Lord Dunsany

[cloudcuckooland]

Hello everyone!

I'd like to share some viewpoints with you about Edward Plunkett otherwise known as Lord Dunsany. Have you ever read any of his works?
If you have, do you have a favourite short story or book?
I've read several of his works and short stories, but not all of them. So far, my favourite book is 'A Dreamer's Tales,' and my favourite short-story is Bethmoora, which is comprised in the aforesaid book. ;)

I like his work very much, and there are many other tales and stories by him which I really enjoy. What about you?

Regards,
Cloudcuckooland. :)

[Noisms]

Yes, I love the work of Dunsany that I've read...but it was a few years ago now. Time and The Gods, I think it was called.

Extremely odd. I liked the fact that it described an imaginary world all of its own, without reference to our own, and I think it was one of the first works of fantasy to actually do that. (Fantasy writers before Dunsany always linked their worlds to ours - like in the Alice books.)

I love his discriptions of the Gods, too, and the fact that they seem to follow a different moral compass, or at least make completely different moral choices, to ours.

[cloudcuckooland]

Hi!!

Many thanks for your answer! :) Well, I haven't read 'Time and the Gods,' yet. However, I agree with you completely when you say that Dunsany describes an imaginary world all his own. Indeed, he does.

With regard to the gods, again, I agree with you in that his gods seem to make different choices, etc. Further, I like how he portrayed them, and, particularly, how he compared them with and distinguished them from human beings.

Since I've mentioned humans, I would like to say that I think Lord Dunsany managed to, in a very subtle manner, analise human behaviour and set it against the conduct he attributed to his gods.

Have you, by any chance, read The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo the Idolater?

[mtpspur]

If you like Dunsany I think you'll also like Clark Ashton Smith. I read Dunsany MANY years ago and with age the memory goes but I assert he needs to be read by any serious reader of fantasy literature and the effort will be well rewarded. A shame he's not kept in print.

[stlukesguild]

I read a tale or two by Dunsany many years ago and remember being very anxious to read more... but I could never find anything by him. Project Gutenberg solved that problem recently, and I did download quite a bit of Dunsany's work (although I'd still prefer to find it in book form). Now I need to get around to reading it... along with several hundreds (thousands?) of other books on my "to be read" list.

[PeterL]

I have read several books and stories by Edward John Morton Drax Plunkett, 18th Lord Dunsany. I enjoyed everything that I read; although his style is sometimes quaint, and I think deliberately so. Some of his writing was symbolic and more related to internal feelings than to anything in the physical world. I couldn't say which of his works I most preferred, but some of his short stories arre truly great, "The Sword of Welleran" for example.

[cloudcuckooland]

Thanks for your answers, and recommendations. ;)