Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Charwoman's Shadow (Del Rey Impact) by LORD DUNSANY ISBN: 0-345-43192-8 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 03 August, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.55 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A true classic fantasy from a great writer - worth a try !
Comment: Perhaps less well-known than "The King of Elfland's Daughter", this book is one of two Dunsany works in Iberian settings in a world that never was (the other is "Don Rodriguez"). It is a wonderful fantasy which just flows for the reader. The language is rich, the description powerful - the keen introdction gives a classic example on the art of writing. This is not some basic overused plot but is interesting enough to have been a real legend. Nor is there a simple black & white setup - the hero's opponent is a character of substance who contributes some of the book's great moments. Any lover of good fantastic fiction deserves a read of this kind of book (they're all too rare). Give it a try and keep an eye out for any other Dunsany volumes - this author, gone over forty years now, could show (and has shown) the way for so many today. The sheer volume of compliments from authors of today speaks to the contribution Lord Dunsany made (and still makes). Publishers, any chance or reprinting more of the canon ?
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic of fantasy...come learn the magic of language!
Comment: Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, better and more succinctly known by his title, Lord Dunsany (pronounced "done-SANEY"), is perhaps the most important British fantasy author to appear before Tolkien. Lord Dunsany's work has little connection to Tolkien's except that both create feelings of wonder in readers that whisk them away to fantastic worlds. Dunsany's work has a less realistic, more ethereal quality than Tolkien's, and draws strongly on the traditional fairy-tale, while at that same time energizing the simplicity of the fairy-tale with his sense of drama (Dunsany was also a playwright) and with his magnificent, fluid, beautiful writing. His 1927 novel, "The Charwoman's Shadow," is one of his greatest works, second only to "The King of Elfland's Daughter."
Edward Plunkett was born in 1878, became the 18th Lord Dunsany upon the death of his father in 1899, and made an unsuccessful attempt to run for parliament in 1904. With his failure in politics, he began writing his stories of the fantastic, beginning with the collection (currently in-print) "The Gods of Pegana." He enjoyed great literary success and acclaim until his death in 1957, but sadly, at the end of the century, his literature seemed in danger of vanishing from the minds of all but ardent fantasy historians and those who could afford the out-of-print volumes containing his work. But Dunsany has suddenly roared back into print; if you're a lover of fantasy, you cannot miss "The Charwoman's Shadow." It ranks as one of finest novels of the fantastic.
The story takes place in a fantasy vision of medieval Spain: "Picture an evening sombre and sweet over Spain, the glittering sheen of leaves fading to somberer colours...Picture the Golden Age past its wonderful zenith, and westering now towards its setting." Young Ramon Alonzo goes to learn the One True Art -- the art of magic -- from a master magician who lives in an old house in the woods. The Master requires a fee, however: Don Alonzo's shadow. The boy surrenders it, believing it is of no use to him. But even as he advances himself in the magic arts, he soon learns there are serious consequences to losing your shadow. An old charwoman who works for the Master seeks Don Alonzo's aid, for she too lost her shadow many years ago to the Master, and she desires it back. The two enter an alliance, one that Don Alonzo starts to regret when he discovers the youthful beauty of the old charwoman's shadow.
There are no action set-pieces in "The Charwoman's Shadow," no epic battles, no swarms of monsters and demons, but every sequence in the book is full of unforgettable images and beauty. The scene of re-attaching the shadow makes the book a masterpiece on its own; it reduced me to tears the first time I read it. Lord Dunsany will remind you of no other writer, and you'll thrill to discover his unique take on fantasy, feeling if you were sharing a secret private encounter.
Dunsany's word magic pulses stronger than any of the actual magic that appears in the book. In fact, the book is really about the power of language itself; we spend time with Don Alonzo pouring over words and learning their secrets. As Peter S. Beagle (author of "The Last Unicorn") says in his brief but powerful introduction, Dunsany had "an understanding that the right name for a character can imply an entire culture, a history, a music, a world; that a single word chosen properly can persuade a reader that he shares a folklore he can't possibly know...To open this book is, like Don Ramon Alonzo, to begin learning the true nature of enchantment from a master."
I can't give a better recommendation than that, so I will only second him: open this book and fall deep into the fantasy of language.
Rating: 5
Summary: Master of prose, unfairly burdened with the role of pioneer
Comment: Those approaching Dunsany because of his reputation as a proto-fantasy writer (in the sense we now use "fantasy" to decribe a genre) are bound to be disappointed. Happily, he hails from an age before such labels solidified into something restrictive, and his intoxicating prose can be regarded as "fantastic" in its looser sense. He was also a good deal more versatile than the description "fantasy-writer" would suggest, at one point with five plays being staged concurrently on Broadway.
The reviewer who cites Dunsany's dreamy style hits closer to the mark. Dunsany is not about plot. He is all about atmosphere, and the joy of language. Here, as elsewhere, there is a heavy perfume in the air, and an admitted stream-of-consciousness at work. If details seem to appear out of nowhere, it is probably because they do. It is part of what makes Dunsany so fascinating. The reader is aware of a fecund imagination spontaneously drawing connections with every sentence. This is unfettered inspiration at work, and it is refreshing in a day when conformity (and bland prose) rules to encounter a writer so obviously delighting in his own personal muse. Yes, certain cells recur, mantra-like, simulating the rhythm of the ancient epics. It is the structure of instinct. Remember, Dunsany was an unrepentent anachronist, setting down all of his flowery, wonderful inspirations with a quill. He was also an Irishman, and as such, of an apparent genetic predisposition to unspool beautifully-crafted tales.
Comparisons to Tolkien are useless, and do a grave disservice to Dunsany's art. In Tolkien you find myth; in Dunsany, fable. His writings are not writings for children, as some have suggested (although I suspect children unspoiled by too much Gameboy would enjoy them), but rather fairy stories penned for adults. One needs have lived long enough to have experienced regret, and nostalgia, of the retreat of the fantastic from the more prosaic world of "maturity," to fully appreciate the special bittersweet qualities that inform most of Dunsany's fiction.
I haven't checked if it is still in print, but those who enjoy this work should definitely try and locate a copy of "Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley," as it has much in common. In fact, I find it slightly perverse for Del Rey not to have published it first, as a knowledge of "Rodriguez" enriches one's understanding of the novel under consideration. You will learn more about the bowmen, and experience further enchantment (and romance) in Dunsany's imaginative Spain.
What's more, it may be the finer book.
 |
Title: The King of Elfland's Daughter (Del Rey Impact) by Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett Dunsany, Lord Dunsany, Neil Gaiman ISBN: 034543191X Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
Title: A Dreamer's Tales by Lord Dunsany ISBN: 1587157306 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: The Book of Wonder by Lord Dunsany ISBN: 1587156377 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: 31 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
 |
Title: Time and the Gods by Lord Dunsany ISBN: 1587157195 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: 31 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: Lud-In-The-Mist by Hope Mirrlees ISBN: 1587159627 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
