So, in my dissertation I made large claims to Dunsany's importance --not just that he was hugely influential (both directly in his own time and secondarily through writers he influenced like Lovecraft and Tolkien) but his work deserves high praise in its own right.
The question arises: if Dunsany is the best of the best when it comes to the fantasy short story in English, who are his peers or near-peers?
--John R.
16 comments:
Taken as a whole, Howard and Lovecraft fall short, but they both, IMO, have individual stories that surpassed Dunsany's best, IMO. Dunsany was more consistent, and his work was not marred by obvious prejudice as badly as much of Howard & Lovecraft's work.
I'm currently rereading CA Smith's Averoigne tales, his work is such an excellent amalgam of Poe & Dunsany, I think he is as consistent as Dunsany and over all as good.
Poul Anderson produced some very, very good short stories, especially the Cappen Varra tales.
But I think the king of the short story form for the fantasy genre (not quibbling over high/low nor Sword & Sorcery but fantasy as a whole) is Fritz Leiber.
But here are a few out of left-field contestants. Lynn Abbey. CJ Cherryh, Janet Morris, and Diana Paxson all produced superlative short stories for the Thieves' World anthologies. As did Andrew Offutt.
I've not gotten that much out of Fritz Leiber but he did write one story which is truly, truly great: "Space-Time for Springers."
Patricia A. McKillip published several short-story collections.
A favorite short by an author I know very little else about is "Flight" by Peter Dickinson. (Not at all related to his book The Flight of Dragons.)
Both of these give me the same goosebumps as the best Dunsany stories.
John, from the time I was 14-15, Dunsany and Edgar Rice Burroughs are probably the two authors who have fallen most in my esteem. Your forthcoming book might help me to find Dunsany more satisfactory after all. I have revisited himself several times in late years, and almost always I'm disappointed because of the sheer inconsequentiality of the work. The much-praised Dunsanian nomenclature seems largely a matter of obvious invention modeled on (English notions of) Asian or Arabian names. The gods are without majesty. The "cosmic" viewpoint seems adolescent. Dunsany makes a point of the stories being mere dreams (some at least), understood as having no connection with real human concerns. Even "The Hoard of the Gibbelins," always a favorite, seems kind of cheap in its sardonic humor. I don't wish to offend those who read him with pleasure still. Perhaps I'll start enjoying him again someday. But where I can reread the fantasy of Tolkien, Le Guin (the first 3 Earthsea books anyway), Lewis, Morris, the intelligible books by Garner, &c. with enjoyment... I keep my Dunsany books mostly for sentimental reasons; although The Charwoman's Shadow was mildly enjoyable.
FWIW. This is a quick comment, not testimony under oath.
Dale Nelson
James Branch Cabell, I think.
I second the nominations of Fritz Leiber and Poul Anderson, and I'd like to add C.L. Moore to the list. I can't say why, exactly, but her stories always felt like Dunsany's to me, but dark and twisted instead of light and snarky.
Dear Paul W:
I agree that Clark Ashton Smith is a far better writer than R. E. Howard or H. P. Lovecraft, though the latter two were more influential. All three have a chapter apiece in CLASSICS OF FANTASY.
I've only read a relatively small amount of Poul Anderson, though each time I do I'm reminded how good he is.
And Fritz Leiber of course, who performed the rare feat of excelling in fantasy, horror, and science fiction (esp. The Change Wars)
I shd probably re-read Cherry's Morgaine series; I originally read them as they were coming out and thought they were good (with the last in the series the best) but I was uncertain if they were great. As for the others you name, the Paxson I read and enjoyed without ever going back and wanting to re-read them. I never read the Janet Morris, while Abby and Offutt just struck me as generic fantasy.
--John R.
Dear David:
Thanks for singling out the Leiber story. Don't know if I've read that one or not; I'll have to track it down and check.
McKillip's THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD is a work of genius, but I've always felt the rest of her work (I've read about ten or twelve of her books) was essentially writing the same book over and over again. Still, given how good her best is, I shd check out the short stories..
The Peter Dickinson I've never heard of and will add it to my 'to do' list of things to read (sooner rather than later); thanks for the mention.
--John R.
Dear Wurmbrand
Yes, it's dismaying to pick up an old favorite from years ago and find that it's lost the magic. Either it or you (or both) has changed, and I don't know of any way to undo the results.
Of the authors you mention, the only one who I think excels is Le Guin, especially her earlier short stories. Neither Tolkien nor (God knows) Wm Morris found the short form congenial to their talents. So far as C. S. Lewis goes I'm pretty much an odd-man-out with my low opinion of Narnia. Garner I've always wished I liked better than I do. And Burroughs is for me one of those great examples of of someone who had a striking idea and then found himself having to write sequel after sequel, rehash after rehash. His attempts to start up other series found these quickly slipping into further rote. For someone who wrote so much, you'd expect more variety. It's not true that he only had one book in him, but it's nearer to the truth than you'd think.
But with Dunsany I'm more fortunate than you. In the years since I first read his tales I've found them endlessly rereadable, like brewing up a pot of my favorite tea.
--John R.
Mykhailo Nazarenko said...
James Branch Cabell, I think.
Dear M. N.
Cabell is definitely one of the greats, but I'd say he has not aged well, mainly due to his penchant for unlikeable protagonists. And he certainly had no particular talent for short form fiction -- how many volumes comprise THE MIND OF MANUEL?
--John R.
Dear Joe
"I second the nominations of Fritz Leiber and Poul Anderson, and I'd like to add C.L. Moore to the list. I can't say why, exactly, but her stories always felt like Dunsany's to me, but dark and twisted instead of light and snarky."
Moore is good but I'm not sure if she's great. In retrospect, perhaps a little too close to her peers (esp. Clark Ashton Smith), not quite distinctive enough, except when moving into new territory, like "Shambleau". Which probably means it's time for me to reread her and give her fantasy short stories another try.
--John R
Thanks for your response, John, and I hope mine was OK even though I wandered from the assigned focus on short fiction.
John,
If you'd read "Space-Time for Springers" you'd remember it. It is the all-time great fantasy story about cats. It's been often anthologized.
Dickinson's "Flight" can't be found much of anywhere besides its original publication in Robin McKinley's anthology Imaginary Lands. Very unusually for fiction, it's written in the form of a historical treatise, complete with footnotes. I love that, the more so as it's full of ironies and sardonic humor, not really very Dunsanyesque in tone but the pleasure I get from it is akin to the pleasure I get from Dunsany.
Might Jack Vance qualify? The Dying Earth is a collection of related but nearly independent stories, and The Eyes of the Overworld was originally published as short stories in Fantasy and Science Fiction, I believe. Vance wrote later Dying Earth stories too. I wonder if there isn't more of the Dunsanian spirit in his stories than there is in the others mentioned here. I don't have my copy right at hand, but the first Overworld story contains an amusing bit of dialog as I recall between a prospective thief and a merchant or wizard in which the latter slyly warns the former about a "captive grue" or erb chained within -- I'd have to look it up, but I could see Dunsany appreciating it. There's an emphasis on continual invention in these stories that seems Dunsanian to me and different from the others here mentioned.
Dale Nelson
My CJ Cherryh reading has ben confined to her Thieves' World short stories, which I really enjoy, one or two of which are very good. I keep intending to read the works she is better known for, like the Morgaine series,but have yet to do so.
The rest of my selections were focused on writers from Thieves World, and I can see the "generic" fantasy thought, though the series was ground breaking at the time. But perhaps it isn't quite the same, since though the anthologies are all short stories, they are in the same setting, share connected plots, and are usually the same protagonist story after story, rather like Conan in Howard's tales. Dunsany's tales often shared a setting, but I don't believe he ever carried a protagonist over from one tale to another.
Mention of Cabell always reminds me of John Howard's Johannes Cabel and he wrote several excellent short stories about that character. I hope he is still writing.
Many thanks to all who participated and contributed to the interesting results.
I'll look forward to hunting up ones I hadn't read.
Even if I set aside for now suggestions that fall outside the parameters (fantasy, short story, in English), there's a wide range of what people think is the best of the best.
If I were drawing up such a list, Ray Bradbury wd not just be on it but at or near the top (i.e. he's not on my list as ranking above Dunsany because his best work's not in fantasy). Zelazny wd be on it, except his best work is s.f., not fantasy. Le Guin wd be on it (her early- and mid-period short stories are particularly good). Leiber is hard to tell; he excelled in f, sf, and horror, but I'm beginning to worry that he may not age well.* As for anyone still alive and working in the field, I'd suggest Neil Gaiman is on his way it not already.
I guess we'll wait and see.
--John R.
--current reading: WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON AND THE RISE OF THE WEIRD: POSSIBILITIES OF THE DARK by Timothy Murphey.
*whereas I'm hoping he does a Clark Ashton Smith.
Susanna Clarke is in my opinion excellent as a short-story writer, but her body of work in this vein is tiny: besides the stories in The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories there are only three published elsewhere (and for the third, I am actually not sure if it has appeared in print; the BBC has it as a reading).
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