The Last
Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
I have to
admit, I hesitated about getting this book at first, because unicorns were sort
of girly. But Peter S. Beagle had written that section in “The Tolkien Reader”,
‘Tolkien’s Magic Ring’, so he had some cred. And it was in that Del Rey series,
but then it had a trippy cover by Gervasio Gallardo (a style my conservative
side was a little wary of still). Then I read it and was enchanted. A sort of
fractured fairy tale, told with a modern sensibility and an awareness of the
way such stories must work out, poetic, tongue in cheek sometimes,
heart-warming without being smarmy, and has that tang of loss and longing that
all the best tales have, it is a story redolent of the sad tail-end of the
60’s. Has since been made into an animated film by Rankin/Bass to a script
adapted by the author, and thus is one of the few such movies that really
satisfy. I now see there is a sequel, called “Two Hearts”.
Ranking:
Essential.
File Code:
Fantasy. Novel. Paperback.
A Fine and
Private Place, by Peter S. Beagle
A recluse
living in a New York cemetery, where a talking raven brings him food and a
daily paper, presides over the growing relationship between two lonely ghosts
who find each other beyond the grave, and must finally decide whether he wants
to leave the sterile security of his refuge and live again. A beautiful
reflection on life, love and death; a New York romance with shades of “Topper”
and Yiddish comedy (in the person of the widow who befriends the recluse and
helps lure him back to the living). Written before “The Last Unicorn”, I think
it is Beagle’s 2nd best book. I found the fearful recluse -
relatable.
Ranking:
Essential.
File Code:
Fantasy. Novel. Paperback.
Lud-in-the-Mist,
by Hope Mirlees.
A Ballantine
Books Adult Fantasy with one of the more delicate Gervasio Gallardo covers,
this is a miracle of a book that I treasure oh-so-carefully. In the sturdy town
of Lud-in-the-Mist, which has banished Fancy, Mayor Nathaniel Chanticleer is
haunted by strange feelings and longings that seem to be connected with the
town’s forbidden past. He also must deal with the importation of fairy fruit,
that comes down the river from the Elfin Hills. They who eat it are infected
with a divine discontent and become poets, madmen, or fools. Can he restore the
balance between Imagination and Commonsense? I love the setting, which is like
the Puritan times after the chaotic glory of the Elizabethan age, where
memories of how things used to be quite inter … I mean, quite upsetting.
Mysterious, poetic, and as sturdy as Tolkien’s Hobbits or Irving’s Dutch, the
land of Dorimare and its people live in my heart. The poem ‘Columbine’ that
weaves in and out of the tale – haunting!
Ranking:
ESSENTIAL.
File Code:
Fantasy. Novel. Paperback.
Beyond the Fields
We Know, and At the Edge of the World, by Lord Dunsany.
These two
books are anthologies of Lord Dunsany’s short stories, and are part of the
fabled Ballantine Books Adult Fantasy line, that not only reprinted old
classics like Dunsany, Morris, and Eddison, but also introduced (then)
up-and-comers like Katherine Kurtz and Peter S. Beagle. “Beyond” has a cover by
Gervasio Gallardo. Dunsany is renowned for his nomenclature and world building;
other writers like Lovecraft and Cabell adored him.
Ranking:
Essential.
File Code:
Fantasy. Anthologies. Paperback.
The King of
Elfland’s Daughter, by Lord Dunsany
A complete
novel in the Ballantine Fantasy line-up, with a cover by Darrell K. Sweet. This
is obviously the ancestor of Hope Mirrlees’ “Lud-in-the-Mist” and Neil Gaiman’s
“Stardust”. The people of the Vale of Erle want to bring magic into their land,
so they send their prince to Faerie to woo the King of Elfland’s daughter. He
comes back with a bride, and more trouble than his people ever imagined. The realms
of Imagination and Commonsense clash again! Or perhaps I should say for the
first time, literarily speakin’.
Ranking:
Essential.
No comments:
Post a Comment