Download or read book Basic Categories of Fantastic Literature Revisited written by Joanna Matyjaszczyk and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-11-19 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique collection of essays on selected aspects of science-fiction, fantasy and broadly understood fantastic literature, unified by a highly theoretical focus, this volume offers an overview of the most important theories pertaining to the field of the fantastic, such as Tzvetan Todorov's definition of the term itself, J.R.R. Tolkien's essay 'On Fairy Stories,' and the concept of 'Gothic space'. The composition and order of the chapters provide the reader with a systematic overview of major...

Download or read book Classics of Fantastic Literature written by Robert Reginald and published by Wildside Press LLC. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes plot summaries and detailed descriptions of 194 works of science fiction from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Download or read book The Big Book of Classic Fantasy written by Ann Vandermeer and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2019-07-02 with total page 864 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A FINALIST FOR THE 2020 WORLD FANTASY AWARD Unearth the enchanting origins of fantasy fiction with a collection of tales as vast as the tallest tower and as mysterious as the dark depths of the forest. Fantasy stories have always been with us. They illuminate the odd and the uncanny, the wondrous and the fantastic: all the things we know are lurking just out of sight—on the other side of the looking-glass, beyond the music of the impossibly haunting violin, through the twisted trees of the ancient woods. Other worlds, talking animals, fairies, goblins, demons, tricksters, and mystics: these are the elements that populate a rich literary tradition that spans the globe. A work composed both of careful scholarship and fantastic fun, The Big Book of Classic Fantasy is essential reading for anyone who’s never forgotten the stories that first inspired feelings of astonishment and wonder. INCLUDING: *Stories by pillars of the genre like the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Mary Shelley, Christina Rossetti, L. Frank Baum, Robert E. Howard, and J. R. R. Tolkien *Fantastical offerings from literary giants including Edith Wharton, Leo Tolstoy, Willa Cather, Zora Neale Hurston, Vladimir Nabokov, Hermann Hesse, and W.E.B. Du Bois *Rare treasures from Asian, Eastern European, Scandinavian, and Native American traditions *New translations, including fourteen stories never before in English PLUS: *Beautifully Bizarre Creatures! *Strange New Worlds Just Beyond the Garden Path! *Fairy Folk and Their Dark Mischief! *Seriously Be Careful—Do Not Trust Those Fairies!

Download or read book Famous Fantastic Mysteries written by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz and published by Random House Value Publishing. This book was released on 1991 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Dark Fantastic written by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals the diversity crisis in children's and young adult media as not only a lack of representation, but a lack of imagination Stories provide portals into other worlds, both real and imagined. The promise of escape draws people from all backgrounds to speculative fiction, but when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, the doors are often barred. This problem lies not only with children’s publishing, but also with the television and film executives tasked with adapting these stories into a visual world. When characters of color do appear, they are often marginalized or subjected to violence, reinforcing for audiences that not all lives matter. The Dark Fantastic is an engaging and provocative exploration of race in popular youth and young adult speculative fiction. Grounded in her experiences as YA novelist, fanfiction writer, and scholar of education, Thomas considers four black girl protagonists from some of the most popular stories of the early 21st century: Bonnie Bennett from the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, Rue from Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, Gwen from the BBC’s Merlin, and Angelina Johnson from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Analyzing their narratives and audience reactions to them reveals how these characters mirror the violence against black and brown people in our own world. In response, Thomas uncovers and builds upon a tradition of fantasy and radical imagination in Black feminism and Afrofuturism to reveal new possibilities. Through fanfiction and other modes of counter-storytelling, young people of color have reinvisioned fantastic worlds that reflect their own experiences, their own lives. As Thomas powerfully asserts, “we dark girls deserve more, because we are more.”

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature written by Edward James and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-26 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fantasy is a creation of the Enlightenment, and the recognition that excitement and wonder can be found in imagining impossible things. From the ghost stories of the Gothic to the zombies and vampires of twenty-first-century popular literature, from Mrs Radcliffe to Ms Rowling, the fantastic has been popular with readers. Since Tolkien and his many imitators, however, it has become a major publishing phenomenon. In this volume, critics and authors of fantasy look at its history since the Enlightenment, introduce readers to some of the different codes for the reading and understanding of fantasy, and examine some of the many varieties and subgenres of fantasy; from magical realism at the more literary end of the genre, to paranormal romance at the more popular end. The book is edited by the same pair who produced The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (winner of a Hugo Award in 2005).

Download or read book Tales Before Tolkien The Roots of Modern Fantasy written by Douglas A. Anderson and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2003-08-26 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terry Brooks. David Eddings. George R. R. Martin. Robin Hobb. The top names in modern fantasy all acknowledge J. R. R. Tolkien as their role model, the author whose work inspired them to create their own epics. But what writers influenced Tolkien himself? Here, internationally recognized Tolkien expert Douglas A. Anderson has gathered the fiction of authors who sparked Tolkien’s imagination in a collection destined to become a classic in its own right. Andrew Lang’s romantic swashbuckler, “The Story of Sigurd,” features magic rings, an enchanted sword, and a brave hero loved by two beautiful women— and cursed by a ferocious dragon. Tolkien read E. A. Wyke-Smith’s “The Marvelous Land of Snergs” to his children, delighting in these charming tales of a pixieish people “only slightly taller than the average table.” Also appearing in this collection is a never-before-published gem by David Lindsay, author of Voyage to Arcturus, a novel which Tolkien praised highly both as a thriller and as a work of philosophy, religion, and morals. In stories packed with magical journeys, conflicted heroes, and terrible beasts, this extraordinary volume is one that no fan of fantasy or Tolkien should be without. These tales just might inspire a new generation of creative writers. Tales Before Tolkien: 22 Magical Stories “The Elves” by Ludwig Tieck “The Golden Key” by George Macdonald “Puss-Cat Mew” by E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen “The Griffin and the Minor Canon” by Frank R. Stockton “The Demon Pope” by Richard Garnett “The Story of Sigurd” by Andrew Lang “The Folk of the Mountain Door” by William Morris “Black Heart and White Heart” by H. Rider Haggard “The Dragon Tamers” by E. Nesbit “The Far Islands” by John Buchan “The Drawn Arrow” by Clemence Housman “The Enchanted Buffalo” by L. Frank Baum “Chu-bu and Sheemish” by Lord Dunsany “The Baumhoff Explosive” by William Hope Hodgson “The Regent of the North” by Kenneth Morris “The Coming of the Terror” by Arthur Machen “The Elf Trap” by Francis Stevens “The Thin Queen of Elfhame” by James Branch Cabell “The Woman of the Wood” by A. Merritt “Golithos the Ogre” by E. A. Wyke-Smith “The Story of Alwina” by Austin Tappan Wright “A Christmas Play” by David Lindsay

Download or read book Classics of Fantastic Literature written by Robert Reginald and published by Wildside Press LLC. This book was released on 2005 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes plot summaries and detailed descriptions of 194 works of science fiction from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Download or read book The Ember Blade written by Chris Wooding and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2018-09-20 with total page 832 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The Ember Blade is hands down the best fantasy novel I've ever read' Grimdark Magazine Empires rise, civilisations fall and one culture comes to subsume another. It's the way of the world . . . sometimes ways of life are improved, sometimes they are not. But the progression of change is huge and - usually - unstoppable. In this story, the Ossian way of life is fading and the Dachen way is taking its place and Aren is comfortable with that. Even when his parents are accused of treason he supports the establishment and maintains there's been some mistake . . . which is all it takes to get himself and his best friend arrested . . . Thrown into a prison mine they plan their escape - only to be overtaken by events when they're rescued, and promptly find themselves in the middle of an ambush. By the time they've escaped, they're unavoidably linked to Garric - their unwelcome saviour - and his quest to overturn to Dachen way of life. If they leave Garric now, they'll be arrested or killed by their pursuers. If they turn him in, Garric will kill them. If they stay with him, they'll be abetting a murderous quest they don't believe in. There are no good options - but Aren will still have to choose a path . . . Designed to return to classic fantasy adventures and values, from a modern perspective, this is a fast-moving coming-of-age trilogy featuring a strong cast of diverse characters, brilliant set-pieces and a strong character and plot driven story.

Download or read book Fantasy written by Dr Rosemary Jackson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-03-07 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study argues against vague interpretations of fantasy as mere escapism and seeks to define it as a distinct kind of narrative. A general theoretical section introduces recent work on fantasy, notably Tzventan Todorov's The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (1973). Dr Jackson, however, extends Todorov's ideas to include aspects of psychoanalytical theory. Seeing fantasy as primarily an expression of unconscious drives, she stresses the importance of the writings of Freud and subsequent theorists when analysing recurrent themes, such as doubling or multiplying selves, mirror images, metamorphosis and bodily disintegration.^l Gothic fiction, classic Victorian fantasies, the 'fantastic realism' of Dickens and Dostoevsky, tales by Mary Shelley, James Hogg, E.T.A. Hoffmann, George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, R.L. Stevenson, Franz Kafka, Mervyn Peake and Thomas Pynchon are among the texts covered. Through a reading of these frequently disquieting works, Dr Jackson moves towards a definition of fantasy expressing cultural unease. These issues are discussed in relation to a wide range of fantasies with varying images of desire and disenchantment.

Download or read book The Fantasy Literature of England written by Colin N. Manlove and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-05-11 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this, the first book on English fantasy, Colin Manlove shows that for all its immense diversity, English fantasy can best be understood in terms of its strong national character, rather than as an international genre. Showing its development from Beowulf to Blake, the author describes English fantasy's modern growth through secondary world, metaphysical, emotive, comic, subversive, and children's fantasy. In them all England has led the world, with authors as different as Chaucer, Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Salman Rushdie.

Download or read book Basic Categories of Fantastic Literature Revisited written by Andrzej Wicher and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique collection of essays on selected aspects of science-fiction, fantasy and broadly understood fantastic literature, unified by a highly theoretical focus, this volume offers an overview of the most important theories pertaining to the field of the fantastic, such as Tzvetan Todorovâ (TM)s definition of the term itself, J.R.R. Tolkienâ (TM)s essay â ~On Fairy Stories, â (TM) and the concept of â ~Gothic spaceâ (TM). The composition and order of the chapters provide the reader with a systematic overview of major theoretical perspectives and serve as an accessible introduction to the topic of fantastic literature. The book combines reflection on various genres such as fantasy, science fiction, horror, Gothic writing, and even drama, offering a comprehensive overview of the fantastic across generic lines. The authors whose works are addressed by the volumeâ (TM)s twelve chapters include some of the most popular household names in fantastic literature, such as H.P. Lovecraft, George R.R. Martin, Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman. In addition, the volume also includes readings of contemporary fantastic literature against the backdrop of world literature classics, such as Homeric poetry, Edmund Spenser and the drama of the English Renaissance.

Download or read book A Short History of Fantasy written by Farah Mendlesohn and published by Libri Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2012-06-27 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some of the earliest books ever written, including The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey, deal with monsters, marvels, extraordinary voyages, and magic, and this genre, known as fantasy, remained an essential part of European literature through the rise of the modern realist novel. Tracing the history of fantasy from the earliest years through to the origins of modern fantasy in the 20th century, this account discusses contributions decade by decade--from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and Lewis's Narnia books in the 1950s to J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. It also discusses and explains fantasy's continuing and growing popularity.

Download or read book Evaporating Genres written by Gary K. Wolfe and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A series of provocative essays on how the fantastic genres evolve and grow In this wide-ranging series of essays, an award-winning science fiction critic explores how the related genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror evolve, merge, and finally "evaporate" into new and more dynamic forms. Beginning with a discussion of how literary readers "unlearned" how to read the fantastic during the heyday of realistic fiction, Gary K. Wolfe goes on to show how the fantastic reasserted itself in popular genre literature, and how these genres themselves grew increasingly unstable in terms of both narrative form and the worlds they portray. More detailed discussions of how specific contemporary writers have promoted this evolution are followed by a final essay examining how the competing discourses have led toward an emerging synthesis of critical approaches and vocabularies. The essays cover a vast range of authors and texts, and include substantial discussions of very current fiction published within the last few years.

Download or read book The A to Z of Fantasy Literature written by Brian Stableford and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2009-08-13 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once upon a time all literature was fantasy, set in a mythical past when magic existed, animals talked, and the gods took an active hand in earthly affairs. As the mythical past was displaced in Western estimation by the historical past and novelists became increasingly preoccupied with the present, fantasy was temporarily marginalized until the late 20th century, when it enjoyed a spectacular resurgence in every stratum of the literary marketplace. Stableford provides an invaluable guide to this sequence of events and to the current state of the field. The chronology tracks the evolution of fantasy from the origins of literature to the 21st century. The introduction explains the nature of the impulses creating and shaping fantasy literature, the problems of its definition and the reasons for its changing historical fortunes. The dictionary includes cross-referenced entries on more than 700 authors, ranging across the entire historical spectrum, while more than 200 other entries describe the fantasy subgenres, key images in fantasy literature, technical terms used in fantasy criticism, and the intimately convoluted relationship between literary fantasies, scholarly fantasies, and lifestyle fantasies. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography that ranges from general textbooks and specialized accounts of the history and scholarship of fantasy literature, through bibliographies and accounts of the fantasy literature of different nations, to individual author studies and useful websites.

Download or read book The Classic Fantasy Collection written by Arcturus Publishing and published by Sirius Entertainment. This book was released on 2018-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Epic romances, fearsome dragons and alien worlds lie between the pages of this volume. Containing more than 35 stories from the early masters of fantasy literature, the narratives here transport the reader to alternate worlds where magic abounds, cosmic terrors lie around the corner and intrepid heroes fight for justice. Drawing inspiration from Norse, Celtic and Japanese mythologies, the authors collected here span the breadth of the genre. Including tales from William Morris, H.G. Wells, Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft amongst others, they demonstrate the plethora of imaginative literature that was written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of these tales were foundational works, bringing ideas of the supernatural into the mainstream, and through their efforts creating entirely new genres. At once both escapist and astonishingly relevant to modern day concerns, these classic works of fantasy remain essential reading."--Book jacket back cover

Download or read book The Classic Fantasy Fiction Collection written by Arcturus Publishing and published by . This book was released on 2017-11 with total page 928 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This compilation of classic fantasy stories demonstrates the breadth and imagination in the genre. Ranging from the supernatural horror tales of H.P. Lovecraft to the heroic adventures of Conan the Barbarian to the magical romances of William Morris. This edition features: - The Classic Fantasy Collection encompasses the entire range of fiction within the fantasy genre, including: - The Tower of the Elephant by Robert E. Howard - The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft - The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost by H. G. Wells - The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris - The Dream of Akinosuke by Lafcadio Hearn - The People of the Pit by Abraham Merritt - The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen - The Transmutation of Ling by Ernest Bramah - The Mask by Robert W. Chambers - The Shadows by George MacDonald