Lord Dunsany

Connavar

Connavar

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Since there weren't a thread about him i had to make it.

A general thread for your thoughts about this author,his works you have read etc


I'm reading The Collected Jorkens Vol.1 The Travel Tales of Mr Joseph Jorkens and Jorkens Remembers Africa.

Its different than i thought so far but in a pleasant way. Less poetic writing but short short stories that take you to exciting places and its so imaginative. I can see it all so clearly.
 
Well, there are a couple of threads about him at least:

Lord Dunsany - Science Fiction
Best of Lord Dunsany

I have read "The King of Elfland's Daughter" and the six collections of short stories collected in the Fantasy Masterworks edition "Time and the Gods":



I love the imagery, the feel and the humour that he creates in his stories.
 
Yeah i knew of those threads but this is general Dunsany thread. After all Science Fiction isnt what you read Dunsany for.

The imagery is my fav part with his prose style. Like Yeats says in cover blurbs of The King of Elfland's Daugther :

Lord Dunsany "who has imagined colors, ceremonies and incredible processions . . . has yet never wearied of the most universal of emotions and the one most constantly associated with the sense of beauty; and when we come to examine these astonishments that seemed so alien we find that he has but transfigured with beauty the commons sights of the world."
 
I'll never forget my first experience of Dunsany.

It must have been about 1976. I was like Jeffty, five. We (my mum, brother and myself) were homeless in Belfast and were being moved around various shelters and dingy flats. For a while the Housing Exec decided to put us in the notorious Divis Flats complex on the Falls. So we were shown into this unfurnished crawlspace; unfurnished apart from two things - a broken old rocking horse, and a faded hardback book called The World's 1000 Best Short Stories.

Divis was a very spooky place, tragic throughout its short 20 year span. And we knew all the terrible history of it - even at that age, we knew... could sense... the despair of that solitary generation of inhabitants. While we were huddled up for the first night, my mum decided to read us some short stories from the book. None of them were comforting and a few were disturbing, until she hit upon Dunsany's story The City On Mallington Moor. Well, that was it - the story transported us to the moor and the moor transported us to the city; Divis was quite gone. Dunsany to the rescue. She read it again, night after night, until they moved us from that awful place. It made such a tremendous impression on me back then, and even now my mind is still sometimes capable of opening in the way Dunsany bid it.

I reread the story from time to time, and I still have that exact book. :)
 
blacknorth said:
I'll never forget my first experience of Dunsany.

It must have been about 1976. I was like Jeffty, five. We (my mum, brother and myself) were homeless in Belfast and were being moved around various shelters and dingy flats. For a while the Housing Exec decided to put us in the notorious Divis Flats complex on the Falls. So we were shown into this unfurnished crawlspace; unfurnished apart from two things - a broken old rocking horse, and a faded hardback book called The World's 1000 Best Short Stories.

Divis was a very spooky place, tragic throughout its short 20 year span. And we knew all the terrible history of it - even at that age, we knew... could sense... the despair of that solitary generation of inhabitants. While we were huddled up for the first night, my mum decided to read us some short stories from the book. None of them were comforting and a few were disturbing, until she hit upon Dunsany's story The City On Mallington Moor. Well, that was it - the story transported us to the moor and the moor transported us to the city; Divis was quite gone. Dunsany to the rescue. She read it again, night after night, until they moved us from that awful place. It made such a tremendous impression on me back then, and even now my mind is still sometimes capable of opening in the way Dunsany bid it.

I reread the story from time to time, and I still have that exact book. :)
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That's is wonderful,to find comfort in Dunsany's writing :)

I myself think highly of his ability to transport you to his magical settings. From bland day to his stories.
 
AE35Unit said:
I've not read any of his but I loved the film wth Peter O Toole recently, Dean Spanley! Excellent movie!
I expect JD will pop up soon ;)
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I didn't even know anything about that movie. Is it based on a story by the same name? If so, I've never read it...
 
Fried Egg said:
I didn't even know anything about that movie. Is it based on a story by the same name? If so, I've never read it...
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Its a play, he was apparently a big playwright. Had many famous shows.

You can actually buy some of his plays today.
 
Not a play, but a short novel, My Talks with Dean Spanley. This is one of those I've not yet read, but I have read very positive comments on it... and I've seen the artwork that Sidney H. Sime (who worked with Dunsany so often, both being inspired by and inspiring him). From what I gather, it's a thoroughly enchanting little book... need to get a copy.....
 
j. d. worthington said:
Not a play, but a short novel, My Talks with Dean Spanley. This is one of those I've not yet read, but I have read very positive comments on it... and I've seen the artwork that Sidney H. Sime (who worked with Dunsany so often, both being inspired by and inspiring him). From what I gather, it's a thoroughly enchanting little book... need to get a copy.....
Click to expand...

You need to see the movie JD, its really really good, heartwarming and makes you think. And O'Toole is such a fine actor!
 
j. d. worthington said:
Not a play, but a short novel, My Talks with Dean Spanley. This is one of those I've not yet read, but I have read very positive comments on it... and I've seen the artwork that Sidney H. Sime (who worked with Dunsany so often, both being inspired by and inspiring him). From what I gather, it's a thoroughly enchanting little book... need to get a copy.....
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Weird how i got it mixed. I'm crushed i confused Dunsany info :p
 
I'm currently reading:



Once again I'm really impressed with his writing. He just seems to have such a wonderful way of putting things, a turn of phrase which I find...aesthetically pleasing.

It's been a while now since I've read any Dunsany and it makes me wonder why I've left it so long. Perhaps it's because I've read the most easilly available stuff and I'm now exploring his lesser known work...
 
If you want his lesser known works, Jorkens collections showed me a totally different side of Lord Dunsany that i enjoyed alot. They were many kind of stories adventure,sf,horror with more straight forward storytelling that you might expect from storytellers of that time like Doyle,ERB.

No wonder they were his most popular works in his days and the only series he did.
 
Yes, Dunsany is one of my favourites. I'm finalising my collection of all of his novels in 2010. The only thing I won't have will be a complete set of is the Jorkens tales but I'm content enough with my sample.

Despite certain "differences", we appear to have fairly similar tastes Mr. Egg....;)

Huh? Worthington hasn't read My Talks with Dean Spanley yet. Now that's a turn up for the books!....:rolleyes:

I guarantee you'll like it Sir.....:) I have the copy with the movie tie-in, so plenty of interesting photos of O'Toole and co.
 
GOLLUM said:
Despite certain "differences", we appear to have fairly similar tastes Mr. Egg....;)
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There are always differences. There are quite people I've encountered on line who share a lot of my tastes but there are always differences...such as your slightly increased predisposition for modern epic fantasy series. ;)
 
You forget to mention my penchant for fiction from the four corners of the world.......:D

So which Dunsany's are you planning to read next?
 
Well, assuming I don't run into something of his by chance in the second hand store (which I rarely do), I've got my eye on either "Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley" or "Fifty-one Tales".
 
Be aware of 51-one Tales is the shortest stories of his fiction lik 6-7 pages.

I'm thinking about a collection of his too. I have interest in his War stories about WI. Reading about real human tragedy with his magical writing,prose might be something.

Although i plan to buy two books of him so i don't starve on lack of Dunsany books at home ;)
War collection and one of his novels mostly like Don Rodriguez.

No more new authors, its time to collect more of Dunsany !
 
Fifty-one Tales also contains some of his most poignant writing; it is a very rich collection. Also be aware that The Charwoman's Shadow is a sequel (of sorts) to Don Rodriguez....
 
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