany's previous high fantasy style. I have no idea, though I've seen high praise from (the great) Ursula K. Le Guin, so I consider the better guide in this instance.
I enjoyed most of the 14 or so stories well enough. Some of them seemed awfully sligh, there were times I wondered if Dunsany was simply cleaning out his desk. I don't think there's a story longer than 7 pages, and most are 5 pages long or less. That said, some goofy names aside, they are always entertaining. You just wish with a few of them that he had developed them into longer pieces. Overall the theme across most of the stories seems to be the effects of time, even on the escapes of human imagination. I was surprised at the darkness in many of these stories. Some of them bordered on Horror. But there are some delightful ones as well. My favorite story, and arguably the center piece of the collection, is "Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance," which balances out Dunsany's critique of Modernity and the necessary escape via the Imagination. The ending, with its sad "Pop" strikes me as exactly Dunsany wanted to make with this collection. Other favorites: "The Wonderful Window," "The Coronation of Thomas Shap," "The Quest of the Queen's Tears," and (the funny) "Chu-Bu and Sheemish."
(Note: I read this collection in the Kindle Delphi omnibus collection for Lord Dunsany. Probably no longer 100 - 120 pages.)
December 3, 2020
Este libro contiene catorce relatos de fantasía, todos ubicados en un mismo mundo. Seguimos a criaturas diferentes, desde centauros, dragones, humanos, entre otros. Las historias son completamente diferentes y poseen la personalidad de cada uno de sus protagonistas.
Sin embargo, hay algo que no me terminó de cerrar de este libro y de estos cuentos. Hay algo muy fuerte en ellos y es la forma de retratar o de hablar de las mujeres. No me molesta el hecho de que la mayoría de los protagonistas son hombres, sino la forma en que éstos tratan a las mujeres: tomándolas del pelo, secuestrándolas, etc. Se entiende bastante debido a la época en la que fue escrito y el contexto al que pertenece. Sin embargo, me es imposible ver el libro bajo mis propios ojos.
Además, algunos de los cuentos me parecieron un poco... vacíos. Están llenos de acción y de aventura pero, al final, no me cuentan nada. No me agregan mucho en lo relacionado al mundo, ni me dejan reflexionando, mucho menos me dejan sorprendida al final o con emoción alguna. Solo... igual que cuando comencé a leerlos. Y esto, para mí, es lo peor que me puede suceder al momento de leer. Peor, incluso, que el trato de la mujer. Porque eso puede adjudicarse al worldbuildin y la sociedad (cuestionable) pero que un libro no me cause nada... eso no se quita de ninguna manera.
Las ilustraciones son preciosas y la edición está muy cuidada. Son para leer una tarde tomando mate, o cualquier otra cosa, para escapar del mundo y nada más.
Sin embargo, hay algo que no me terminó de cerrar de este libro y de estos cuentos. Hay algo muy fuerte en ellos y es la forma de retratar o de hablar de las mujeres. No me molesta el hecho de que la mayoría de los protagonistas son hombres, sino la forma en que éstos tratan a las mujeres: tomándolas del pelo, secuestrándolas, etc. Se entiende bastante debido a la época en la que fue escrito y el contexto al que pertenece. Sin embargo, me es imposible ver el libro bajo mis propios ojos.
Además, algunos de los cuentos me parecieron un poco... vacíos. Están llenos de acción y de aventura pero, al final, no me cuentan nada. No me agregan mucho en lo relacionado al mundo, ni me dejan reflexionando, mucho menos me dejan sorprendida al final o con emoción alguna. Solo... igual que cuando comencé a leerlos. Y esto, para mí, es lo peor que me puede suceder al momento de leer. Peor, incluso, que el trato de la mujer. Porque eso puede adjudicarse al worldbuildin y la sociedad (cuestionable) pero que un libro no me cause nada... eso no se quita de ninguna manera.
Las ilustraciones son preciosas y la edición está muy cuidada. Son para leer una tarde tomando mate, o cualquier otra cosa, para escapar del mundo y nada más.
November 18, 2024
La pluma de Dunsany es lírica y poética, de un estilo elevado, bárdico, recargado y algo artificial, y hoy por hoy considerablemente anticuado. La acción suele ser lenta y pausada para los estándares modernos, y su estructura de cuento de hadas no deja espacio para intentar describir de manera realista la psicología de sus personajes. Es evidente que la obra del lord irlandés no es para todo el mundo, es más, hay quien lo podría considerar un gusto adquirido. Sin embargo, en mi opinión Dunsany tiene aún interés literario por sí mismo, más allá de su valor histórico como uno de los inventores de la ficción fantástica para adultos. Su estilo inimitable, cuasibíblico y rebosante de encantamiento, está dotado de un ritmo natural y una cadencia de gran belleza sin prescindir para nada de un fino sentido de la ironía.
Leer a Dunsany es regresar a una fantasía fresca, original, nacida de la fascinación por la naturaleza y por lo sobrenatural y desprovista de nociones preconcebidas o viajes del héroe; es perdernos de nuevo en aquel bosque verde, féerico y primordial donde podía pasar cualquier cosa y que arrasamos sin darnos cuenta para construir las férreas vías sobre las que hoy viaja, encarrilado, todo un género.
Leer a Dunsany es regresar a una fantasía fresca, original, nacida de la fascinación por la naturaleza y por lo sobrenatural y desprovista de nociones preconcebidas o viajes del héroe; es perdernos de nuevo en aquel bosque verde, féerico y primordial donde podía pasar cualquier cosa y que arrasamos sin darnos cuenta para construir las férreas vías sobre las que hoy viaja, encarrilado, todo un género.
February 10, 2019
(This is more of a warning than a review)
If you are new to Lord Dunsany don’t start with this book
I’m going through all his books in chronological order and loved them all so far, this one included though less than the previous ones.
While reading it something felt off regarding Dunsany’s style and imagery on this one but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Having read about the genesis of this book shed some light on the matter. Apparently this book was a bit of a writing experiment in which Dunsany wrote stories based on illustrations by Sidney Sime and not the other way around as usual.
It’s not a failed experiment, mind you, but it doesn’t feel like a proper Dunsany book to me.
So get around to it if you already like Dunsany but don't get lured by the pretty title like I almost did before starting my journey into his oeuvre.
If you are new to Lord Dunsany don’t start with this book
I’m going through all his books in chronological order and loved them all so far, this one included though less than the previous ones.
While reading it something felt off regarding Dunsany’s style and imagery on this one but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Having read about the genesis of this book shed some light on the matter. Apparently this book was a bit of a writing experiment in which Dunsany wrote stories based on illustrations by Sidney Sime and not the other way around as usual.
It’s not a failed experiment, mind you, but it doesn’t feel like a proper Dunsany book to me.
So get around to it if you already like Dunsany but don't get lured by the pretty title like I almost did before starting my journey into his oeuvre.
May 27, 2014
This is one of the books Janny brought to NYC when she moved in with me to study at Barnard College. Being intent on reading what she had read, having liked Tolkien as a child and having heard often of Lord Dunsany, I picked this up. Unfortunately, I was disappointed, Dunsany's style of fantasy--in this collection at least--not touching me at all.
August 26, 2015
I listened to a variety audio recordings of this book. I found it heavy on prose (beautiful prose, mind you), but the prose made it difficult to follow the plots. I think listening to it instead of reading it was a mistake on my part.
February 21, 2019
12. A book inspired by mythology, legend or folklore
A bit hard to follow because of language, nevertheless a good classic where fantasy and horror merge. Read for the Popsugar Challenge 2019 and out of interest of how influential he was on Tolkien and Le Guin
A bit hard to follow because of language, nevertheless a good classic where fantasy and horror merge. Read for the Popsugar Challenge 2019 and out of interest of how influential he was on Tolkien and Le Guin
April 28, 2018
"And so the prophecy came into fulfilment and passed into history, and so at length into Oblivion, out of which I drag it as it goes floating by, into which I shall one day tumble."
This collection of short stories by the incredible eccentric British writer Lord Dunsany has all the charm and ambiguous moral structure of a book of fairytales told. Narrated with lyrical prose, resurrecting myths and legends from across different cultures, weaving together fantasy elements with contemporary settings, these stories grow in whimsy with age. He was a visionary writer. His imagination has its own atlas, and the creative irreverence of his stories breaks away from Victorian writing conventions into this delightful prelude to true fantasy writing. Strongly recommended for any audience who is interested in fiction as a creative exercise detached from rigorous definitions of purpose or genre.
The Bride of the Man-Horse ***
A bizarre romp across a fantasy landscape separated from ancient Greece or anywhere else in Europe with an inexhaustible centaur on the quest for a goddess to prostrate himself before and serve. Evocative descriptions of countryside that the author weaves so well.
Distressing Tales of Thangobrind the Jeweller ****
Renowned thief Thangobrind who is mentioned in several of Lord Dunsany's other stories if only to marvel at his consummate skill, takes on the spider god Hlo-Hlo in a quest to steal his enormous diamond. "Thangobrind knew this, hoping to outwit Hlo-Hlo, perceiving not the trend of ambition and lust and that they are vanity." Why is he dong this? To show off to himself and to claim the soul of a prince's tortured daughter. But Hlo-Hlo catches up with Thangobrind and takes more than the thief's vanity from him. There is an incredible sarcastic ending in which the ravished maiden who gets to keep her soul becomes a dull country spinster.
The House of the Sphinx ***
An incredibly psychedelic story in which the author, lost in some unspeakable fantasy woodland, takes refuge in the home of a Sphinx. The prophetess has some murky 'deed' rotting in a cloth on her table and knows that the justice of the forest is coming for her but seems remarkably calm about her fate. "Who knows of madness whether it be divine or whether it is of the pit?"
Probable adventures of three literary men ****
This is a classic tale of the heroic thief Slith who has undertaken a deadly quest for a heist to steal nothing more than a selection of novel fireside stories and poems, some of the greatest ever written which are hoarded away on the edge of the universe. And what does the famous Slith receive for his efforts? Fearing a light in the upstairs of the dungeon on the edge of the world, he choses to leap into the void between worlds rather than face his fate. One of the stand out stories in the collection, explores the masculine hero of a bygone age, "for it does not become adventurers to care who eats their bones." A fun rhetoric on the lengths people will go to for the mental stimulation of a good story.
The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo the Idolater" ****
Pombo has a small mundane prayer, but he needs it answered quickly. He whirls around London beseeching anything remotely divine, from china dolls to tourist industry curios. When this fails, he makes his own. "Pombo the iconoclast immediately left his house, leaving his idols to be swept away with the dust and so to mingle with Man," But the gods are revolted by his lack of etiquette, so he seeks the advise of the arch-iconoclast. "there is a hole that you take to be a well, close by the garden wall, but that if you lower yourself by your hands and feet over the edge of the hole, and feel about with your feet until you find a ledge, that is the top of a flight of stairs that take you down over the edge of the world." As he quest for a god with no manners brings him to the edge of the universe where he ends up accidently running off the end of a flight of stairs into the same oblivion as Slith.
The Loot of Bombasharna ***
Pirate and repugnant human being Captain Shard is looking for a retirement plan and find it in the ingenious floating island which can be sailed just like a boat and occasionally appears in unexplained geo-tectonic events off the coast of every nation. "there were about thirty there, bare, ordinary islands, but one of them floated." Justly, the kidnapped queen he takes for his wife is less than impressed.
Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance ****
A true modern fairytale, the daughter of a London MP encounters a dragon which whisks her away to an ageless fantasy world she may gaze on for eternity. "She did not notice the roar of the dragon's golden scales, nor distinguish above the manifold lights of London a small red eye." The dragon appears to be entirely metallic and its motivations are entirely whimsical, a great early piece of magical realism.
The Quest of the Queen's Tears *****
A fabulously wealthy unmarried queen offers her hand to any suitor who can make her cry. "She was a sun-stricken mountain uplifted all alone, all beautiful with ice, a desolate and lonely radiance late at evening far up beyond the comfortable world" She has no desire to be married, and there is a shrewd irony to her proposal, as if she is already aware that all her suitors' efforts will be in vain. One prince slays the Gladsome Beast, an ambivalent creature which brings joy and happiness wherever it is seen but has the irksome habit of eating men. With the tears of the Gladsome Beast as his wine, the prince has the fiercest weapon of all time to win the lady's heart. But she does not shed a tear. Another stand out from the collection, subverting the formal romance of many fairytales and exploring the glamourous peril of adventure stories.
The Hoard of the Gibbelins ****
A brilliant sentiment for the early twentieth century and the emerging mass appeal of capitalism, in this tale a human-eating race with a bottomless hoard of gold and gems use wealth to lure their human prey. "It may be thought that, as the years went on and men came by fearful ends on the tower's wall, fewer and fewer would come to the Gibbelins' table: but the Gibbelins found otherwise." Human greed is inexhaustible, and apparently cunning is no safe-guard.
How Nuth would have practiced his art upon the Gnoles ****
I first encountered this story in the mixed author anthology The Wizards of Odd, chosen for me by my husband Baby Adam. Here, another heroic thief, sober Victorian gentleman Nuth attempts to steal the enormous emeralds which form part of the Gnoles home. The Gnoles are never seen or heard, except by Nuth's assistant Tonker who does not live to tell the tale. "And the moment that Tonker touched the withered boards, a silence that, though ominous, was earthly, became unearthly like the touch of a ghoul." It is unclear whether Nuth ever dreamed he would succeed in bulging the Gnoles, but he certainly gets away in the end.
How one came, as was foretold, to the city of Never ***
A variant on Dunsany's fascination with ruined civilisations and the sense of modern inferiority they inspires, a fascination he shared with J.R.R. Tolkein. In this tale, a young man catches a wild griffin and rides it into the stratosphere to live in a mythical city that looks down on Earth as we look down on the kingdoms of animals. But as he flies there, from the corner of his eye, he glimpses an even greater city of which the residents of Never cannot bear to speak.
The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap *****
This was my favourite story in the collection. Part cautionary tale, part ode to a conquering hero, this is the story of an ordinary middle class business man who abandons his cares for his mednial life and lives out his passions in the landscapes of his imagination. "From the moment when he first perceived the very beastliness of his occupation; from that moment he withdrew his dreams from it, his fancies, everything in fact except that ponderable Mr. Shap bought tickets and handled money and could in turn be handled by a statistician." This sentence alone is one of the most evocative in fantasy, simultaneously social commentary and manifesto for the powers of creative literature. But Shep is not cautious. "He let his fancy ride at exorbitant speed, he forsook method, scarce was he king of a land that he yearned to extend its borders; so he journeyed deeper and deeper into the totally unknown." His own creations overwhelm his ability to function as a jobsworth, and he finished his reign in a lunatic asylum.
Chu-bu and Sheemish ****
This is the story of two idols, man-made demigods which fume in each others' presence. Each hopes to dethrone the other and found a new monotheism. The gods are incredibly petty, they laugh when bird poo falls on one another, they hold grudges for generations, and they concentrate night and day to make a little earthquake to punish each other. Together, they do bring about an earthquake, although it is localised to their temple only, which the locals declare as cursed and both gods are forgotten. Chu-bu is eventually found by the author and lives on his side on the mantelpiece. Sheemish was broken and remains in the temple. A light-hearted, infectiously humorous introduction to the breadth of Dunsany's work.
The Wonderful Window ***
This is the story of a man who trades his savings on a whim for a window he doesn't want but falls in love with as it gives him views of a medieval town and fortress flying golden dragons. When the town is seized and his citizens put to the sword, the purchaser finally pays the full price - everything you have.
Epilogue *****
In Dunsany's unique sarcastic style, he actually writes an epilogue questioning the credibility of some of his 'sources' for these stories. He was incredibly ahead of his time, parodying the fantasy genre even as he himself invented it. What a legend.
This collection of short stories by the incredible eccentric British writer Lord Dunsany has all the charm and ambiguous moral structure of a book of fairytales told. Narrated with lyrical prose, resurrecting myths and legends from across different cultures, weaving together fantasy elements with contemporary settings, these stories grow in whimsy with age. He was a visionary writer. His imagination has its own atlas, and the creative irreverence of his stories breaks away from Victorian writing conventions into this delightful prelude to true fantasy writing. Strongly recommended for any audience who is interested in fiction as a creative exercise detached from rigorous definitions of purpose or genre.
The Bride of the Man-Horse ***
A bizarre romp across a fantasy landscape separated from ancient Greece or anywhere else in Europe with an inexhaustible centaur on the quest for a goddess to prostrate himself before and serve. Evocative descriptions of countryside that the author weaves so well.
Distressing Tales of Thangobrind the Jeweller ****
Renowned thief Thangobrind who is mentioned in several of Lord Dunsany's other stories if only to marvel at his consummate skill, takes on the spider god Hlo-Hlo in a quest to steal his enormous diamond. "Thangobrind knew this, hoping to outwit Hlo-Hlo, perceiving not the trend of ambition and lust and that they are vanity." Why is he dong this? To show off to himself and to claim the soul of a prince's tortured daughter. But Hlo-Hlo catches up with Thangobrind and takes more than the thief's vanity from him. There is an incredible sarcastic ending in which the ravished maiden who gets to keep her soul becomes a dull country spinster.
The House of the Sphinx ***
An incredibly psychedelic story in which the author, lost in some unspeakable fantasy woodland, takes refuge in the home of a Sphinx. The prophetess has some murky 'deed' rotting in a cloth on her table and knows that the justice of the forest is coming for her but seems remarkably calm about her fate. "Who knows of madness whether it be divine or whether it is of the pit?"
Probable adventures of three literary men ****
This is a classic tale of the heroic thief Slith who has undertaken a deadly quest for a heist to steal nothing more than a selection of novel fireside stories and poems, some of the greatest ever written which are hoarded away on the edge of the universe. And what does the famous Slith receive for his efforts? Fearing a light in the upstairs of the dungeon on the edge of the world, he choses to leap into the void between worlds rather than face his fate. One of the stand out stories in the collection, explores the masculine hero of a bygone age, "for it does not become adventurers to care who eats their bones." A fun rhetoric on the lengths people will go to for the mental stimulation of a good story.
The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo the Idolater" ****
Pombo has a small mundane prayer, but he needs it answered quickly. He whirls around London beseeching anything remotely divine, from china dolls to tourist industry curios. When this fails, he makes his own. "Pombo the iconoclast immediately left his house, leaving his idols to be swept away with the dust and so to mingle with Man," But the gods are revolted by his lack of etiquette, so he seeks the advise of the arch-iconoclast. "there is a hole that you take to be a well, close by the garden wall, but that if you lower yourself by your hands and feet over the edge of the hole, and feel about with your feet until you find a ledge, that is the top of a flight of stairs that take you down over the edge of the world." As he quest for a god with no manners brings him to the edge of the universe where he ends up accidently running off the end of a flight of stairs into the same oblivion as Slith.
The Loot of Bombasharna ***
Pirate and repugnant human being Captain Shard is looking for a retirement plan and find it in the ingenious floating island which can be sailed just like a boat and occasionally appears in unexplained geo-tectonic events off the coast of every nation. "there were about thirty there, bare, ordinary islands, but one of them floated." Justly, the kidnapped queen he takes for his wife is less than impressed.
Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance ****
A true modern fairytale, the daughter of a London MP encounters a dragon which whisks her away to an ageless fantasy world she may gaze on for eternity. "She did not notice the roar of the dragon's golden scales, nor distinguish above the manifold lights of London a small red eye." The dragon appears to be entirely metallic and its motivations are entirely whimsical, a great early piece of magical realism.
The Quest of the Queen's Tears *****
A fabulously wealthy unmarried queen offers her hand to any suitor who can make her cry. "She was a sun-stricken mountain uplifted all alone, all beautiful with ice, a desolate and lonely radiance late at evening far up beyond the comfortable world" She has no desire to be married, and there is a shrewd irony to her proposal, as if she is already aware that all her suitors' efforts will be in vain. One prince slays the Gladsome Beast, an ambivalent creature which brings joy and happiness wherever it is seen but has the irksome habit of eating men. With the tears of the Gladsome Beast as his wine, the prince has the fiercest weapon of all time to win the lady's heart. But she does not shed a tear. Another stand out from the collection, subverting the formal romance of many fairytales and exploring the glamourous peril of adventure stories.
The Hoard of the Gibbelins ****
A brilliant sentiment for the early twentieth century and the emerging mass appeal of capitalism, in this tale a human-eating race with a bottomless hoard of gold and gems use wealth to lure their human prey. "It may be thought that, as the years went on and men came by fearful ends on the tower's wall, fewer and fewer would come to the Gibbelins' table: but the Gibbelins found otherwise." Human greed is inexhaustible, and apparently cunning is no safe-guard.
How Nuth would have practiced his art upon the Gnoles ****
I first encountered this story in the mixed author anthology The Wizards of Odd, chosen for me by my husband Baby Adam. Here, another heroic thief, sober Victorian gentleman Nuth attempts to steal the enormous emeralds which form part of the Gnoles home. The Gnoles are never seen or heard, except by Nuth's assistant Tonker who does not live to tell the tale. "And the moment that Tonker touched the withered boards, a silence that, though ominous, was earthly, became unearthly like the touch of a ghoul." It is unclear whether Nuth ever dreamed he would succeed in bulging the Gnoles, but he certainly gets away in the end.
How one came, as was foretold, to the city of Never ***
A variant on Dunsany's fascination with ruined civilisations and the sense of modern inferiority they inspires, a fascination he shared with J.R.R. Tolkein. In this tale, a young man catches a wild griffin and rides it into the stratosphere to live in a mythical city that looks down on Earth as we look down on the kingdoms of animals. But as he flies there, from the corner of his eye, he glimpses an even greater city of which the residents of Never cannot bear to speak.
The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap *****
This was my favourite story in the collection. Part cautionary tale, part ode to a conquering hero, this is the story of an ordinary middle class business man who abandons his cares for his mednial life and lives out his passions in the landscapes of his imagination. "From the moment when he first perceived the very beastliness of his occupation; from that moment he withdrew his dreams from it, his fancies, everything in fact except that ponderable Mr. Shap bought tickets and handled money and could in turn be handled by a statistician." This sentence alone is one of the most evocative in fantasy, simultaneously social commentary and manifesto for the powers of creative literature. But Shep is not cautious. "He let his fancy ride at exorbitant speed, he forsook method, scarce was he king of a land that he yearned to extend its borders; so he journeyed deeper and deeper into the totally unknown." His own creations overwhelm his ability to function as a jobsworth, and he finished his reign in a lunatic asylum.
Chu-bu and Sheemish ****
This is the story of two idols, man-made demigods which fume in each others' presence. Each hopes to dethrone the other and found a new monotheism. The gods are incredibly petty, they laugh when bird poo falls on one another, they hold grudges for generations, and they concentrate night and day to make a little earthquake to punish each other. Together, they do bring about an earthquake, although it is localised to their temple only, which the locals declare as cursed and both gods are forgotten. Chu-bu is eventually found by the author and lives on his side on the mantelpiece. Sheemish was broken and remains in the temple. A light-hearted, infectiously humorous introduction to the breadth of Dunsany's work.
The Wonderful Window ***
This is the story of a man who trades his savings on a whim for a window he doesn't want but falls in love with as it gives him views of a medieval town and fortress flying golden dragons. When the town is seized and his citizens put to the sword, the purchaser finally pays the full price - everything you have.
Epilogue *****
In Dunsany's unique sarcastic style, he actually writes an epilogue questioning the credibility of some of his 'sources' for these stories. He was incredibly ahead of his time, parodying the fantasy genre even as he himself invented it. What a legend.
February 24, 2024
8 - some of the first stories were hardly worth three stars, but the latter stories were masterpieces and easily five stars. I had heard this author was a source of inspiration to J.R.R. Tolkien (and Lovecraft) and as I am interested in the roots of the genre of speculative literature I thought it was high time for me to seek out his works (especially after watching the video on him by The Library Ladder on YouTube). And it's easy to see why the aforementioned authors adored Dunsany, as both Tolkien and Lovecraft both have a yearning for the 'Romantic' (yes - Lovecraft too - think of his dreamland!) and often indulge in lyrical prose in a 'high style', often more suggestive of age and glory (and horror) than purely descriptive (by using obscure words, or leaving out details). Dunsany uses mythical names that reminded me of Tolkien, like 'Thangobrind the jeweller'. There were also passages that brough to mind 'The Night Land' by William Hope Hodgson by their ambiguity ('Of the Under Pits who shall tell? Their mystery is secret. It is held by some that they are the sources of night, and that darkness pours form them at evening upon the world; while others hint that knowledge of these might undo our civilization.' So, beautiful prose pictures, but sadly less meat on the bones for readers looking in their stories for character and plot. Especially the first few stories leaned heavily on the imagery, while the story remained fragmentary, often lacking any real conclusion. Even so, there were a few with a wry twist, like the fate of Pombo in 'The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo The Idolator' or the way 'The Quest of the Queen's Tears' plays with fairy tale conventions. And 'How Nuth Would Have Practiced His Art Upon The Gnoles' had a good horror ending.
It was only in the latter few stories in this collection that Dunsany brought in a little more 'story'. These dealt more with the relationship between our world and the world of imagination. They had a clear beginning, middle and end, but more importantly: they felt like they had something to say. And it was all still coupled with beautiful prose and evocative descriptions. 'How One Came, As Was Foretold, To The City of Never' was a beautiful story of someone reaching a place only one person is prophecied to visit - and then seeing an even more beautiful place out of reach further on. 'The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap' has someone fleeing from his boring job into his own fantasy world. 'Chu-Bu and Sheemish' is a great little parable about religion and 'The Wonderful Window' has another person investing too much into a world he can only see through a special window ... Those stories were great and worth the price of this collection (which is only 96 pages, so also worth reading to get to these great tales of the fantastic).
It was only in the latter few stories in this collection that Dunsany brought in a little more 'story'. These dealt more with the relationship between our world and the world of imagination. They had a clear beginning, middle and end, but more importantly: they felt like they had something to say. And it was all still coupled with beautiful prose and evocative descriptions. 'How One Came, As Was Foretold, To The City of Never' was a beautiful story of someone reaching a place only one person is prophecied to visit - and then seeing an even more beautiful place out of reach further on. 'The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap' has someone fleeing from his boring job into his own fantasy world. 'Chu-Bu and Sheemish' is a great little parable about religion and 'The Wonderful Window' has another person investing too much into a world he can only see through a special window ... Those stories were great and worth the price of this collection (which is only 96 pages, so also worth reading to get to these great tales of the fantastic).
August 16, 2024
Looking at some of the big names in early to mid twentieth century fantasy-writing – Eddison, Peake and Tolkien (because I’m being narrow and parochial here and definitely ignoring anyone who doesn’t fit the hypothesis) – one of the things that stands out is the way they seem to aim for solidity. They achieve it in different ways, of course: Eddison with his glorious language; Peake with his elaborate descriptions of tiny details; Tolkien with his obsessive, if selectively-focussed world-building – but there’s a sense of reality about them. It’s a different reality to our own, but it’s there, and it’s immersive. These are worlds you could drown in.
The curious thing, however, about these three chasers of solidity is that what they’ve achieved is an illusion. Eddison’s worlds have an aristocratic disregard for the poor and powerless; Peake describes much in fine detail, but you try drawing a map of Gormenghast; and as for Tolkien – tell me about the politics and economics of Middle-Earth if you can. But the very fact I’m talking about these things, and that we know they’re missing from the picture– is evidence that these are worlds that demand to be taken seriously. If we didn’t take them seriously we wouldn’t think about the gaps.
Now with Dunsany it’s different. With Dunsany it’s as if his craft, his style, is pointed in the opposite direction. Dunsany is going for unreal and ethereal; clouds and vapours and dreams. And that leads to some very odd results. It gives his writing a sense of… there has to be a better word than this… storyness; and storyness in various forms. Or at least, I think it does.
So what I think is happening here is that the very telling of these stories appears to create the scenes they depict: it’s not a matter of describing something that is already there, nor generating scenes to suit the exigencies of storytelling, but the use of language to actually create them. And it doesn’t matter if we’re looking at decorative myths, dark fairytales (and that’s most disconcerting at times – imagine H.P. Lovecraft telling you a bedtime story. Sweet dreams.), or whimsical little stories, that’s the sense I get.
And then, a puff of wind – more often than not a little dash of bathos provided by Dunsany himself – and it’s gone. The story ends; the world ends with it. Such stuff as dreams are made on. Pure air. A beautiful and transient thing.
And now I shall go round again.
The curious thing, however, about these three chasers of solidity is that what they’ve achieved is an illusion. Eddison’s worlds have an aristocratic disregard for the poor and powerless; Peake describes much in fine detail, but you try drawing a map of Gormenghast; and as for Tolkien – tell me about the politics and economics of Middle-Earth if you can. But the very fact I’m talking about these things, and that we know they’re missing from the picture– is evidence that these are worlds that demand to be taken seriously. If we didn’t take them seriously we wouldn’t think about the gaps.
Now with Dunsany it’s different. With Dunsany it’s as if his craft, his style, is pointed in the opposite direction. Dunsany is going for unreal and ethereal; clouds and vapours and dreams. And that leads to some very odd results. It gives his writing a sense of… there has to be a better word than this… storyness; and storyness in various forms. Or at least, I think it does.
So what I think is happening here is that the very telling of these stories appears to create the scenes they depict: it’s not a matter of describing something that is already there, nor generating scenes to suit the exigencies of storytelling, but the use of language to actually create them. And it doesn’t matter if we’re looking at decorative myths, dark fairytales (and that’s most disconcerting at times – imagine H.P. Lovecraft telling you a bedtime story. Sweet dreams.), or whimsical little stories, that’s the sense I get.
And then, a puff of wind – more often than not a little dash of bathos provided by Dunsany himself – and it’s gone. The story ends; the world ends with it. Such stuff as dreams are made on. Pure air. A beautiful and transient thing.
And now I shall go round again.
October 22, 2020
Ebbene sì, lo ammetto, non avevo mai letto nulla di Lord Dunsany. Capita, che vi posso dire, non starò certo qui a cercare qualche futile giustificazione. L’importante è che ora abbia colmato almeno in parte una delle mie moltissime lacune. Oggi vi parlo quindi de “Il libro delle meraviglie”, ossia un’antologia di racconti brevi, tutti dedicati al fantastico. In effetti si tratta di una vecchia edizione recuperata in biblioteca e non di quella nuova edita da Mondadori che raccoglie più opere.
Lord Dunsany ci sa fare con la fantasia e lo si capisce sin dai primi paragrafi del primo racconto. Ci si rende subito conto di quanto vera sia la sua affermazione “non scrivo mai sopra ciò che ho visto; scrivo sopra ciò che ho sognato”.
Non servono infatti fraseggi particolarmente bizzarri e sofisticati per farci capire la familiarità dell’autore con i “mondi altri”. Pochi accenni, e molti sottintesi, ci portano dritti e diretti in universi paralleli, mondi lontani eppur reali, concreti e tangibili forse più del nostro presunto reale.
E’ questione riservata ai grandi della letteratura a mio avviso, non certo qualcosa che si possa insegnare e/o imparare. Racconti brevi capaci di racchiudere mondi complessi, ricchi di fascino e popolati da personaggi al contempo semplici ed eroici nel perseguire i loro obbiettivi. Dunsany ci giuda in questo viaggio con maestria, alternando elegante ironia a una prosa lirica e ammaliante. Recensioen completa: https://www.scrittorindipendenti.com/...
Lord Dunsany ci sa fare con la fantasia e lo si capisce sin dai primi paragrafi del primo racconto. Ci si rende subito conto di quanto vera sia la sua affermazione “non scrivo mai sopra ciò che ho visto; scrivo sopra ciò che ho sognato”.
Non servono infatti fraseggi particolarmente bizzarri e sofisticati per farci capire la familiarità dell’autore con i “mondi altri”. Pochi accenni, e molti sottintesi, ci portano dritti e diretti in universi paralleli, mondi lontani eppur reali, concreti e tangibili forse più del nostro presunto reale.
E’ questione riservata ai grandi della letteratura a mio avviso, non certo qualcosa che si possa insegnare e/o imparare. Racconti brevi capaci di racchiudere mondi complessi, ricchi di fascino e popolati da personaggi al contempo semplici ed eroici nel perseguire i loro obbiettivi. Dunsany ci giuda in questo viaggio con maestria, alternando elegante ironia a una prosa lirica e ammaliante. Recensioen completa: https://www.scrittorindipendenti.com/...
April 21, 2024
The Book of Wonder is aptly-titled. Its potpourri of tales are not moving dramas, nor are they dense with intellectual themes; rather, each of them seems primarily designed to invoke a sense of wonder in the reader--a goal that might seem trivial, but which in truth is as important as its achievement is elusive. These stories have the power to awaken the feeling CS Lewis called Joy: a supremely pleasant longing for something beyond our experience that would vanish if it were fulfilled. (This is demonstrated particularly clearly in "The Wonderful Window.") Yet Dunsany is not a wide-eyed idealist: he is a bit of a cynic, as evidenced by the ironic twists many of these stories end with. But these twists don't (generally) undercut the sense of wonder: rather, they add to it by revealing to us how narrow and limited our expectations often are. That Dunsany is so capable of blending cynicism with wonder marks him as a great writer.
My one major critique of this collection, though, is that it ultimately does feel a bit lightweight. It's meant to be so, so perhaps I'm being unfair, but I just don't find it quite as satisfying as his more cohesive works like The King of Elfland's Daughter and The Gods of Pegana. From what I know of Dunsnay's personal life, it's no coincidence that he didn't write anything quite like this after the first World War: these are stories from a more innocent time, before the horrors of the 20th century forced mankind to confront evil on a scale unprecedented in history. Still, there are few books better described as wonderful than this.
My one major critique of this collection, though, is that it ultimately does feel a bit lightweight. It's meant to be so, so perhaps I'm being unfair, but I just don't find it quite as satisfying as his more cohesive works like The King of Elfland's Daughter and The Gods of Pegana. From what I know of Dunsnay's personal life, it's no coincidence that he didn't write anything quite like this after the first World War: these are stories from a more innocent time, before the horrors of the 20th century forced mankind to confront evil on a scale unprecedented in history. Still, there are few books better described as wonderful than this.
May 15, 2021
This book contains various short anthologies, complete with their whimsical writing and fairytale warnings. The first couple took me a second to get used to his writing, often having long and often overly explanatory sentences. Once I was over the initial differences in his prose I found myself quite enjoying his works here.
They all had such interesting and complete feeling worlds, just showing as a mini snap-shot of a world that has been turning both before and after we leave.
A very easy read, if a bit short, though I hear he has many other works I'd love to have a go at reading too.
They all had such interesting and complete feeling worlds, just showing as a mini snap-shot of a world that has been turning both before and after we leave.
A very easy read, if a bit short, though I hear he has many other works I'd love to have a go at reading too.
February 12, 2025
Tre stelle solo grazie all'ultimo racconto (La finestra meravigliosa) che mi ha appagato. Gli altri racconti non mi sono piaciuti granché, per via di un'atmosfera di tristezza e cupezza che permea tutte le pagine ma soprattutto perchè sembra che finiscano troppo bruscamente, quasi troncati quando sarebbero servite poche righe ancora per dare pienezza alla storia.
I racconti in genere mi lasciano insoddisfatta e questo libro ha confermato questa mia inclinazione.
I racconti in genere mi lasciano insoddisfatta e questo libro ha confermato questa mia inclinazione.
April 10, 2025
Yawn... an unexciting book
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