The Big Book of Classic Fantasy
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A FINALIST FOR THE 2020 WORLD FANTASY AWARD • Unearth the enchanting origins of fantasy fiction with a collection of tales as vast as the tallest tower and as mysterious as the dark depths of the forest.
Fantasy stories have always been with us. They illuminate the odd and the uncanny, the wondrous and the fantastic: all the things we know are lurking just out of sight—on the other side of the looking-glass, beyond the music of the impossibly haunting violin, through the twisted trees of the ancient woods. Other worlds, talking animals, fairies, goblins, demons, tricksters, and mystics: these are the elements that populate a rich literary tradition that spans the globe. A work composed both of careful scholarship and fantastic fun, The Big Book of Classic Fantasy is essential reading for anyone who’s never forgotten the stories that first inspired feelings of astonishment and wonder.
INCLUDING:
*Stories by pillars of the genre like the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Mary Shelley, Christina Rossetti, L. Frank Baum, Robert E. Howard, and J. R. R. Tolkien
*Fantastical offerings from literary giants including Edith Wharton, Leo Tolstoy, Willa Cather, Zora Neale Hurston, Vladimir Nabokov, Hermann Hesse, and W.E.B. Du Bois
*Rare treasures from Asian, Eastern European, Scandinavian, and Native American traditions
*New translations, including fourteen stories never before in English
PLUS:
*Beautifully Bizarre Creatures! *Strange New Worlds Just Beyond the Garden Path!
*Fairy Folk and Their Dark Mischief! *Seriously Be Careful—Do Not Trust Those Fairies!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The VanderMeers (The Big Book of Science Fiction) compile an impressive cross-section of early fantasy in this fascinating anthology of 90 stories. They limit their selections to pieces appearing from the early 1800s to WWII and define fantasy broadly to encompass stories where the unreal intrudes into the real without primarily causing fear. Familiar stories, including Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" and Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," appear alongside more obscure ones, such as Der Nister's "At the Border," a Yiddish story with strong Jewish mystical elements. Readers may be surprised to see fantasy works from authors known for more realist fiction, including Louisa May Alcott, Willa Cather, E.M. Forster, and Rabindranath Tagore. W.B. Laughead's original Paul Bunyan tales share space with Native American coyote folktales retold by Mourning Dove; Asia is represented by works such as Edogawa Ranpo's disappearing-person mystery "The Man Traveling with the Brocade Portrait" and an excerpt from Lao She's Cat Country; and there are numerous stories from the rest of the world. Though clearly meant more for academic use than for cover-to-cover pleasure-reading, this sweeping panorama of fantasy is a must-have for those interested in the roots of modern fantasy, and it gives a welcome introduction to many unexpected delights.
