The Book of Wonder
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Product Description
Edward Plunkett, the 18th Baron of Dunsany, (July 24, 1878-Oct 25, 1957) was an Anglo-Irish writer known for his tales set in purely invented fantasy universes under the pen name ‘Lord Dunsany.’ Most of these tales were published in collections between 1905 to 1919. He loved inventing new worlds, each with bits of amusing detail.
Dunsany later turned to writing stage and radio plays. Dunsany had a huge influence on H.P. Lovecraft, and his inventive fantasy lined the way for J.R.R. Tolkien.–J.B. Hare
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Brothers and sisters, words fail me in trying to communicate to you who and what Lord Dunsany was. The truth is so simple, and yet seems so fantastic that you might hesitate to judge it. Along with E. R. Eddison, he is the best writer of fantasy that there ever was, or likely ever shall be (the same could be said of Dunsany as a fleeting tale writer in all-purpose, and must be, because we are here to tell the truth for a change). Tolkien, for example, is nothing but a pale shadow cast by the sun that is Dunsany; Lovecraft was a rather silly-seeming imitation. Once you have drunk from this well nothing else even comes close; it will nearly ruin you for additional writers. The question is, if he is just the deepest, saddest, most amusing, most clever, most gorgeous, and again excepting only Eddison the flat-out best writer of any kind the latter-day Western world has produced — and he is, brothers and sisters, he IS — why doesn’t everyone know about it? Why has he fallen into obscurity?
The reason is simple and obvious. Look around you. The world has gone mad. We have lost all tie to the real. And this fantastic man, this Lord Dunsany, saw it, saw it before nearly anyone, saw it happening all around him. And he went out and wrote tales about it, tales that are the least real things ever made on the surface — but touch the very highest levels of reality in their deeper parts. It is just persons parts that are invisible or despised in our mad world, and that is why he is despised, ignored, forgotten — by all but a few, a few who can peer through persons veils of madness. Dunsany’s work is not escapism. It is literature, literature of the highest order; literature of an exponentially privileged order than any of the garbage pushed down our throats by the academics and pseudointellecutal humanities majors whose task it is to maintain this madhouse of a world — you know, the kinds of people who despise Lord of the Rings and talk themselves into believing that deviant, culture-destroying nut cases such as James Joyce are fantastic writers.
Brothers and sisters, you have establish the source of that which you have so long sought. This book, all his best books, are a door into another world, a saner and better world, a world within you waiting to be learned. Buy this book. Buy all of Dunsany’s fleeting tale collections, especially the early ones. They will haunt your dreams forever and if you let them, they might even change your life, all lacking your noticing reasonably how, why, or when.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
This book is gorgeous. For over 30 years I have wanted a Lord Dunsaney book in hardcover. Thanks so much.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Lord Dunsany was one of the handful of fantasy writers before “Lord of the Rings” took the world by storm. His tales are grotesque, whimsical, humorous and solemn. And, of course, “The Book of Marvel” is brimming over with unique fantasy tales.
It’s a mix of all kinds of fantasy tales: a man whose interest in his imaginary land eclipses the real world; a magical window that shows incredible things; suitors try to make a cold-hearted queen weep; the tale of the Gibbelins, who eat “nothing less excellent than man”; and of Miss Cubbins and the Dragon of Romance. Most entertaining is the tale of Chu-bu and Sheemish: idol Chu-bu is inceansed when a new idol (Sheemish) is stirred into his temple. And their resulting quarrel has the power to level a city.
Dunsany’s fantasies aren’t as vibrantly realistic as J.R.R. Tolkien’s, or as pensive as C.S. Lewis’s. As a replacement for they’re like fantastical, melancholy small paintings. Some are whimsical like “Miss Cubbins and the Dragon of Romance” or “Chu-Bu and Sheemish,” while others are majestic and abstractedly mythic, like “How One Came, As It Was Foretold, To the City of Never.”
Dunsany’s writing is lush and descriptive, but in the slightly distant style of the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. “Night was roaming away with his cape trailed behind him, with mists turned over and over as he went,” Dunsany writes. He handled comedy, tragedy, horror, and made-up legends with skill and imagination. And though his made-up legends and myths aren’t really in this book, you can see hints of it in some of the tales.
“The Book of Marvel” is an brilliant collection of some of Dunsany’s best fleeting tales, both amusing and frightening. Plain and perfectly written, this early fantasy writer is a must-have.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
It can only be guessed at why this book is out of print in the US, though it can be obtained with additional Dunsany works from the UK. In it, the reader can learn a charming collection of VERY fleeting tales, which flit from whimsical to mythological, humorous to chilling. All are written in Dunsany’s incomparable prose, which ranges from arch first-person narrative to stuff that sounds like blown up mythology.
In this you’ll find centaurs, sphinxes, master thieves, about-to-retire pirate chiefs, kings trying to go an emotionless queen to tears, a magical window, a pair of feuding idols, and a delightful tale called “Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance.” The tales are a small fleeting — much shorter than most present-day fleeting fantasy tales — but they are just incredible. A must-read for immediate suspension of belief.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Dunsany’s tales are lyrical and meant to be read aloud to grownups in front of a fire. I am setting out to read everything he has ever written. But I would advise you to steer clear of this very poorly edited edition. There are repeating paragraphs, spelling errors, erroneous word replacements . . . all of which interfere with the gorgeous rhythm of Dunsany’s writing.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5