The Book Of Wonder

By Lord Dunsany

Widely documented as an influence on J.R.R. Tolkien’s own writing, The Book of Wonder is a collection of short stories penned by renowned Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany (Edward J. M. D. Plunkett), the 18th Baron of Dunsany. Filled with magic, intrigue, and adventure, The Book of Wonder is a must-read for fantasy enthusiasts of all ages.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Feb 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781443414524

Lord Dunsany

Lord Dunsany (1878-1957) was a British writer. Born in London, Dunsany—whose name was Edward Plunkett—was raised in a prominent Anglo-Irish family alongside a younger brother. When his father died in 1899, he received the title of Lord Dunsany and moved to Dunsany Castle in 1901. He met Lady Beatrice Child Villiers two years later, and they married in 1904. They were central figures in the social spheres of Dublin and London, donating generously to the Abbey Theatre while forging friendships with W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, and George William Russell. In 1905, he published The Gods of Pegāna, a collection of fantasy stories, launching his career as a leading figure in the Irish Literary Revival. Subsequent collections, such as A Dreamer’s Tales (1910) and The Book of Wonder (1912), would influence generations of writers, including J. R. R. Tolkein, Ursula K. Le Guin, and H. P. Lovecraft. In addition to his pioneering work in the fantasy and science fiction genres, Dunsany was a successful dramatist and poet. His works have been staged and adapted for theatre, radio, television, and cinema, and he was unsuccessfully nominated for the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Reviews for The Book Of Wonder

[deusxmachina-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Dunsany's stories provide a welcome diversion from modern fantasy. The stories are short and very barebones in terms of plot and character development, nothing of the epicness about them that we have to come to associate with fantasy, at least since Tolkien. Focus is on setting and imagery - it's more about creating pictures in the reader's mind than telling a coherent storyline. Especially the endings are often very abrupt and left hanging, without the happy resolution (or any resolution at all) the reader might expect.I read (got read) these more like fairy tales or parables than as full-grown stories.

[wvlibrarydude · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a collection of stories that I will return to later. Back in middle school I went through a phase of reading myths and folktales from around the world. This collection reminds me of those stories with a seasoning of fantasy. A wonderful collection to be savored some times for just the wondrous language that Dunsany weaves.

[atimco-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lord Dunsany's fantasy is unlike any I have ever read, and the best description I can give of these short stories is that they read like a collection of dark nursery rhymes, without the nursery and without the rhymes but with that strange sense of logical illogic that characterizes the more memorable of the genre. You know how some Mother Goose nursery rhymes are so illogical and make no sense outside their own little world contained in a few lines of rhyme? That is just how these stories are: nonsensically sensible little snippets of a different world.These stories are very short with the same brevity of a nursery rhyme intent on fitting its setting, characters, and story into four or so lines. And they mostly end unhappily. The brave hero going off to face the monster is killed (and eaten). Two little idols become rivals and their battle causes an earthquake that ruins their temple. Things end neatly, but not happily.Wikipedia renders a fascinating fact: Dunsany's illustrator, Sidney Sime, was complaining that he did not get to illustrate the type of stories he preferred, so Dunsany suggested that Sime draw whatever he liked and he would write this collection of tales around the illustrations. Perhaps this accounts for the dark tone of the tales; the austere, detailed tone of Sime's fabulous illustrations rather precludes the usual happy fairytale.I read this collection in one sitting and while I can't say I really loved it, it had its own reality about it, rather like the sensation of a vivid dream that you try to recapture not because it was a particularly wonderful dream, but for its arresting sense of really having happened.

[wisewoman_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lord Dunsany's fantasy is unlike any I have ever read, and the best description I can give of these short stories is that they read like a collection of dark nursery rhymes, without the nursery and without the rhymes but with that strange sense of logical illogic that characterizes the more memorable of the genre. You know how some Mother Goose nursery rhymes are so illogical and make no sense outside their own little world contained in a few lines of rhyme? That is just how these stories are: nonsensically sensible little snippets of a different world.These stories are very short with the same brevity of a nursery rhyme intent on fitting its setting, characters, and story into four or so lines. And they mostly end unhappily. The brave hero going off to face the monster is killed (and eaten). Two little idols become rivals and their battle causes an earthquake that ruins their temple. Things end neatly, but not happily.Wikipedia renders a fascinating fact: Dunsany's illustrator, Sidney Sime, was complaining that he did not get to illustrate the type of stories he preferred, so Dunsany suggested that Sime draw whatever he liked and he would write this collection of tales around the illustrations. Perhaps this accounts for the dark tone of the tales; the austere, detailed tone of Sime's fabulous illustrations rather precludes the usual happy fairytale.I read this collection in one sitting and while I can't say I really loved it, it had its own reality about it, rather like the sensation of a vivid dream that you try to recapture not because it was a particularly wonderful dream, but for its arresting sense of really having happened.