Some Short Stories by Lord Dunsany (Fantasy and Horror Classics)

List of works by Lord Dunsany

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His point of view is the most truly cosmic of any held in the literature of any period.

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As sensitive as Poe to dramatic values and the significance of isolated words and details, and far better equipped rhetorically through a simple lyric style based on the prose of the King James Bible, this author draws with tremendous effectiveness on nearly every body of myth and legend within the circle of European culture; producing a composite or eclectic cycle of phantasy in which Eastern colour, Hellenic form, Teutonic sombreness and Celtic wistfulness are so superbly blended that each sustains and supplements the rest without sacrifice or perfect congruity and homogeneity.

He loves the vivid green of jade and of copper domes, and the delicate flush of sunset on the ivory minarets of impossible dream-cities.

Nevertheless, as is inevitable in a master of triumphant unreality, there are occasional touches of cosmic fright which come well within the authentic tradition. Dunsany loves to hint slyly and adroitly of monstrous things and incredible dooms, as one hints in a fairy tale. So in this other world, but that is an off-wandering; the need here is to provide a guide as far as the gate of our history, imaginary or real. The Irish chronicler did not tell that the revolt was against the heathen of Dzik, who burst in upon the Dalarnan lands with their gospel and sword in the days when men were living at peace and their problems all seemed solved; though he did say that, like all conquerors, these conquerors had become luxurious.

As promised, below the break is the complete text of The Men of Yarnith. The men of Yarnith hold that nothing began until Yarni Zai uplifted his hand. Yarni Zai, they say, has the form of a man but is greater and is a thing of rock. When he uplifted his hand all the rocks that wandered beneath the Dome, by which name they call the sky, gathered together around Yarni Zai.

Of the other worlds they say nought, but hold that the stars are the eyes of all the other gods that look on Yarni Zai and laugh, for they are all greater than he, though they have gathered no worlds around them. Yet though they be greater than Yarni Zai, and though they laugh at him when they speak together beneath the Dome, they all speak of Yarni Zai. Unheard is the speaking of the gods to all except the gods, but the men of Yarnith tell of how their prophet Iraun lying in the sand desert, Azrakhan, heard once their speaking and knew thereby how Yarni Zai departed from all the other gods to clothe himself with rocks and make a world.

Certain it is that every legend tells that at the end of the valley of Yodeth, where it becomes lost among black cliffs, there sits a figure colossal, against a mountain, whose form is the form of a man with the right hand uplifted, but vaster than the hills. And in the Book of Secret Things which the prophets keep in the Temple that stands in Yarnith is writ the story of the gathering of the world as Iraun heard it when the gods spake together, up in the stillness above Azrakhan.

And all that read this may learn how Yarni Zai drew the mountains about him like a cloak, and piled the world below him.

Some Short Stories of Lord Dunsany (Fantasy and Horror Classics)

It is not set in writing for how many years Yarni Zai sat clothed with rocks at the end of the Valley of Yodeth, while there was nought in all the world save rocks and Yarni Zai. But one day there came another god running over the rocks across the world, and he ran as the clouds run upon days of storm, and as he sped towards Yodeth, Yarni Zai, sitting against his mountain with right hand uplifted, cried out:.

And the new god answered never a word, but sped onwards, and as he went to left of him and to right of him there sprang up green things all over the rocks of the world of Yarni Zai. So the new god ran round the world and made it green, saying in the valley where Yarni Zai sat monstrous against his mountain and certain lands wherein Cradoa, the drought, browsed horribly at night.

Further, the writing in the book tells of how there came yet another god running speedily out of the east, as swiftly as the first, with his face set westward, and nought to stay his running; and how he stretched both arms outward beside him, and to left of him and to right of him as he ran the whole world whitened. And he stilled the running of streams and laid his hand even upon the head of Yarni Zai and muffled the noises of the world, till there was no sound in all lands, but the running of the new god that brought the snow as he sped across the plains. But the two new gods chased each other for ever round the world, and every year they passed again, running down the valleys and up the hills and away across the plains before Yarni Zai, whose hand uplifted had gathered the world about him.

And, furthermore, the very devout may read how all the animals came up the valley of Yodeth to the mountain whereon rested Yarni Zai, saying:. And Yarni Zai gave leave to the animals to be lions, rhinoceroses and rabbits, and all the other kinds of beasts, and to go about the world. But when they all had gone he gave leave to the bird to be a bird and to go about the sky.

O Yarni Zai, ordain that there be men. Then was there in the world Yarni Zai, and two strange gods that brought the greenness and the growing and the whiteness and the stillness, and animals and men. And the god of the greenness pursued the god of the whiteness, and the god of the whiteness pursued the god of the greenness, and men pursued animals, and animals pursued men.

But Yarni Zai sat still against his mountain with his right hand uplifted. And Yarni Zai, no longer clad with the world, shall go back into the emptiness beneath the Dome among the stars, as a diver seeking pearls goes down from the islands. But the next day when his fur was dry again the Famine returned and nibbled more of the corn and chased the cattle further, and again men drove him back. But again the Famine returned, and there came a time when there was no more water in the wells to frighten the Famine with, and he nibbled the corn till all of it was gone and the cattle that he chased grew very lean.

And the Famine drew nearer, even to the houses of men and trampled on their gardens at night and ever came creeping nearer to their doors.

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At last the cattle were able to run no more, and one by one the Famine took them by their throats and dragged them down, and at night he scratched in the ground, killing even the roots of things, and came and peered in at the doorways and started back and peered in at the door again a little further, but yet was not bold enough to enter altogether, for fear that men should have water to throw over his dry grey fur.

Then did the men of Yarnith pray to Yarni Zai as he sat far off beyond the valley, praying to him night and day to call his Famine back, but the Famine sat and purred and slew all the cattle and dared at last to take men for his food. And the histories tell how he slew children first and afterwards grew bolder and tore down women, till at last he even sprang at the throats of men as they laboured in the fields.

But if one go and say to Yarni Zai: The tales contained in this book are: Toldees, Mondath, Arizim, these are the Inner Lands, the lands whose sentinels upon their borders do not behold the sea. The book is a series of short stories linked by Dunsany's invented pantheon of deities who dwell in Pegana. It was preceded by his… Meer. This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic, timeless works that have stood the test of time and offer… Meer.

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Alle prijzen zijn inclusief BTW en andere heffingen en exclusief eventuele verzendkosten en servicekosten. Elektronica topcadeaus Korting op parfum Cadeauwinkel Cadeaukaarten Kerst voordeel. Boeken van Lord Dunsany. Lord Dunsany Fifty-One Tales. Lord Dunsany The Book of Wonder. Lord Dunsany A Dreamer's Tales. Meer informatie over Kobo Plus. Wells Jules Verne Stanley G. Weinbaum Science Fiction Classics.

When Dracula which Stoker had originally titled The Un-Dead appeared, some critics were immediately excited. The recollection of this weird and ghostly tale will doubtless haunt us for some time to come.

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It was widely admired by 20 th -century writers as well: Count Dracula, a vampire, dwells in a horrible castle in the Carpathians, but finally migrates to England with the design of populating the country with fellow vampires. James were hailed by Lovecraft as the finest fantastic writers in the early years of the century, they are little-remembered today. The Englishman Algernon Blackwood was very much in the tradition of Poe and Bierce, with a prolific output of supernatural novels and short stories.

Without notable command of the poetic witchery of mere words, he is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere. His last collection of short stories appeared in He was a prolific playwright, poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Although he wrote many supernatural stories, he is probably best remembered as a fantasist, a predecessor of J. Clarke, Gene Wolfe, and Robert E.

The Horror Genre Is Older Than You Think: A New History, From Homer to Lovecraft

Montague Rhodes James was a medieval scholar whose ghost stories, many written as Christmas fireside tales for his friends, have been hailed as the finest in the genre, generally centred on malefic supernatural beings whose attentions are garnered by an unsuspecting victim opening an old book or a discarded reliquary.

After years of neglect, his stories are being rediscovered as long-lost gems of the occult. Howard Phillips Lovecraft began his career as a poet. Whatever universal masterpiece of tomorrow may be wrought from phantasm or terror will owe its acceptance rather to a supreme workmanship than to a sympathetic theme. He was deeply cynical of mankind, especially in light of what he believed to be scientific evidence of the insignificance of humanity and the random, probabilistic nature of the universe.

Some Short Stories of Lord Dunsany (Fantasy and Horror Classics) : Lord Dunsany :

His writings expressed fatalism and a sense of inherited guilt for the sins of prior generations. He also posited extensive influence exerted by nonhuman intelligences on human affairs. The workings of the gods were best left unexplored by humans, he believed. Lovecraft intentionally used a sesquipedalian style of writing with antiquated spellings, to invoke a tone of seriousness and verisimilitude.

In turn, his writings have been acknowledged as influences by a number of major science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers of the late 20 th century and have been extensively parodied and copied in many media, including dozens of films. It is impossible in this brief overview to do justice to horror writing after the first half of the century. The modern masters—Stephen King, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Shirley Jackson, to name a few—are so well-known as to need no introduction, and any attempt to provide a history from this close proximity would be injudicious.

We are fortunate to live in a time when the garden of the supernatural tale has grown so luxuriantly. Classic Tales of Horror, , edited by Leslie S.

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