Thursday, 26 February 2009 23:31
THN
- Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women (1858), The Light Princess and Lilith (1895) by George MacDonald. "Most myths were made in prehistoric times, and, I suppose, not conciously made by individuals at all. But every now and thenthere occurs in the modern world a genius - a Kafka or a Novalis - who can make such a story. MacDonald is the greatest genius of this kind whom I know." - C. S. Lewis
- "'Curiouser and Curiouser', said Alice." - Lewis Carrol. Alice's Adventures began in 1865.
- H. Rider Haggard imbued his adventure stories about Allan Quartermain with the experience he had in the South African civil service. Haggard's writing may strike the reader as belonging to an imperial apologist and misogynist, but they were a product of their time and remain classic adventure tales. Quartermain made his first appearance in King Solomon's Mines (1885) and would return in several sequels including Allan Quartermain (1887), Marie (1912), Child of Storm (1912), and Finished (1917). Other Haggard novels include She (1887), Nada the Lily (1892), Montezuma's Daughter (1893) and When the World Shook (1917).
- The Well at World's End (1896), A Dream of John Ball and a King's Lesson (1886-1887) by William Morris
"Scholars and historians of fantasy, such as my friend L. Sprague de Camp, agree that it was the English novelist, poet, and artisan William Morris (1834-96) who founded the genre of the heroic fantasy laid in imaginary Medieval lands or worlds where magic works." - Lin Carter
- "These tales have been compared with the work of Jules Verne and there was a disposition on the part of literary journalists at one time to call me the English Jules Verne. As of mater of fact there is no literary resemblance whatever between the anticipatory inventions of the Frenchman and these fantasies. His work dealt with almost always with actual possibilities of the invention and discovery, and he made some remarkable forecasts.... He helped his reader to imagine it done and to realise what fun, excitement or mischief would ensue.... But these stories of mine collected here do not pretend to deal with possible things..." - H. G. Wells
- Ernest Bramah Smith's "Oriental fantasies" The Wallet of Kai Lung (1899) Kai Lung's Golden Hours (1922) and The Mirror of Kong Ho are set in an invented, fantasy version of China - a device meant more as a means of commenting on English society of the time. In the first two of these selections, the narrator, Kai Lung, is used to string together a number of short stories that he tells while being brought in front of the magistrate for some difficulty or another. Lin Carter compares Bramah's wit and style to those of Jack Vance and James Branch Cabell.
- "Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instictive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal." - L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz (1900), the first of fourteen of his Oz tales.
- Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, Lord Dunsany. Irish Lord and master of fantasy, Dunsany began publishing in 1905 with The Gods of Pegana and kept churning out plays, poems, and short stories until his death in 1957.
- Charles Vess has collected a huge amount of Plunkett's tales, some of which may have only appeared in magazines, in Dunsany's Corner.
- Edgar Rice Burroughs' tales of fantastic adventure fiction have made a huge impact on American culture. John Carter of Mars, the hero of his first novel A Princess of Mars (1912), is said to be an inspiration for the creation of Superman. His Tarzan stories have been made into numerous movies and TV programs. Even this past summer has seen a movie spoof of the character.
- James Branch Cabell's Jurgen: a Comedy of Justice (1919) sets a Poictesme pawnbroker in a story involving Arthurian characters, the slavic demon Koshchei, God and the Devil.
- A. Merritt's adventure novels, including The Moon Pool, published in 1919, are full of elements of fantasy.
- James MacDonald's Library of the Fantastic is an archive of numerous public domain fantasy and horror tales including some by the above authors, as well as Chambers, Lord Byron, Polidori, and others.
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Early Fantasy & SF
