The Stiff: Chapter 5: Page 201
HP Podcraft, the great HP Lovecraft/weird fiction podcast, is covering Lord Dunsany for the next month’s worth of episodes! I totally can’t wait. I love Dunsany’s work, although like many people who discovered him through Lovecraft, I’ve focused on his early exotic-dream-fantasies and haven’t read too many of his later, more openly comedic stories. I also haven’t read many of his novels, only “The King of Elfland’s Daughter,” which I found touching, and “The Charwoman’s Shadow,” which didn’t leave much of an impression. Someday I need to read “The Chronicles of Rodrigo” and “The Blessing of Pan” at the very least… and perhaps even the original version of “Dean Spanley”?
NEXT UPDATE: Monday!
I have been catching up on Arthur Machen’s work. I need to seek Lord Dunsany as well. At least his more exotic works to start.
The first Dunsany I read was the Ballantine Books 1970s edition of “At the Edge of the World” from my dad’s library. Most of his early stories are on Gutenberg and the ones in “The Sword of Welleran”, “A Dreamer’s Tales” and “The Book of Wonder” are some of the best. I also have a soft spot for “The Three Infernal Jokes” and “The Exiles’ Club” from “The Last Book of Wonder” (I think), although those are more of the modern-day urban fantasy he later switched to.
All caught up now; love how this mixes slice-of-life with a bit of strangeness… but then Lovecraft said that Weird Fiction should be all believable/ prosaic except for the one strange element. I wouldn’t even necessarily call this “Weird Fiction” either- it’s just a good tale that needs no boundaries or descriptions or classifications.
@Joe – I’m glad that you’re enjoying it! I hope you like how it progresses. :)