Monday, March 28, 2022

Oldfangled Fantasy: a much shorter list

  So, in contrast to Esquire's brief to catch the latest trends, here's a selection of the classics of the genre. It's what I consider the best of the best, the books I devoted a monthly installment of my old web-column Classics of Fantasy to. It's obviously incomplete; I'm currently working on a Recommended Reading list to cover books I wd have included if the column had run longer  (e.g., The Lord of the Rings). Obviously I don't expected anyone else to agree with every item --it's not that kind of list. But I hope these writers and works can be taken as books I'd recommend to anyone interested in modern fantasy, while also drawing attention to some lesser-read masters.

Enjoy.

--John R.


 

 I. The Well at the World's End (1896)  by William Morris  

 

 II. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (1974)  by Patricia A. McKillip      

 

 III. Ghost Stories of an Antiquarian (1904ff)   by M. R. James

 

 IV. Swords Against Death (1970)   by Fritz Leiber  

 

 V. Silverlock (1949)   by John Myers Myers

 

 VI. A Voyage to Arcturus (1920)   by David Lindsay

 

 VII. The Bridge of Birds (1984)   by Barry Hughart

 

 VIII. The Worm Ouroboros (1922)   by E. R. Eddison

 

 IX. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926)  by H. P. Lovecraft

 

 X. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)   by Ursula K. Le Guin

 

 XI. The Face in the Frost (1969)   by John Bellairs

 

 XII. The Night Land (1912)   by William Hope Hodgson

 

 XIII. Watership Down (1972)   by Richard Adams  

 

 XIV. The Book of Three Dragons (1930)   by Kenneth Morris

 

 XV. Tales of Averoigne (1929–1938) by Clark Ashton Smith

 

 XVI. The Books of Wonder (1910, 1912, 1916)  by Lord Dunsany

 

 XVII. The Hobbit (1937)   by J. R. R. Tolkien

 

 XVIII. Hobberty Dick (1955)   by Katharine Briggs            

 

 XIX.  Hour of the Dragon (1936)   by Robert E. Howard

 

 XX.  The Dying Earth (1950)   by Jack Vance

 

 XXI  Jurgen (1917)   by James Branch Cabell



4 comments:

  1. Rachel Maddux's novel The Green Kingdom has no magic, but might appeal to some readers of thoughtful fantasy. The late Ned Brooks used to recommend it. C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces is, I believe, not just an outstanding book in the fantasy genre, but a fine 20th-century novel.

    Dale Nelson

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  2. Dear Dale
    I was not aware of Maddux's novel. Now it goes on my (admittedly overambitious) to-read pile. Thanks.

    I've read TILL WE HAVE FACES only once, back in the summer of 1978. It was very well written --probably the best prose of all his fiction -- but I was so outraged by the big reveal that I've never been able to read it again.

    --JDR

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  3. I've praised them before, but I wonder that Mary Stewart, Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander, or Mary Renault didn't make your list. Admittedly, Renault's works might be considered historical fiction but they all have magic in them to one degree or another.

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  4. I know I've asked before but this seems a proper place to ask again, are the "Classics of Fantasy" articles available anywhere. or lost to the ether now? I did find this site, which has 15 of the articles printed in full. https://www.isegoria.net/category/media/classics-of-fantasy/

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