Product Description
The works of Lord Dunsany must be the foundation of any good library of science fiction and fantasy. His tales are all masterpieces (literally), but without a doubt their greatest virtue lies in the language Dunsany uses in telling them. His power of language is so dominating that it would be easy to forget that even with less mellifluous telling his tales would still be worthy reading. The tales uniformly are gentle in tone, stately in progress. They reflect an author with a keen sense of humor and irony—with the proverbial twinkle in his eye—and with an appreciation of the ultimate futility of most human longings.

THE LAST BOOK OF WONDER is a magnificent collection of stories written as the world raged in The War to End All Wars, the First World War. It is Dunsany at his peak. In the Preface he writes: "My dreams are here before you amongst the following pages; and writing in a day when life is cheap, dreams seem to me all the dearer, the only things that survive."

The stories are a lush tapestry of language, of images of people, places, and things that cannot exist, yet are familiar, as real as anything can be. They are full of wonder and also unforgettable. In the end, they are a necessary part of any fantasy collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Tales of diabolical contracts and other things.
This book is in print as I write this, as part of the Fantasy Masterworks edition of _Time and the Gods_; it is a collection of 18 short stories.

"A Tale of London" - in a reversal of the usual pattern, a sultan has asked his seer to relate to him a vision of the fabulous city of London.

"Thirteen at Table" - The ghosts of twelve women wronged by old Sir Richard Arlen have had dinner with him every night for the last thirty years.

"The City on Mallington Moor" - A rumor is spreading of a strange city of white marble appearing out of the mist.

"Why the Milkman Shudders When He Perceives the Dawn" - this is a tale told in the Hall of the Ancient Company of Milkmen when all the craft are assembled.

"The Bad Old Woman in Black" - What to do in the face of an omen of evil?

"The Bird of the Difficult Eye" - a tale of the only thief employed by West End jewellers since the distressing tale of Thangobrind (see _The Book of Wonder_).

"The Long Porter's Tale" - Gerald Jones, suffering from melancholy, went to a magician in London and was diagnosed with flux of time, and was recommended to take a day at the Edge of the World as treatment.

"The Loot of Loma" - The raiders didn't know that a priest's written curse had been slipped into their loot.

"The Secret of the Sea" - What do ships worship, and what temple do they go to?

"How Ali Came to the Black Country" - Many people may say that technology and pollution are modern devils, but how many people are serious enough to take the traditional steps to imprison devils?

"The Bureau D'Echanges De Maux" - Mysterious shop offering strange goods.

"A Story of Land and Sea" - continuation of "The Loot of Bombasharna" from _The Book of Wonder_.

"A Narrow Escape" - A magician in a dank cavern below Belgrave Square and his preparations to destroy London.

"The Watch-Tower" - When a tower is built to guard forever against the Saracens, forever may be longer than you think.

"How Plash-Goo Came to the Land of None's Desire"

"The Three Sailors' Gambit" - Sometimes even the Devil can't win at the game of selling souls. A chess story.

"The Exiles' Club" - How are the mighty fallen; and even the fallen have to go somewhere.

"The Three Infernal Jokes" - Not so much selling a soul, as trading away an option. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1907. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the text that can both be accessed online and used to create new print copies. This book and thousands of others can be found in the digital collections of the University of Michigan Library. The University Library also understands and values the utility of print, and makes reprints available through its Scholarly Publishing Office. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Dunsany fan
I'm not much of a reviewer but I have to say that I really enjoyed this book. I have yet to find a story by Dunsany that I didn't like. I've read his autobiographies, the plays, the Jorkens stories, and everything in between.

Dunsany is just an amazing writer. I don't really know how to put it into words other than his writing are simply magical.

If you're a fan of Dunsany, you know what I mean and you must own this book. If you've never read anything by Dunsany, pick up anything he wrote and read it and I don't see how you couldn't become an immediate fan. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
Excerpt:
Then from Tintaggon's marble front the sea fell backwards crying on to a broken shore, and ripple by ripple straggled back to Slid saying: "Tintaggon stands."
Far out beyond the battered shore that lay at Tintaggon's feet Slid rested long and sent the nautilus to drift up and down before Tintaggon's eyes, and he and his armies sat singing idle songs of dreamy islands far away to the south, and of the still stars whence they had stolen forth, of twilight evenings and of long ago. Still Tintaggon stood with his feet planted fair upon the valley's edge defending the gods and Their green earth against the sea.
And all the while that Slid sang his songs and played with the nautilus that sailed up and down he gathered his oceans together. One morning as Slid sang of old outrageous wars and of most enchanting peace and of dreamy islands and the south wind and the sun, he suddenly launched five oceans out of the deep all to attack Tintaggon. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the text that can both be accessed online and used to create new print copies. This book and thousands of others can be found in the digital collections of the University of Michigan Library. The University Library also understands and values the utility of print, and makes reprints available through its Scholarly Publishing Office. ... Read more

Product Description
Publisher: Boston : LucePublication date: 1916Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
The Last Dream of Bwona Khubla
rom steaming lowlands down
by tne equator, where mon-strous orchids blow, where beetles big as mice sit on the tent-ropes, and fireflies glide
about by night like little moving stars, the travelers went three days through forests of cactus till they came to the open plains where the oryx are.
And glad they were when they came to the water-hole, where only one white man had gone before, which the natives know as the camp of Bwona Khubla, and found the water there.
It lies three days from the nearest other water, and when Bwona Khubla had gone there three years ago, what with malaria with which he was shaking all over, and what with disgust at finding the water-hole dry, he had decided to die there, and in that

Table of Contents

The Last Dream of Bwona; Khubla 1; The Postman of Otford 9; The Prayer of Boob Aheera 18; East and West 24; A Pretty Quarrel 31; How the Gods Avenged; Meoul Ki Ning 36; The Gifts of the Gods 40; The Sack of Emeralds 44; The Old Brown Coat 51; An Archive of the Older; Mysteries 59; A City of Wonder 62; Beyond the Fields We Know; Publishers Note 69; First Tale : Idle Days on the Yann 71; Second Tale: A Shop in Go-By; Street 104; Third Tale: The Avenger of; Perdondaris 120

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the difficult to read text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1921. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
And the man went forth with his sword, and behold it was even war. And the man remembered the little things that he knew, and thought of the quiet days that there used to be, and at night on the hard ground dreamed of the things of peace. And dearer and dearer grew the wonted things, the dull but easeful things of the days of peace, and remembering these he began to regret the war, and sought once more a boon of the ancient gods, and appearing before them he said: "O ancient gods, indeed but a man loves best the days of peace. Therefore take back your war and give us peace, for indeed of all your blessedness peace is best." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Tales of Three Hemispheres
This is a fantastic collection of Dunsany's best. If you are a true fan, your collection is incomplete without this one. All of you who are seeing this review should *IMMEDIATELY* e-mail the publisher and demand that it bebrought back into print. Seriously. I'm not getting a kick-back from them,I swear. ... Read more

Product Description
These artistic, subtle, little sketches of the war with a fairy-story elusiveness to them interpret, in a few pages, more than many books do. They tell of the soldiers' longings, his horror of war, the memories of springtime at home, and even descent to a delight in the work of the kaiser's barber.
Excerpt:
There was going to be a fair.
And far away the road was growing longer and longer amidst, as always, desolation and thunder. And one day far away from X the road grew very fine indeed. It was going proudly through a mighty city, sweeping in like a river; you would not think that it ever remembered duck-boards. There were great palaces there, with huge armorial eagles blazoned in stone, and all along each side of the road was a row of statues of kings. And going down the road towards the palace, past the statues of the kings, a tired procession was riding, full of the flags of the Allies. And I looked at the flags in my dream, out of national pride to see whether we led, or whether France or America. America went before us, but I could not see the Union Jack in the van nor the Tricolour either, nor the Stars and Stripes: Belgium led and then Serbia, they that had suffered most. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
Sniggers. Those clever ones are the beggars to make a muddle. Their plans are clever enough, but they don't work, and then they make a mess of things much worse than you or me. ... Read more