What is your opinion of these 3 Authors;John Wyndham, Mervyn Peake,Lord Dunsany?

I've read part of The Day of the Triffids and some short fiction by John Wyndham and enjoyed it.

I've tried to read Gormenghast and The King of Elfland's Daughter. Both put me to sleep.
 
I just found this:

The King of Elfland's Daughter, by Lord Dunsany

Of course fantasy people don't believe in technology for reading books.
It's just unmagical! LOL

That is from 1969, relatively recent for Project Gutenberg. Oops! That was their source material, the story is from 1924.

There is a bunch of his stuff:

gutenberg.org

Books: Lord dunsany (sorted by popularity)

Project Gutenberg offers 74,540 free eBooks for Kindle, iPad, Nook, Android, and iPhone.
gutenberg.org gutenberg.org
 
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Extollager said:
Dunsany -- He was one of my favorite authors when I was an adolescent, but I haven't cared for much of what I have read when I've taken him up again in the past 20 years or so. If I were to try him again now, I would take up The Charwoman's Shadow, of which I was very fond almost 50 years ago. His mythological embroidery has no interest now.

Wyndham has seemed to provide fast-read fare in Triffids, etc. -- the novel to start with, without question.

Peake -- I've just read Titus Groan for the third time and am about 80 pages into Gormenghast. At his best, he provokes admiration with the vividness and freshness of his imagination, which is strongly visual: in this he reminds me of G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who was Thursday, etc. However, he can be unusually self-indulgent too. He deserves a try, but you will have to meet him on his terms. His work will be intolerable if you try to read it while requiring an eventful Fantasy Novel.

I'm inclined to guess that Dunsany's importance was overestimated half a century ago when the Ballantine fantasy series was being edited by Lin Carter with blurbs from his collaborator L. Sprague de Camp. In a book I reviewed a few weeks ago, for example, Peter Grybauskas -- without documentation although his book was from a respected academic publisher -- asserted that Tolkien admired Dunsany's short stories. We do not know that Tolkien did. We can be pretty sure he read three of them ("The Hoard of the Gibbelins," "The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind<" and "Chu-Bu and Sheemish" -- none of which is Tolkienian, btw). The only one of the three, so far as I remember, that Tolkien specifically avaluted was "Thangobrind," which Tolkien disliked. I would guess he read more Dunsany stories than these. If Dunsany influenced Tolkien very early one, Tolkien outgrew that influence early.

My 2c as of today.
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Should be:

The only one of the three, so far as I remember, that Tolkien specifically evaluated was "Thangobrind," which Tolkien disliked. I would guess he read more Dunsany stories than these. If Dunsany influenced Tolkien very early on, Tolkien outgrew that influence early.

I'd stand by these assessments. I didn't persist with Gormenghast. That book has defeated me about as often as any fantasy classic that I have tried to reread. Yet I do want to read it a second time. But that Prunesquallor stuff! Gahh!
 
Bombadil grew on me. I think he is significant for at least two reasons.

1.He supplies the book with a "point of rest."
2.The Lord of the Rings is about love, about the four loves. Bombadil and Goldberry embody that aspect of eros that relates to being newlyweds.

I've written articles on both of these topics.

The "point of rest" idea was Victorian poet Coventry Patmore's brilliant insight into the way works of visual and literary art need a "point of indifference/rest" that helps the picture or narrative as a whole to cohere. I won't attempt to summarize all that he says in one posting. I think that the lack of effect on Bombadil of the Ring is vitally important in a story with so much movement, so many things to ponder. It can be there in the back of our minds. If I try to imagine LotR without the Bombadil episode, I get something that's lost more than one might think. I'm not saying that Tolkien was fully conscious of this; consciously, he may have just thought he was adding an adventure, an episode, to the main story about which he was feeling his way. But he was a genius.

The Lord of the Rings deals with all four of the four loves: affection, friendship, romantic love, self-giving love. That is one reason it is so important for many readers today who do not really get much refreshment of their sense of the loves from the things they watch and read or from the culture in general. Tolkien puts us in touch with fundamental things that still apply for human flourishing. Anyway, Bombadil and Goldberry have been together "forever," yet they are "newlyweds." That's why Bombadil is so happy to bring his wife flowers and make up silly rhymes. Look, I know this because I experienced it. I didn't consciously imitate Bombadil when I was newly married -- I only realized later on why I had behaved like that -- with the presents, the rhyming, for my lady. Bombadil and Goldberry will "always" be like that as long as Middle-earth permits. They are not very much in time. Hence Bombadil would be of no real help with the Ring, which does belong to time.

But so far as I could tell, Peake wrote endless passages of Prunesquallor and Irma because that was fun for him. Maybe it is fun for some readers. I don't recall its (dare I say) thematic significance being such as justify so much of it. But maybe I need a new way of looking at it. Here I am if you've got that.

1672251371814.png

Patmore says that in the Raphael painting, the Infant's heel provides the "point of indifference" that actually helps the whole composition cohere. He says, as I recall, that you should consider the painting if the heel were not exposed; that it would lose something despite the "indifferent" value of the heel in itself.
 
I've only read Wyndham and like the three I've read. The Chrysalids was on our school curriculum so I read it as a teen. Saw then read both The Day of the Triffids and Midwich Cuckoos. All good in my opinion.
(I like the orriginal Village of the Damned best, though I thought the American version added a nice twist with the one slightly different kid.)
 
I might have said this elsewhere: Prunesquallor is the cleverest person in the story, and a counterpoint to Steerpike. Prune stands apart from the other functionaries and servants, and although he is loyal to Groan he is independent of it. He has a silly facade, but in the end he is fearless and incisive. Irma is stupid and conceited, and her brother is well aware of this.
 
AE35Unit said:
Tom Bombadill was a sad omission from the films IMO
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Equally in my opinion, I'm grateful that Jackson didn't attempt to film Bombadil. It would take a genius, or group of geniuses, really to convey Bombadil. Jackson was not that. I don't mean to start, or to participate in, an extended discussion of his movies here, but, in my opinion, he misses the Tolkienian magic repeatedly. Just one more instance: his conception of Lothlorien is of a rather eerie place, something like the Greek Hades -- "drifting crowds of shadowy figures" -- almost the opposite of Tolkien's conception, which is, to put it crudely, of a place "more alive" than most of the rest of the world (Rivendell might be excepted).

Seriously: if Jackson had attempted Bombadil, what do you think, based on what he did to Tolkien's material elsewhere, the result would likely have been?

 
hitmouse said:
I might have said this elsewhere: Prunesquallor is the cleverest person in the story, and a counterpoint to Steerpike. Prune stands apart from the other functionaries and servants, and although he is loyal to Groan he is independent of it. He has a silly facade, but in the end he is fearless and incisive. Irma is stupid and conceited, and her brother is well aware of this.
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OK, thank you: that might be just what I need. Armed with that insight, I think I'll tackle Gormenghast again soon. Perhaps I'll let you know if the point comes when I feel like giving up again!
 
Dont get too bogged down in the Prune bits such as his party. The second half of the book is dark and gripping.
 
Well, I'm up to Chapter 9 of Gormenghast, and except for twinge or two with the doctor and Irma, I'm liking it a lot.
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The photo is one I found online, but mine actually looks a teensy bit better. I was given a first edition some months ago and that’s what I’m reading. Yes, that’s Peake’s design.
 
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