The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories (Oxford Books of Prose) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192803824 ISBN 13: 9780192803825

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2003

Synopsis

An anthology of fantasy stories selected by the eminent Medievalist and Fantasy scholar Tom Shippey, The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories gathers together thirty-one tales brimming over with imagination. This rich and intriguing collection of fantasy stories features classic figures--the Devil, trolls and werewolves, sorcerers and dragons--that have long been a part of the human psyche. The authors of these marvelous tales draw upon a deep well of images, characters, and landscapes with great imagination and subtlety. Featuring writers as diverse as John Buchan and Mervyn Peake, Angela Carter and Terry Pratchett, this is an anthology for the newcomer and dedicated fan alike.

About this title

About the Author:

Tom Shippey holds the Walter J. Ong Chair of Humanities at St Louis University, Missouri, specializing in Medieval Literature, Old English Arthurian and Romance Literature, Fantasy, and Science Fiction. He has written and edited numerous books, including J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (2001).

From Booklist:

Shippey discusses the long tradition of fantasy and then offers stories from 1888 through 1992 to illustrate its growth in this century. Some familiar names, such as Kate Wilhelm and James Blish, aren't to be found here, and some overrated ones, such as Lord Dunsany and Robert E. Howard, are; but for the most part, Shippey avoids chestnuts and offers unusual, provocative tales. There's Phyllis Eisenstein's childlike "Subworld," about an unhappy, confused little boy who finds a secret passageway in the subway system and becomes a mouse; there's Lucius Shepard's "Night of White Bhairab," a witty parody of the spiritual search featuring a spaced-out, drunken American's fumblings as he blunders into an epic battle between good and evil. Though published in 1888, Richard Garnett's "Demon Pope" gives a fresh spin to the myth of Mephistopheles: the devil trades places with the pope, and no one can tell the difference. But the best tale here is Poul Anderson's manic "Operation Afleet," which takes the crisp, desperate quality of an army combat mission and combines it with weird magic and the powers werewolves can evoke. Vast, mythic, and wild. John Mort

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0192803824
• ISBN 13: 9780192803825
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 522