Lord Dunsany was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist; his work, mostly in the fantasy genre, was published under the nameLord Dunsany. More than ninety books of his work were published in his lifetime, and both original work and compilations have continued to appear. Dunsany's uvre includes many hundreds of published short stories, as well as plays, novels and essays This selection chosen by the critic August Nemocontains the following stories: - Chu-Bu and Sheemish - The Hoard of the Gibbelins - The Quest of the Queen's Tears - How One Came, As Was Foretold, To The City Of Never - The Wonderful Window - The Bride Of The Man Horse - The House Of The Sphinx
So I came down through the wood on the bank of Yann and found, as had been prophesied, the ship Bird of the River about to loose her cable. The captain sat cross-legged upon the white deck with his scimitar lying beside him in its jeweled scabbard, and the sailors toiled to spread the nimble sails to bring the ship into the central stream of Yann, and all the while sang ancient soothing songs. And the wind of the evening descending cool from the snowfields of some mountainous abode of distant gods came suddenly, like glad tidings to an anxious city, into the wing-like sails.
An inspiration to many for his style and prose, Lord Dunsany was a pioneer for fantasy fiction, inspiring such famous writers as H. P. Lovecraft, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Neil Gaiman to name a few. Over sixty years since its first publication, The Last Revolution is now once again available to readers. In a time before computers were a mainstay of our lives, Lord Dunsany tells the story which takes place in England about the revolution of self-reproducing machines. Known to have a profound distaste for the Industrial Revolution, The Last Revolution touches on a topic we know all too well today: What happens if the computers take over? “Good morning Pender. I hear you have made a Frankenstein.” This is the line that narrator Pender hears from an inventor, and is soon playing a robot in a game of chess. Pender’s mood changes when he realizes that the computer he’s facing has an intelligence far superior to his own. From the introduction of the robots, a tense atmosphere is noted as the robots fight for attention of their owners. Will these machines be able to coexist with their household counterparts, or will they rise as one and take the first steps against humanity? Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
From “one of the greatest writers of this century,” a fantasy masterpiece about the aftermath of a marriage between a mortal prince and an elfin princess. —Arthur C. Clarke Before the fellowships and wardrobes and dire wolves . . . . . . there was the village of Erl and the Kingdom of Elfland. Considered formative to the development of the fairy tale and high fantasy subgenres, The King of Elfland's Daughter follows Alveric, who leaves home on a quest with a few basic instructions: locate the Princess Lirazel in Elfland, convince her to return to Erl and marry him, and together produce the first magical Lord of Erl. But what happens when a village gets exactly what it asked for? How does an elf learn to live as a human? Is love lost once, lost forever? The people of Erl are about to find out. Take a walk through the fields we know and see if you can spot the pale-blue peaks of the Elfland Mountains. Fans of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Neil Gaiman will adore Lord Dunsany’s influential 1924 classic as much as those authors themselves did. “No amount of mere description can convey more than a fraction of Lord Dunsany's pervasive charm.” —H. P. Lovecraft “We find that he has but tranfigured with beauty the common sights of the world.” —William Butler Yeats “No one can understand modern fantasy without understanding its roots, and Lord Dunsany's work is immediately significant as well as enjoyable even today.” —Katharine Kerr “A fantasy novel in a class with the Tolkien books.”—L. Sprague de Camp
An old woman who spends her days scrubbing the floors might be an unlikely damsel in distress, but Lord Dunsany proves once again his mastery of the fantastical. The Charwoman's Shadow is a beautiful tale of a sorcerer's apprentice who discovers his master's nefarious usage of stolen shadows, and vows to save the charwoman from her slavery.
A new edition of the Fantasy Tales that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft A pioneer in the realm of imaginative literature, Lord Dunsany has gained a cult following for his influence on modern fantasy literature, including such authors as J.R.R. Tolkien and H. P. Lovecraft. This unique collection of short stories ranges over five decades of work. Liberal selections of earlier tales—including the entire Gods of Pegana as well as such notable works as "Idle Days of the Yann" and "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth"—are followed by memorable later tales, including several about the garrulous traveler Joseph Jorkens and the outrageous murder tale "The Two Bottles of Relish." Throughout, the stories are united by Dunsany's cosmic vision, his impeccable and mellifluous prose, and his distinctively Irish sense of whimsy. Here published for the first time by Penguin Classics, this edition is the only annotated version of Dunsany's short stories. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Welcome to the book series 7 best short stories specials, selection dedicated to a special subject, featuring works by noteworthy authors. The texts were chosen based on their relevance, renown and interest. This edition is dedicated to ghost stories. The critic Augst Nemo brings seven tales with tormented souls that will make you shiver: - An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House by Sheridan le Fanu. - The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell. - A Warning to the Curious by M. R. James. - Nightmare-Touch by Lafcadio Hearn. - The Furnished Room by O. Henry. - The Phantom Rickshaw by Rudyard Kipling. - The Open Window by Saki Bonus: Supernatural Horror in Literature by H. P. Lovecraft.
This book contains 25 short stories from 5 classic, prize-winning and noteworthy authors. The stories were carefully selected by the critic August Nemo, in a collection that will please the literature lovers.The theme of this edition is: Fantasy For more exciting titles, be sure to check out our 7 Best Short Stories and Essential Novelists collections. This book contains: Edgar Rice Burroughs: - Tarzan's First Love - A Jungle Joke - Tarzan Rescues the Moon - John Carter and the Giant Of Mars - The Ancient Dead - Beyond Thirty - Skeleton Men of JupiterJohn Kendrick Bangs: - The Water Ghost Of Harrowby Hall - The Spectre Cook Of Bangletop - A Midnight Visitor - The Speck On The Lens - A Quicksilver Cassandra - The Ghost Club - A Psychical PrankOscar Wilde: - Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - The Sphinx without a Secret - A Model Millionaire - The Happy Prince - The Fisherman and his Soul - The Nightingale and the Rose - The Young KingLord Dunsany: - Chu-Bu and Sheemish - The Hoard of the Gibbelins - The Quest of the Queen's Tears - How One Came, As Was Foretold, To The City Of Never - The Wonderful Window - The Bride Of The Man Horse - The House Of The SphinxKenneth Grahame: - The Twenty-First of October - Dies Irae - Mutabile Semper - The Magic Ring - Its Walls Were as of Jasper - A Saga of the Seas - The Reluctant Dragon
The Irish writer Lord Dunsany (1878-1957) has suffered a regrettable decline in critical esteem. Although one of the most popular and critically acclaimed writers of the early 20th century, he seems to have fallen out of fashion with both the Irish critical community and with enthusiasts of fantasy literature. But Dunsany was one of the critical figures in modern fantasy, a significant influence on Tolkien, Le Guin, and other writers. His own work, written over a 50-year span and covering nearly every literary mode (short story, novel, play, essay, poem), is itself rich with meaning. In this, the first academic study of Dunsany's work, Joshi establishes that Dunsany has a remarkable grasp of the symbolic function of fantasy, and that he used fantasy, horror, and the supernatural as metaphors for his most deeply held convictions on life and society. His entire work is unified by a single overriding theme—the need for human reunification with the natural world—even though this theme takes on many different forms (e.g., scorn of industrialization, demonstration of the moral superiority of animals over human beings, rumination on the extinction of the human race). The course of Dunsany's long career—proceeding from early short stories and plays about the edge of the world to full-length novels to tales of comic fantasy (such as the popular Jorkens stories) to sensitive works about Ireland—reveals a writer constantly searching for new ways to express his central philosophic and aesthetic conceptions. Joshi's volume may best be described as an exercise in literary excavation—an attempt to unearth an unjustly forgotten writer and to show that his work is in need of further study and analysis.
