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Product Description
Product Description
The poetic style and sweeping grandeur of The King of Elfland's Daughter has made it one of the most beloved fantasy novels of our time, a masterpiece that influenced some of the greatest contemporary fantasists. The heartbreaking story of a marriage between a mortal man and an elf princess is a masterful tapestry of the fairy tale following the "happily ever after."
About the Author
SALES POINTS Part of the Fantasy Masterworks series '[Dunsany is] one of the greatest writers of [the] century . . . Immensely significant' Katharine Kerr 'A fantasy novel in a class with the Tolkien books' L. Sprague de Camp 'Lord Dunsany . . . showed us all the way' Ellen Kushner 'Lord Dunsany's words . . . opened my eyes to otherworldly beauty and enchantment' Esther M. Friesner 'All pure ore' Ursula K. Le Guin 'One of the the seminal fantasies of the century' John Clute
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was one of those books that I knew was good from the moment I read the first line. If you enjoy the stories of Michael Moorcock or Neil Gaiman--in short, if you are a fan of quality fantasy fiction--then you will likely enjoy "The King of Elfland's Daughter." Don't allow yourself to be put off by the fairy tale title. This is a novel deep in imagination and rich of language, expansive and wonderful in its vision.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The folk of Erl lived close to the border of twilight and longed for some of the magic from the land beyond the fields they knew. Just the other side of the glimmering boundary lay Elfland and, bowing to the will of parliament, the lord of Erl sent his son to that perilous realm to wed the king's daughter and bring magic back to Erl. The old lord had a bad feeling about it and guessed the people would probably end up with a lot more enchantment than they wanted. He was right. Very little happened to start with. A helpful neighbour witch lady, forged a magical sword for Alveric (the lord's son) so he could steal Lirazel (the king's daughter) from Elfland and marry her. All seemed well. They had a son, Orion. Nothing changed for ages but Alveric wanted Lirazel to stop being so other-worldly and kept badgering her to be more normal until, confused and unhappy, she heeded her father's summons, leaving Alveric and Orion behind. Alveric spent a long time searching for Lirazel and in the meantime Orion grew up - half human, half elven. Gradually his magical heritage awakened and he attracted the magical denizens of Elfland into 'the fields we know'. Then, when it was too late, the parliament of Erl had second thoughts.
As Neil Gaiman says in his introduction, the writing is poetic and the story is a work of pure imagination. I know what 'the myriad-tinted border, the deep green elfin foliage and Elfland's magical flowers' look, sound and feel like - can sense the attraction and the danger of the magic - from Dunsany's vivid descriptions. The beauty and enchantment are irresistible. Published in 1924, when fantasy stories were rare, it must have seemed rich and original. It still does.
As Neil Gaiman says in his introduction, the writing is poetic and the story is a work of pure imagination. I know what 'the myriad-tinted border, the deep green elfin foliage and Elfland's magical flowers' look, sound and feel like - can sense the attraction and the danger of the magic - from Dunsany's vivid descriptions. The beauty and enchantment are irresistible. Published in 1924, when fantasy stories were rare, it must have seemed rich and original. It still does.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If there is a single book that truly defines the heart of the fantasy genre, this is it.
It has echoes not only of the story of the classic ballad of Thomas the Rhymer, but also of its gravity of place in the vast history of storytelling.
It tells a poignant, but concise story concerning mankind's paradoxical love of faerie yet inability to have it without corrupting it (thus losing it). A sort of Heisenberg dilemma, i.e. you can know about faerie but not have it, or have it and not know it...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Origins Of Fantasy
I think I read this book a bit too slowly and in too piece-meal a fashion to have got the best out of it but at 240 pages long I think it could have been pruned to about 160 pages... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Pensato
There's a reason this book was out of print for so long...
'Charming', 'whimsical' and 'poetic' are some of the adjectives that can be used to describe this work; 'gripping', 'moving' and 'satisfying' are not. Read more
Published 2 months ago by M. R. Cox
a wonderful book
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Lord Dubsany's 'The King of Elfland's Daughter' is about the human world or as Dunsany put it 'The Fields We Know' and the curiosity and conflictions that it has with Elfland and... Read more
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If there is one thing that sticks after you have read this novel, it's the language. It's so fluent, flowery, rhythmic and beautiful that the story becomes an enchanted, magical... Read more
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fantasy Classic in turn of the Century style
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