E. T. A. Hoffmann was one of the greatest figures of the German Romantic movement and a key influence on such great authors as Poe, Baudelaire, Dickens, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Kafka, and even Alfred Hitchcock; he was also well known as a music critic and composer. The story that follows is one of his most famous and often reprinted, a truly alluring chiller. THE SANDMAN (1816) by E. T. A. Hoffmann NATHANAEL TO LOTHAIR. I know you […]
William Morris was one of the chief influences on Tolkien’s legendarium and a writer to whom even he deferred; Tolkien first discovered him in his teens and studied him through his Oxford years the same way that modern teenagers discover Tolkien himself. Cribbed from the anthology Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy, edited by Douglas Anderson and available from Del Rey Books, this story retains an archaic style intermixed with lush poetry that would […]
Hailed by Lovecraft as one of the greatest practitioners of the weird tale, Blackwood may also have been read by Tolkien at some point. The novella that follows is one of his most famous stories – perhaps his signature – and rightly so, for it takes a remarkable talent to turn Nature into something horrific half through suggestion. It’s an excellent example of what is not seen being more effective. THE WILLOWS (1907) […]
In my second entry of my Masters of Fantasy series, I made mention of Lord Dunsany, who was something of a precursor to Tolkien. To whet your appetite, I give you this story, considered an early foray into sword-and-sorcery, from the 1908 collection The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories. THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE, SAVE FOR SACNOTH (1908) by Lord Dunsany In a wood older than record, a foster brother of the hills, stood the […]
Here’s something a little new. Unless/until I get a new separate section for something like this set up, this blog will occasionally dip into displaying examples of some of the authors that I talk about in my Masters of Fantasy section, though it may not always be the case as you’ll see here today. Nothing posted will be for profit – most stories will be in the public domain or reprinted from a collection if […]
It’s a rather recent development that fantasy is getting widespread critical acceptance. It’s strange, though. Fantasy isn’t something that should be dismissed as mere children’s work, and yet it seems that some of the most influential pieces have started as and/or are intended to be entertainment for children and young adults. Even The Lord of the Rings began that way. Still, some stigmatization exists, perpetuated by veins of literary snobbery, but that shouldn’t consign anything […]