The King of Elfland's Daughter

Lord Dunsany

Oct 2020 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

It’s hard to overstate just how influential The King of Elfland’s Daughter has been to modern fantasy; particularly high fantasy, sword and sorcery, and high fantasy. Lyrical and dream like it takes us on a search for a fairy princess and the magic that man has always secretly craved. Masterfully written, poignant, and yet still full of exciting action and adventure. It’s not simply the beauty of the language, the astute eye for character, the hint of humor, or even the spell of legendry and wonder, but Dunsany’s unique combination of all of the above.— Charles de Lint A fantasy novel in a class with the Tolkien books.—L. Sprague de Camp It could be the very best fairy story ever written.—Gahan Wilson No amount of mere description can convey more than a fraction of Lord Dunsany’s pervasive charm.—H. P. Lovecraft One of the greatest writers of this century.—Arthur C. Clarke

About the author

Though during his lifetime the Irish nobleman Lord Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, the 18th Baron Dunsany, was perhaps regarded as a minor talent, his somber short fantasies and novels had a significant impact on the development of fantasy and horror fiction. In real life, Dunsany was as interesting and versatile as anyone about whom he wrote. He was an African big-game hunter, a soldier in both the Boer War and World War I, and was wounded in the 1916 Irish Easter Rebellion. He was also the national chess champion of Ireland. Dunsany's first short story collection, The Gods of Pegana, was published in 1905 and was soon followed by other fantasy anthologies, including Time and the Gods (1906) and The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories (1908), among others. These stories are distinguished by their elegant, fairy tale settings and Dunsany's unique, macabre sense of humor. Dunsany's novels, such as The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924) and The Charwoman's Shadow (1926), are considered fantasy classics. Although Dunsany wrote prodigiously and with great versatility throughout his life, many regard his early, highly stylized short fiction to be his best work, and his most important.