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| father of modern fantasy literature: The King of Elfland's Daughter Lord Dunsany, 2022-05-31 From “one of the greatest writers of this century,” a fantasy masterpiece about the aftermath of a marriage between a mortal prince and an elfin princess. —Arthur C. Clarke Before the fellowships and wardrobes and dire wolves . . . . . . there was the village of Erl and the Kingdom of Elfland. Considered formative to the development of the fairy tale and high fantasy subgenres, The King of Elfland's Daughter follows Alveric, who leaves home on a quest with a few basic instructions: locate the Princess Lirazel in Elfland, convince her to return to Erl and marry him, and together produce the first magical Lord of Erl. But what happens when a village gets exactly what it asked for? How does an elf learn to live as a human? Is love lost once, lost forever? The people of Erl are about to find out. Take a walk through the fields we know and see if you can spot the pale-blue peaks of the Elfland Mountains. Fans of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Neil Gaiman will adore Lord Dunsany’s influential 1924 classic as much as those authors themselves did. “No amount of mere description can convey more than a fraction of Lord Dunsany's pervasive charm.” —H. P. Lovecraft “We find that he has but tranfigured with beauty the common sights of the world.” —William Butler Yeats “No one can understand modern fantasy without understanding its roots, and Lord Dunsany's work is immediately significant as well as enjoyable even today.” —Katharine Kerr “A fantasy novel in a class with the Tolkien books.”—L. Sprague de Camp |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Worm Ouroboros Eric Rücker Eddison, 1922 |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy Douglas A. Anderson, Ludwig Tieck, George MacDonald, E. Nesbit, Richard Garnett, 2003-08-26 Terry Brooks. David Eddings. George R. R. Martin. Robin Hobb. The top names in modern fantasy all acknowledge J. R. R. Tolkien as their role model, the author whose work inspired them to create their own epics. But what writers influenced Tolkien himself? Here, internationally recognized Tolkien expert Douglas A. Anderson has gathered the fiction of authors who sparked Tolkien’s imagination in a collection destined to become a classic in its own right. Andrew Lang’s romantic swashbuckler, “The Story of Sigurd,” features magic rings, an enchanted sword, and a brave hero loved by two beautiful women— and cursed by a ferocious dragon. Tolkien read E. A. Wyke-Smith’s “The Marvelous Land of Snergs” to his children, delighting in these charming tales of a pixieish people “only slightly taller than the average table.” Also appearing in this collection is a never-before-published gem by David Lindsay, author of Voyage to Arcturus, a novel which Tolkien praised highly both as a thriller and as a work of philosophy, religion, and morals. In stories packed with magical journeys, conflicted heroes, and terrible beasts, this extraordinary volume is one that no fan of fantasy or Tolkien should be without. These tales just might inspire a new generation of creative writers. Tales Before Tolkien: 22 Magical Stories “The Elves” by Ludwig Tieck “The Golden Key” by George Macdonald “Puss-Cat Mew” by E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen “The Griffin and the Minor Canon” by Frank R. Stockton “The Demon Pope” by Richard Garnett “The Story of Sigurd” by Andrew Lang “The Folk of the Mountain Door” by William Morris “Black Heart and White Heart” by H. Rider Haggard “The Dragon Tamers” by E. Nesbit “The Far Islands” by John Buchan “The Drawn Arrow” by Clemence Housman “The Enchanted Buffalo” by L. Frank Baum “Chu-bu and Sheemish” by Lord Dunsany “The Baumhoff Explosive” by William Hope Hodgson “The Regent of the North” by Kenneth Morris “The Coming of the Terror” by Arthur Machen “The Elf Trap” by Francis Stevens “The Thin Queen of Elfhame” by James Branch Cabell “The Woman of the Wood” by A. Merritt “Golithos the Ogre” by E. A. Wyke-Smith “The Story of Alwina” by Austin Tappan Wright “A Christmas Play” by David Lindsay |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth Catherine McIlwaine, 2018-10-15 |
| father of modern fantasy literature: To Reign in Hell Steven Brust, 2007-04-01 The time is the Beginning. The place is Heaven. The story is the Revolt of the Angels—a war of magic, corruption and intrigue that could destroy the universe. To Reign in Hell was Stephen Brust's second novel, and it's a thrilling retelling of the revolt of the angels, through the lens of epic fantasy. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD William Morris, 2017-08-11 Aa fantasy novel by he celebrated poet and artist William Morris that brings together an imagined world with the supernatural, the foreigner of present-day fantasy literature. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Reading My Father Alexandra Styron, 2011-04-19 PART MEMOIR AND PART ELEGY, READING MY FATHER IS THE STORY OF A DAUGHTER COMING TO KNOW HER FATHER AT LAST— A GIANT AMONG TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN NOVELISTS AND A MAN WHOSE DEVASTATING DEPRESSION DARKENED THE FAMILY LANDSCAPE. In Reading My Father, William Styron’s youngest child explores the life of a fascinating and difficult man whose own memoir, Darkness Visible, so searingly chronicled his battle with major depression. Alexandra Styron’s parents—the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. A drinker, a carouser, and above all “a high priest at the altar of fiction,” Styron helped define the concept of The Big Male Writer that gave so much of twentieth-century American fiction a muscular, glamorous aura. In constant pursuit of The Great Novel, he and his work were the dominant force in his family’s life, his turbulent moods the weather in their ecosystem. From Styron’s Tidewater, Virginia, youth and precocious literary debut to the triumphs of his best-known books and on through his spiral into depression, Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life, offering a ringside seat on a great literary generation’s friendships and their dramas. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written, with humor, compassion, and grace. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Rose Daughter Robin McKinley, 2014-11-18 Award-winning author Robin McKinley tells an enthralling story of magic, love, and redemption, based on the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast. Once upon a time, a wealthy merchant had three daughters. When his business failed, he moved his daughters to the countryside. The youngest daughter, Beauty, is fascinated by the thorny stems of a mysterious plant that overwhelms their neglected cottage. She tends the plant until it blossoms with the most beautiful flowers the sisters have ever seen—roses. Admiring the roses, an old woman tells Beauty, “Roses are for love.” And she speaks of a sorcerers’ battle many years ago that left a beast in an enchanted palace, and a curse concerning a family of three sisters . . . The Newbery Medal–winning author’s charming retelling of the classic fairy tale weaves a tangled story of sorcery, loyalty, and love that is sure to cast a spell on readers. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Lacan and Fantasy Literature Josephine Sharoni, 2017-07-03 Eschewing the all-pervading contextual approach to literary criticism, this book takes a Lacanian view of several popular British fantasy texts of the late 19th century such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, revealing the significance of the historical context; the advent of a modern democratic urban society in place of the traditional agrarian one. Moreover, counter-intuitively it turns out that fantasy literature is analogous to modern Galilean science in its manipulation of the symbolic thereby changing our conception of reality. It is imaginary devices such as vampires and ape-men, which in conjunction with Lacanian theory say something additional of the truth about – primarily sexual – aspects of human subjectivity and culture, repressed by the contemporary hegemonic discourses. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Book of Wonder Lord Dunsany, 2012-06-01 Looking for a stiff dose of classic fantasy? Look no further than Lord Dunsany's remarkably well-written collection, A Book of Wonder. This medley of fables, fantasy, and action-adventure will pique the interest of a wide array of readers. If you're in the mood for tales of quests, dragons, and brave warriors, this collection will definitely do the trick. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Book of Fathers Miklos Vamos, 2009-10-13 When in 1705 Kornell Csillag's grandfather returns destitute to his native Hungary from exile, he happens across a gold fob-watch gleaming in the mud. The shipwrecked fortunes of the Csillag family suddenly take a new and marvelous turn. The golden watch brings an unexpected gift to the future generations of firstborn sons: clairvoyance. Passed down from father to son, this gift offers the ability to look into the future or back into history–for some it is considered a blessing, for others a curse. No matter the outcome, each generation records its astonishing, vivid, and revelatory visions into a battered journal that becomes known as The Book of Fathers. For three hundred years the Csillag family line meanders unbroken across Hungary's rivers and vineyards, through a land overrun by wolves and bandits, scarred by plague and massacre, and brutalized by despots. Impetuous, tenderhearted, and shrewd, the Csillags give birth to scholars and gamblers, artists and entrepreneurs. Led astray by unruly passions, they marry frigid French noblewomen and thieving alehouse whores. They change their name and their religion, and change them back. They wander from home but always return, and through it all The Book of Fathers bears witness to holocaust and wedding feast alike. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Religious Concepts in Fantasy Literature Nadine Wolf, 2010-07-14 Master's Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Bayreuth, language: English, abstract: For a long time, the genre of fantasy has not been regarded as ‘real’ literature, because it apparently did not deal with problems from the real world and was often published in cheap paperbacks or journals. Furthermore, because its story did not take place in the real world, it was deemed to be unimportant and inconsequential. This was the reason why writers of fantastic stories could not until the middle of the twentieth century openly write about strange worlds which were so much different from ours. They had to disguise their stories as wondrous travel stories or accounts of strange dreams. However, things changed. J. R. R. Tolkien's novels became an immediate success and prepared the readers for all those other fantasy writers who followed. This is one of the reasons why he is considered to be the father of modern fantasy. Among the fantasy genre, there are various sub-genres. I will focus on the Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, which is a mixture of Epic Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery. The next work, the trilogy His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, is Children’s Fantasy, with the main protagonists being adolescents. Lastly, I will single out an aspect from the science fiction series Star Wars by George Lucas, which is his concept of the Force. The genres of science fiction and fantasy are closely related, because the first depicts a fictional future or a fictional future civilisation in a different universe, and the latter often depicts fictional stories that, were it not for their fantastic elements, could well have taken place somewhere in the past. Therefore, it is not too astonishing that elements of science fiction stories could just as well exist in fantasy literature. The religious concepts which I will analyse in this thesis are taken from various culture groups. ‘Religious concepts’ is a term in which I include, for one, concepts and ideas that deal with rituals or beliefs in connection with any kind of higher beings. It also includes ideas or philosophies which require some kind of ‘believing’. Also, single aspects of religions like the idea of dualism from the gnostics or the concept of balance, which can be found for example in Buddhism, belong to the definition of ‘religious concepts’ in this thesis as well as various religious teachings. Additionally, I will take the various movies related to the three stories into consideration, because they provide further information and facts for interpretation. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Deerskin Robin McKinley, 2014-11-18 From the Newbery Medal–winning author of The Hero and the Crown: the story of a princess who flees her father’s unwanted attention and finds an unexpected new life. Princess Lissla Lissar is the only child of the king and his queen, who was the most beautiful woman in seven kingdoms. Everyone loved the splendid king and his matchless queen so much that no one had any attention to spare for the princess, who grew up in seclusion, listening to the tales her nursemaid told about her magnificent parents. But the queen takes ill of a mysterious wasting disease and on her deathbed extracts a strange promise from her husband: “I want you to promise me . . . you will only marry someone as beautiful as I was.” The king is crazy with grief at her loss, and slow to regain both his wits and his strength. But on Lissar’s seventeenth birthday, two years after the queen’s death, there is a grand ball, and everyone present looks at the princess in astonishment and whispers to their neighbors, How like her mother she is! On the day after the ball, the king announces that he is to marry again—and that his bride is the princess Lissla Lissar, his own daughter. Lissar, physically broken, half mad, and terrified, flees her father’s lust with her one loyal friend, her sighthound, Ash. It is the beginning of winter as they journey into the mountains—and on the night when it begins to snow, they find a tiny, deserted cabin with the makings of a fire ready-laid in the hearth. Thus begins Lissar’s long, profound, and demanding journey away from treachery and pain and horror, to trust and love and healing. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: J. R. R. Tolkien Mark Horne, 2011-08-01 J. R. R. Tolkien: The Mind Behind the Rings, you'll get a never-before-seen look at the man, the artist, and the believer behind some of the world's most beloved stories. Join bestselling author Mark Horne as he explores lasting impact of the kind of creative freedom that can only come from faith and struggle. Raised in South Africa and Great Britain, young Tolkien led a life filled with uncertainty, instability, and loss. As he grew older, however, the faith that his mother instilled in him continued as an intrinsic contribution to his creative imagination and his everyday life. J. R. R. Tolkien explores: The literary giant's childhood, coming-of-age stories, and the countless hurdles he faced What inspired and influenced The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Tolkien's service in the war The ways that Tolkien's faith influenced his work Previously published as a volume in the Christian Encounters series, this renewed edition of J. R. R. Tolkien now includes updated information about TV series and films inspired by Tolkien's literary creations as well as a discussion guide designed to keep the conversation going. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Gods of Pegana Lord Dunsany, 1905 |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Darkwing Kenneth Oppel, 2011-11-15 Before there were bats like Shade, Marina or even Goth, there was a young chiropter—a small arboreal glider—named Dusk. . . . It is 65 million years ago, during a cataclysmic moment in the earth’s evolution, and Dusk, just months old, has no way of knowing he will play a pivotal role in creating a new world. What he does know is that he is different from the other newborn chiropters. Not content to use his large sails to glide down from the giant sequoia tree, Dusk discovers that if he flaps quickly enough, he can fly. But this strange gift that makes him feel like an outcast from the colony will also make him its saviour. After most of the colony is savagely massacred by the felids—the earth’s first mammalian carnivores—Dusk must lead his fellow chiropters to a new home, and a new life. Against a tableau of disappearing dinosaurs and the ascent of the mammal kingdom, Oppel has created an adventure fantasy that sets the stage for the birth of the bats, the story of the forebears of Shade, the beloved hero of the Silverwing series. As with all Silverwing books, it is impossible to simply read Oppel’s Darkwing; each of us enters a world of convincing characters, warring theologies, incredible natural history and a story that roars through head, heart and imagination. A tale that can be read as a stand- lone or as a prequel, Darkwing will be a welcome new classic for the millions of Kenneth Oppel fans. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Place of the Lion Charles Williams, 2015-02-17 One man must save the human race from total destruction when a small British village is invaded by a terrifying host of archetypal creatures released from the spiritual world In the small English town of Smetham on the outskirts of London, a wall separating two worlds has broken down. The meddling and meditations of a local mage, Mr. Berringer, has caused a rift in the barrier between the corporeal and the spiritual, and now all hell has broken loose. Strange creatures are descending on Smethem—terrifying supernatural archetypes wreaking wholesale havoc, destruction, and death. Some residents, like the evil, power-hungry Mr. Foster, welcome the horrific onslaught. Others, like the cool and intellectual Damaris, refuse to accept what her eyes and heart tell her until it is far too late. Only a student named Anthony, emboldened by his unwavering love for Damaris, has the courage to face the horror head on. But if he alone cannot somehow restore balance to the worlds, all of humankind will surely perish in the impending apocalypse. An extraordinary metaphysical fantasy firmly based in Platonic ideals, The Place of the Lion is a masterful blending of action and thought by arguably the most provocative of the University of Oxford’s renowned Inklings—the society of writers in the 1930s that included such notables as C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield. With unparalleled imagination, literary skill, and intelligence, the remarkable Charles Williams has created a truly unique thriller, a tour de force of the fantastic that masterfully engages the mind, heart, and spirit. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Phantastes George MacDonald, 1858 Phantastes : A Faerie Romance for Men and Women by George MacDonald, first published in 1858, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Rivan Codex David Eddings, Leigh Eddings, 2007-12-18 Join David and Leigh Eddings on a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour of the extensive background materials they compiled before beginning the masterpiece of epic fantasy unforgettably set down in The Belgariad and The Malloreon and their two companion volumes, Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress. Our tour stretches from the wealthy Empire of Tolnedra to the remote Isle of the Winds, from the mysterious mountains of Ulgoland to the forbidding reaches of darkest Mallorea. Along the way, you will meet old friends and enemies alike. Rare volumes will be opened to your eyes. Sacred holy books in which you may read the secrets of the Gods themselves and of their prophets. Scholarly histories of the rise and fall of empires from the Imperial Library at Tol Honeth. The profound mysteries of the Malloreon Gospels. THE RIVAN CODEX will enrich your understanding of all that has gone before . . . and whet your appetite for more spectacular adventures from this talented team. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Fellowship of the Ring John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Christina Scull, 2005 'The Fellowship of the Ring' is the first part of JRR Tolkien's epic masterpiece 'The Lord of the Rings'. This 50th anniversary edition features special packaging and includes the definitive edition of the text.|PB |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Book of Lost Tales John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, 1983 |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Night and Its Moon Piper CJ, 2022-09-20 An addictive fantasy romance from TikTok sensation Piper CJ, now newly revised and edited. Two orphans grow into powerful young women as they face countless threats to find their way back to each other. Farleigh is just an orphanage. At least, that's what the church would have the people believe, but beautiful orphans Nox and fae-touched Amaris know better. They are commodities for sale, available for purchase by the highest bidder. So when the madame of a notorious brothel in a far-off city offers a king's ransom to purchase Amaris, Nox ends up taking her place — while Amaris is drawn away to the mountains, home of mysterious assassins. Even as they take up new lives and identities, Nox and Amaris never forget one thing: they will stop at nothing to reunite. But the threat of war looms overhead, and the two are inevitably swept into a conflict between human and fae, magic and mundane. With strange new alliances, untested powers, and a bond that neither time nor distance could possibly break, the fate of the realms lies in the hands of two orphans — and the love they hold for each other. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Secondary Worlds Wystan Hugh Auden, 1968 Discussion of the primary worlds of the senses and historical reality, and the secondary worlds of imagination and poetry. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Colin Duriez, 2003 This book explores their lives, unfolding the extraordinary story of their complex friendship that lasted, with its ups and downs, until Lewis's death in 1963. Despite their differences - of temperament, spiritual emphasis, and storytelling style - what united them was much stronger: A shared vision that continues to inspire their millions of readers throughout the world.--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Book of Jonah , 2014 |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Lilith and Phantastes George MacDonald, Joli Ballew, S E Slack, 2013-10 Two volumes in one. A fantasy novel for adults, Lilith is the story of the aptly named Mr. Vane, his magical house, and the journeys into another world into which it leads him. Encountering one mystery after another, he explores the mystery of humanity's fall from grace--and of their redemption. Instructed into the ways of seeing the deeper realities of this world--seeing, in a sense, by the light of the spirit--the reader senses that MacDonald writes from his own deep experience of radiance, from a bliss so profound that death's darkness itself is utterly eclipsed in its light. I was dead, and right content, the narrator says in the penultimate chapter of Phantastes. C.S. Lewis said that upon reading this astonishing 19th-century fairy tale he had crossed a great frontier, and numerous others both before and since have felt similarly. In MacDonald's fairy tales, both those for children and (like this one) those for adults, the fairy land clearly represents the spiritual world, or our own world revealed in all of its depth and meaning. At times almost forthrightly allegorical, at other times richly dreamlike (and indeed having a close connection to the symbolic world of dreams), this story of a young man who finds himself on a long journey through a land of fantasy is more truly the story of the spiritual quest that is at the core of his life's work, a quest that must end with the ultimate surrender of the self. The glory of MacDonald's work is that this surrender is both hard won (or lost!) and yet rippling with joy when at last experienced. As the narrator says of a heavenly woman in this tale, She knew something too good to be told. One senses the same of the author himself. Both Lilith and Phantastes, meant to be read together, are included in this comprehensive volume. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Legends George R. R. Martin, Anne McCaffrey, 1999-10-21 The second of three volumes, which were originally published in one volume as: Legends. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Grey King Susan Cooper, 2007-05-08 Includes an excerpt from Silver on the tree. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Father's Tale Michael D. O'Brien, 2011-08-31 A modern retelling of the parables The Good Shepherd and The Prodigal Son. - Michael O'Brien Canadian bookseller Alex Graham is a middle-age widower whose quiet life is turned upside down when his college-age son disappears without any explanation or trace of where he has gone. With minimal resources, the father begins a long journey that takes him for the first time away from his safe and orderly world. As he stumbles across the merest thread of a trail, he follows it in blind desperation, and is led step by step on an odyssey that takes him to fascinating places and sometimes to frightening people and perils. Through the uncertainty and the anguish, the loss and the longing, Graham is pulled into conflicts between nations, as well as the eternal conflict between good and evil. Stretched nearly to the breaking point by the inexplicable suffering he witnesses and experiences, he discovers unexpected sources of strength as he presses onward in the hope of recovering his son--and himself. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Elithius, Book One Dominic Sceski, 2017-05-05 His parents abandon him when he's thirteen. He's left to care for his little brother and sister. Life is tough. Things can't seem to get any worse. But then Evil Itself breaks down the door. It kidnaps his siblings. And It leaves him bleeding out on the floor of his own home. The Golden Lands, one of the Three Worlds of Elithius, is supposed to be a place of light, peace and happiness. But the Golden Lands hasn't been such a place for John Hedekira, a jaded, hot-headed sixteen-year-old. Joined by his friends Faith Pinck and Bernard Tanner, John must rescue his brother and sister from their captors...before his siblings can be sacrificed to the ominous God of Death. With a story that combines the feelings of Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, and Percy Jackson, Dominic Sceski brings to life a riveting tale of light versus darkness, magic, friendship, trust, betrayal, forgiveness, and redemption that will leave you on the edge of your seat and desperately yearning for more. Don't wait. Embark on the journey now. Enter Elithius! |
| father of modern fantasy literature: American Gods Neil Gaiman, 2002-04-30 Shadow is a man with a past. But now he wants nothing more than to live a quiet life with his wife and stay out of trouble. Until he learns that she's been killed in a terrible accident. Flying home for the funeral, as a violent storm rocks the plane, a strange man in the seat next to him introduces himself. The man calls himself Mr. Wednesday, and he knows more about Shadow than is possible. He warns Shadow that a far bigger storm is coming. And from that moment on, nothing will ever he the same... |
| father of modern fantasy literature: J.R.R. Tolkien Humphrey Carpenter, 2014-03-04 The authorized biography of the creator of Middle-earth. “One of the most interesting and readable biographies of a literary figure.” —The Times In the decades since his death in September 1973, millions have read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion and become fascinated about the very private man behind the books. Born in South Africa in January 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was orphaned in childhood and brought up in near-poverty. He served in the first World War, surviving the Battle of the Somme, where he lost many of the closest friends he’d ever had. After the war he returned to the academic life, achieving high repute as a scholar and university teacher, eventually becoming Merton Professor of English at Oxford where he was a close friend of C. S. Lewis and the other writers known as “The Inklings.” Then suddenly his life changed dramatically. One day while grading essay papers he found himself writing “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”—and worldwide renown awaited him. Humphrey Carpenter was given unrestricted access to all Tolkien’s papers, and interviewed his friends and family. From these sources he follows the long and painful process of creation that produced The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion and offers a wealth of information about the life and work of the twentieth century’s most cherished author. “J. R. R. Tolkien left his impress upon a whole generation as few recent writers have done . . . an excellent biography.” —Newsweek “A panorama of vignettes done with poise and exhaustive command. A man emerges whole.” —The Washington Post Book World |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Blood Artists Chuck Hogan, 1998-03-18 Chuck Hogan's new thriller opens as Drs. Stephen Pearse and Peter Maryk are summoned deep into the rain forests of the Congo, where a deadly virus -- set free from a centuries-old uranium cave -- has decimated a mining camp. Desperate, they bomb the area, resealing the cave containing the incurable disease. But two years later, it reappears, devastating the small New England town of Plainville. In the next few years, other isolated incidents are also ruthlessly silenced by Maryk, now head of the Bureau for Disease Control's (BDC) Special Pathogens Section. He and Pearse, now director of the BDC, have become bitter enemies, divided by opposing scientific philosophies. Still, as the virus continues to elude any vaccine with a disturbingly human cunning the men seek not only to stop it but to figure out how it came from Africa. Their battle with Plainville intensifies as it becomes clear that the virus has acquired a face, having taken over a human host. And in particular, this toxic creature pursues one brave young woman whose blood, immune to the virus, is the serum of life in the face of a viral death. Pearse and Maryk keep her close and protected, while formulating a plan to get to the killer first. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: War in Heaven Charles Williams, 2021-02-16 Williams gives a contemporary setting to the traditional story of the Search for the Holy Grail. Examining the distinction between magic and religion, War in Heaven is an eerily disturbing book, one that graphically portrays a metaphysical journey filled with marvels and black magic, God and the Devil. The telephone was ringing wildly, begins War in Heaven, but without result, since there was no-one in the room but the corpse. From this abrupt - and darkly humorous - start, Williams takes us on a 20th-century version of the Grail quest, with an Archdeacon, a Duke, and an editor playing the old Arthurian roles. Throughout, Williams reminds us that these legends were above all about divine, not just human, romance. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Evolution of a Nobody Robert H Butler, 2021-09-07 Albaer has nothing good in his life, and a whole lot of bad. An outcast in his home town, regarded as 'the seed of evil' because of his father's selfishness and greed, nobody seems to care what is done to him. Indifferent teachers, bullies who think of him only as an easy target for his passive unwillingness to fight back in his desperate attempt to prove his fundamental goodness, the one thing that lets him endure is a video game. The only thing, that is, until an angel and a demon appear in his room, confused, lost, and afraid... their attempt to summon his video game character into their world has backfired. Now they are trapped in a world where they are mere mythology. Out of pity for their distress, and knowing what his world would do to them, he allows Lialah and Raziel to remain with him, and none of their lives will ever be the same... For better, or for worse. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: The Lord of the Rings Complete Visual Companion Jude Fisher, 2004 Photographs, screenshots, and images from all three films provide a visual compendium of the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, documenting the varied characters and locales as seen through Peter Jackson's vision of Middle-earth. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Tales Before Narnia J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, Rudyard Kipling, 2008-03-25 In his acclaimed collection Tales Before Tolkien, Douglas A. Anderson illuminated the sources, inspirations, and influences that fired J.R.R. Tolkien’s genius. Now Anderson turns his attention to Tolkien’s colleague and friend C. S. Lewis, whose influence on modern fantasy, through his beloved Narnia books, is second only to Tolkien’s own. In many ways, Lewis’s influence has been even wider than Tolkien’s. For in addition to the Narnia series, Lewis wrote groundbreaking works of science fiction, urban fantasy, and religious allegory, and he came to be regarded as among the most important Christian writers of the twentieth century. It will come as no surprise, then, that such a wide-ranging talent drew inspiration from a variety of sources. Here are twenty of the tributaries that fed Lewis’s unique talent, among them: “The Wood That Time Forgot: The Enchanted Wood,” taken from a never-before-published fantasy by Lewis’s biographer and friend, Roger Lancelyn Green, that directly inspired The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; E. Nesbit’s charming “The Aunt and Amabel,” in which a young girl enters another world by means of a wardrobe; “The Snow Queen,” by Hans Christian Andersen, featuring the abduction of a young boy by a woman as cruel as she is beautiful; and many more, including works by Charles Dickens, Kenneth Grahame, G. K. Chesterton, and George MacDonald, of whom Lewis would write, “I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master.” Full of fascinating insights into Lewis’s life and fiction, Tales Before Narnia is the kind of book that will be treasured by children and adults alike and passed down lovingly from generation to generation. INCLUDING SEVENTEEN MORE WORKS BY THE PROGENITORS OF MODERN FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION: “Tegnér’s Drapa” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “The Magic Mirror” by George MacDonald “Undine” by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué “Letters from Hell: Letter III” by Valdemar Thisted “Fastosus and Avaro” by John Macgowan “The Tapestried Chamber; or, The Lady in the Sacque” by Sir Walter Scott “The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton” by Charles Dickens “The Child and the Giant” by Owen Barfield “A King’s Lesson” by William Morris “The Waif Woman: A Cue—From a Saga” by Robert Louis Stevenson “First Whisper of The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame “The Wish House” by Rudyard Kipling “Et in Sempiternum Pereant” by Charles Williams “The Dragon’s Visit” by J.R.R. Tolkien “The Coloured Lands” by G. K. Chesterton “The Man Who Lived Backwards” by Charles F. Hall “The Dream Dust Factory” by William Lindsay Gresham |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Literature and the Child James Holt McGavran, James Holt Mcgavran, 1998-04 The Romantic myth of childhood as a transhistorical holy time of innocence and spirituality, uncorrupted by the adult world, has been subjected in recent years to increasingly serious interrogation. Was there ever really a time when mythic ideals were simple, pure, and uncomplicated? The contributors to this book contend—although in widely differing ways and not always approvingly—that our culture is indeed still pervaded, in this postmodern moment of the very late twentieth century, by the Romantic conception of childhood which first emerged two hundred years ago. In the wake of the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, western Europe experienced another fin de siècle characterized by overwhelming material and institutional change and instability. By historicizing the specific political, social, and economic conflicts at work within the notion of Romantic childhood, the essayists in Literature and the Child show us how little these forces have changed over time and how enriching and empowering they can still be for children and their parents. In the first section, “Romanticism Continued and Contested,” Alan Richardson and Mitzi Myers question the origins and ends of Romantic childhood. In “Romantic Ironies, Postmodern Texts,” Dieter Petzold, Richard Flynn, and James McGavran argue that postmodern texts for both children and adults perpetuate the Romantic complexities of childhood. Next, in “The Commerce of Children's Books,” Anne Lundin and Paula Connolly study the production and marketing of children's classics. Finally, in “Romantic Ideas in Cultural Confrontations,” William Scheick and Teya Rosenberg investigate interactions of Romantic myths with those of other cultural systems. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: A Study Guide for "Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature" Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016 A Study Guide for Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Literary Movements for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Literary Movements for Students for all of your research needs. |
| father of modern fantasy literature: Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature Frank Northen Magill, 1983 |
I am so confused, who is Liz’s father? : r/TheBlackList - Reddit
Masha /Liz shot and killed her biological father Raymond Reddington when she was 4. Kirk was her mother's husband, making him her stepfather. Fake Red took her to Sam to raise to keep …
The real father of Bonney : r/OnePiece - Reddit
Something like "I killed my own father and brother with my hands, but my crew, they are my real family and I'd do anything for them" Or like Yondu in that Marvel Movie: "He may be your …
I had a sexual relationship with my dad until I was 15, and I
Honestly my first reaction is that its wrong on so may levels. but in the end as long as you have no emotional/psychological problems then i can't say anything other than, I'm happy you're OK. as …
Dark Urge Ending Choices (spoilers). : r/BaldursGate3 - Reddit
Nov 9, 2023 · Defy your Father. Tell the Emperor to command the brain to die. Claim the Absolute in the name of Baal. Kill the Emperor. Note that this version does not have the option to …
My late father's address received letter from DCM Services
Nov 15, 2020 · My father passed away just two months ago in September and I'm spinning my wheels trying to cope with the loss as well as get together his estate. He was able to get a …
ELI5: what does the insult "your mother was a hamster and your …
Aug 8, 2014 · Thanks I thought as much. Just like some of the answers here, there are some who put a sexual connotation to it (hamsters (or gerbils) up butts ala Richard Gere, elderberries …
I hate my dad so much. I constantly wish he would just die so
Nov 22, 2021 · The unemployments in the past and the need to work for long hours makes him “rough” sometimes. That his father was also horrible, so my dad doesn’t really know how to …
r/all - Reddit
Today's top content from hundreds of thousands of Reddit communities.
MAOMAO AND JINSHI RELATIONSHIP (SPOILER) : …
And also when she thinks he reminds her of Loumen, her adoptive father. When the relationship turns sexual, and hopefully it will (at least she's always remembering the "fine specimen" that …
I died in the boss fight of sins of our father can I get my ... - Reddit
Jan 4, 2023 · I just returned after a long stint of not playing and thought id get quest cape and I dc'd and died while on the boss fight
I am so confused, who is Liz’s father? : r/TheBlackList - Reddit
Masha /Liz shot and killed her biological father Raymond Reddington when she was 4. Kirk was her mother's husband, making him her stepfather. Fake Red took her to Sam to raise to keep …
The real father of Bonney : r/OnePiece - Reddit
Something like "I killed my own father and brother with my hands, but my crew, they are my real family and I'd do anything for them" Or like Yondu in that Marvel Movie: "He may be your …
I had a sexual relationship with my dad until I was 15, and I
Honestly my first reaction is that its wrong on so may levels. but in the end as long as you have no emotional/psychological problems then i can't say anything other than, I'm happy you're OK. …
Dark Urge Ending Choices (spoilers). : r/BaldursGate3 - Reddit
Nov 9, 2023 · Defy your Father. Tell the Emperor to command the brain to die. Claim the Absolute in the name of Baal. Kill the Emperor. Note that this version does not have the option to …
My late father's address received letter from DCM Services
Nov 15, 2020 · My father passed away just two months ago in September and I'm spinning my wheels trying to cope with the loss as well as get together his estate. He was able to get a …
ELI5: what does the insult "your mother was a hamster and your …
Aug 8, 2014 · Thanks I thought as much. Just like some of the answers here, there are some who put a sexual connotation to it (hamsters (or gerbils) up butts ala Richard Gere, elderberries …
I hate my dad so much. I constantly wish he would just die so
Nov 22, 2021 · The unemployments in the past and the need to work for long hours makes him “rough” sometimes. That his father was also horrible, so my dad doesn’t really know how to …
r/all - Reddit
Today's top content from hundreds of thousands of Reddit communities.
MAOMAO AND JINSHI RELATIONSHIP (SPOILER) : …
And also when she thinks he reminds her of Loumen, her adoptive father. When the relationship turns sexual, and hopefully it will (at least she's always remembering the "fine specimen" that …
I died in the boss fight of sins of our father can I get my ... - Reddit
Jan 4, 2023 · I just returned after a long stint of not playing and thought id get quest cape and I dc'd and died while on the boss fight
