Classic fantasy?

[edrick]

I love Lord Dunsany and his wonderful dreamy writing.

 

[yngvi]

Theodore Sturgeon was an author whose works included horror, straight SF and Fantasy. I had copies of 'The Dreaming Jewels' and 'E Pluribus Unicorn'. The latter's original cost was 2/6- (two shillings and sixpence) but this eventually literally fell apart. I also once read The Dreaming Jewels in French (Cristal qui Songe I think) He was a fine author, reminiscent of Bradbury.

 

[Randy M.]

Oh, what the heck, a few oldies come to mind ...

Sturgeon's a good call. Several of the writers who wrote for Unknown published collections mixing s.f., fantasy and horror and would be worth reading; for instance, Anthony Boucher, Eric Frank Russell and Fredric Brown. I think Zenna Henderson came later, but I recall her The Anything Box being along those lines, too.

The Complete Works of Saki: I misplaced my Everyman edition of Saki so when I came across this last month I snatched it up. I've only just begun (re-)reading a few of the short stories, and not all of it is fantasy, but since John Collier was mentioned, Saki (a.k.a., H. H. Munro) should be, too.

Ray Bradbury: Something Wicked this Way Comes & The October Country.

Fritz Leiber: Our Lady of Darkness

Something first published in the "border" year of 1980: The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll.

Lastly, Peter Beagle: The Last Unicorn & A Fine and Private Place


Randy M.

 

[BAYLOR]

I love Lord Dunsany and his wonderful dreamy writing.

The King of Elfland's Daughter and The Charwoman's Shadow . Magnificent .

 

[aThenian]

There's loads of recommendations for classic sf in here but when it comes to fantasy it seems people only read modern stuff. I.e. post 1980...but what of the classics...
The only name I can think of is Tolkien

I think this might be because Tolkien is very much the founder of fantasy as a "genre" - at least for adult readers. What is defined today as "fantasy" tends to have a lot of elements from his work - magic, wizards, a quasi-Medieval world, non-human beings, a quest etc. LOTR became hugely popular in the 60s - so maybe the people who read LOTR then ended up writing "fantasy" in a similar style later - so that's why there is so much from the 1980s onwards.

Of course there are other traditions - e.g. ghost stories which go back a long way (Wilkie Collins, Dickens) but although they are not realist I don't think most readers would think of them as fantasy - you don't find them on the fantasy shelf usually.

There is a big pre-Tolkien fantasy tradition in children's writing - in fact, Tolkien comes out of that tradition - The Hobbit is very much a children's book. So there is lots of pre 1980s classic fantasy for younger readers - @Teresa Edgerton mentions Alan Garner and Susan Cooper, and there are earlier writers like John Masefield (The Midnight Folk, The Box of Delights) or George MacDonald's Curdies books/At the Back of the North Wind - think these are supposed to have influenced either Tolkien or C.S.Lewis. This tradition ties in with fairytales, folktales and legends, which always seem to end up on the children's shelves even though originally, in oral form, they probably weren't aimed at children. And then there's Lewis Carroll's Alice. I think of Ursula le Guin's Earthsea as basically a children's book and part of this tradition.

Gormenghast seems like something on its own to me. It's not a children's book, and it's definitely very different from Tolkien and his medieval-type quest world. I don't know what Peake's influences were, and although its hugely admired by some, I don't think it's influenced subsequent writers in the way that Tolkien has. But yes, a fantasy and a classic.

 

[AE35Unit]

That's interesting, the observation on Collins, Dickens etc and horror. To me horror IS fantasy in the sense that it's not realist. It's dark escapism.

 

[Bick]

I read Anderson's The Broken Sword last week, and I believe it's up there alongside Tolkien. A work that suggests a depth of knowledge and understanding of old myth and saga by Anderson. It reads more like a traditional 'saga' than many new fantasies, with some distance evoked between us and the story, and told in a way that seems almost precis, at times, but with depth of information and thought. This distant third person style gives it a sense of verisimilitude, making it seem like it might have been passed down through the ages, as opposed to invented in the 20th century. In this way, it's much more like Tolkien's The Silmarillion that LOTR or The Hobbit. Excellent stuff, and quite unlike Anderson's usual style.

 

[AE35Unit]

I read Anderson's The Broken Sword last week, and I believe it's up there alongside Tolkien. A work that suggests a depth of knowledge and understanding of old myth and saga by Anderson. It reads more like a traditional 'saga' than many new fantasies, with some distance evoked between us and the story, and told in a way that seems almost precis, at times, but with depth of information and thought. This distant third person style gives it a sense of verisimilitude, making it seem like it might have been passed down through the ages, as opposed to invented in the 20th century. In this way, it's much more like Tolkien's The Silmarillion that LOTR or The Hobbit. Excellent stuff, and quite unlike Anderson's usual style.

That sounds quite interesting, is it a stand alone novel?

 

[Bick]

That sounds quite interesting, is it a stand alone novel?

It is indeed, and not even an especially long one (a fact GRRM might care to consider).

 

[BAYLOR]

I read Anderson's The Broken Sword last week, and I believe it's up there alongside Tolkien. A work that suggests a depth of knowledge and understanding of old myth and saga by Anderson. It reads more like a traditional 'saga' than many new fantasies, with some distance evoked between us and the story, and told in a way that seems almost precis, at times, but with depth of information and thought. This distant third person style gives it a sense of verisimilitude, making it seem like it might have been passed down through the ages, as opposed to invented in the 20th century. In this way, it's much more like Tolkien's The Silmarillion that LOTR or The Hobbit. Excellent stuff, and quite unlike Anderson's usual style.

It's my favorite Poul Anderson novel .

 

[Extollager]

One of these days I'll have to revisit Anderson's Hrolf Kraki's Saga, a Ballantine Fantasy Series entry. I read it as soon as it was published, in late 1973, and not since... Shortly afterwards I began to read translations of the sagas -- Laxdaela, Gisli's, Grettir's, etc.

 

[BAYLOR]

One of these days I'll have to revisit Anderson's Hrolf Kraki's Saga, a Ballantine Fantasy Series entry. I read it as soon as it was published, in late 1973, and not since... Shortly afterwards I began to read translations of the sagas -- Laxdaela, Gisli's, Grettir's, etc.

Ive never heard of this one , wow.