It can only be guessed at why this book was out of print in the US until recently. In it, the reader can discover a charming collection of VERY short stories, which flit from whimsical to mythological, humorous to chilling. All are written in Dunsany's incomparable prose, which ranges from arch first-person narrative to stuff that sounds like embellished mythology.

In this you'll find centaurs, sphinxes, master thieves, about-to-retire pirate chiefs, kings trying to move an emotionless queen to tears, a magical window, a pair of feuding idols, and a delightful story called "Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance." In addition, this new reprint by Wildside Press has a beautiful cover of a young boy on a winged horse.

The stories are a little short -- much shorter than most present-day short fantasy stories -- but they are just amazing. A must-read for immediate suspension of belief.

It can only be guessed at why this book is out of print in the US, though it can be obtained with other Dunsany works from the UK. In it, the reader can discover a charming collection of VERY short stories, which flit from whimsical to mythological, humorous to chilling. All are written in Dunsany's incomparable prose, which ranges from arch first-person narrative to stuff that sounds like embellished mythology.

In this you'll find centaurs, sphinxes, master thieves, about-to-retire pirate chiefs, kings trying to move an emotionless queen to tears, a magical window, a pair of feuding idols, and a delightful story called "Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance." The stories are a little short -- much shorter than most present-day short fantasy stories -- but they are just amazing. A must-read for immediate suspension of belief.

Three tales of famous thieves are part of this collection. _The Book of Wonder_ consists of 14 of Dunsany's short stories (I've sorted them by title rather than order of appearance); it's in print as I write this, as part of the Fantasy Masterworks edition of _Time and the Gods_.

"The Bride of the Man-Horse" - Shepperalk the centaur headed from the first for the city of Zretazoola, though all the mundane plain lay between.

"Chu-bu and Sheemish" - The idol Chu-bu was worshipped alone in his temple for over a hundred years, until the day the priests brought in the upstart idol Sheemish to be worshipped beside him.

"The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap" - When Mr. Shap perceived the beastliness of his occupation as a salesman, he began to venture into the lands of dream and wonder as an escape.

"Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller" - Thangobrind, a master thief operating behind a cover as a jeweller, is offered the soul of a Merchant Prince's daughter in exchange for stealing a diamond from the temple of Hlo-Hlo...

"The Hoard of the Gibbelins" - The Gibbelins maintain their hoard only to attract a continual supply of food...humans...

"The House of the Sphinx" - A visitor chances to come to the House of the Sphinx after a mighty deed has been done, and her servants are in a panic...

"How Nuth Would Have Practiced His Art Upon the Gnoles" - Nuth the incomparable is a master thief. "It may be urged against my use of the word incomparable that in the burglary business the name of Slith stands paramount and alone; and of this I am not ignorant; but Slith is a classic, and lived long ago, and knew nothing at all of modern competition..."

"How One Came, as Was Foretold, to the City of Never" - "Time had been there, but not to work destruction...by I know not what bribe averted." But not even that Ultimate City is perfect.

"The Injudicious Prayers of Pombo the Idolater" - It is unwise to pray to one idol, only to become impatient and ask another idol to curse the first one; it's against their etiquette....

"The Loot of Bombasharna" - The seas are becoming too hot to hold Captain Shard and the crew of the pirate ship _Desperate Lark_. The sacking of Bombasharna is to be their last hurrah before retirement...

"Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance" - If princesses are in short supply, sometimes a dragon might have to kidnap the daughter of a member of Parliament.

"Probable Adventure of Three Literary Men" - "When the nomads came to El Lola they had no more songs, and the question of stealing the golden box arose in all its magnitude." The legendary thief Slith, along with two assistants because of the weight of the box of poems, are chosen to make the attempt.

"The Quest of the Queen's Tears" - Sylvia, Queen of the Woods, cannot love any of her suitors, but as a compromise, will consent to marry the first man who can move her to tears.

"The Wonderful Window" - The mysterious window was being offered for sale in the streets of London, and its price is all you possess.

_A Dreamer's Tales_ consists of 16 short stories (I've sorted them by title rather than order of appearance); it's in print as I write this, as part of the Fantasy Masterworks edition of _Time and the Gods_.

"The Beggars" - The cloaked strangers, begging gracefully, as gods beg for souls, had a gift for seeing past the dreary surface of life in the city.

"Bethmoora" - a story of the desolation of Bethmoora, a city at the desert's edge.

"Blagdaross" - As twilight falls upon a rubbish heap, all the castoff things therein find voices to remember where they have been. Among them is the rocking-horse Blagdaross.

"Carcassonne" - It was prophesied to Camorak at Arn that he should never come to Carcassonne, but he decided to defy Fate.

"The Day of the Poll" - Since everyone in the town had gone raving mad on election day, the lonely poet set out to trap and save an intelligence for company.

"The Field" - Why is it the field of king-cups, and not the hideous ugliness of the town, that is covered with an ominous feeling of foreboding?

"The Hashish Man" - Another visitor to Bethmoora picks up the tale.

"The Idle City" - The city's custom was that anyone who wished to enter must pay a toll of one story at the gate.

"Idle Days on the Yann" - the story of a journey on the ship _Bird of the River_ down the Yann, and of the cities along the Yann.

"The Madness of Andelsprutz" - The city of Andelsprutz had been conquered, and stolen from the land of Akla. What happens to the souls of conquered cities?

"Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean" - The Inner Lands are those three kingdoms which have no view of the sea, being bounded on the west by the mountain Poltarnees. But none who had ever climbed Poltarnees from the very earliest times had ever come back again...

"Poor Old Bill" - the Captain never talked to the ship's crew, except sometimes in the evening he would talk a bit to the me!n he had hanged at the yard-arm. But just when the crew thought life couldn't get any worse, the Captain learned how to use curses.

"The Sword and the Idol" - Which would have more weight - the family of the man who made the first iron sword, or of he who made the first idol?

"The Unhappy Body" - The body, afflicted with a poet's soul that would not let it rest, was advised to drink and smoke more, so that the soul would cease to trouble it.

"Where the Tides Ebb and Flow" - What happens to the souls of those who are cursed so that they cannot rest on either the earth or the ocean?

"In Zaccarath" - The prophets and singers have spoken of the iniquity of the King, and the onrush of the Zeedians, but the King and his queens and warriors are paying heed only to their feasting and celebration, or so it would seem...

This book, which contains 16 magical tales, is just great. I read it twice from cover to cover and loved every sentence in it. Dunsany has a very particular style, making it easy to envision the story and experiencing it as if it were really happening.

this is a work of art. incredibly imaginative, it speaks directly from the subconscious mind. it is not only art but also an excercise in psychoanalysis. key words are: gods in poppy fields in the twilight. prohpets beheaded and sent on a journey into the outer stars.if you like gods beating up on little people, you will love this guy

This book is in print as I write this, as part of the Fantasy Masterworks edition of _Time and the Gods_; it is a collection of 18 short stories.

"A Tale of London" - in a reversal of the usual pattern, a sultan has asked his seer to relate to him a vision of the fabulous city of London.

"Thirteen at Table" - The ghosts of twelve women wronged by old Sir Richard Arlen have had dinner with him every night for the last thirty years.

"The City on Mallington Moor" - A rumor is spreading of a strange city of white marble appearing out of the mist.

"Why the Milkman Shudders When He Perceives the Dawn" - this is a tale told in the Hall of the Ancient Company of Milkmen when all the craft are assembled.

"The Bad Old Woman in Black" - What to do in the face of an omen of evil?

"The Bird of the Difficult Eye" - a tale of the only thief employed by West End jewellers since the distressing tale of Thangobrind (see _The Book of Wonder_).

"The Long Porter's Tale" - Gerald Jones, suffering from melancholy, went to a magician in London and was diagnosed with flux of time, and was recommended to take a day at the Edge of the World as treatment.

"The Loot of Loma" - The raiders didn't know that a priest's written curse had been slipped into their loot.

"The Secret of the Sea" - What do ships worship, and what temple do they go to?

"How Ali Came to the Black Country" - Many people may say that technology and pollution are modern devils, but how many people are serious enough to take the traditional steps to imprison devils?

"The Bureau D'Echanges De Maux" - Mysterious shop offering strange goods.

"A Story of Land and Sea" - continuation of "The Loot of Bombasharna" from _The Book of Wonder_.

"A Narrow Escape" - A magician in a dank cavern below Belgrave Square and his preparations to destroy London.

"The Watch-Tower" - When a tower is built to guard forever against the Saracens, forever may be longer than you think.

"How Plash-Goo Came to the Land of None's Desire"

"The Three Sailors' Gambit" - Sometimes even the Devil can't win at the game of selling souls. A chess story.

"The Exiles' Club" - How are the mighty fallen; and even the fallen have to go somewhere.

"The Three Infernal Jokes" - Not so much selling a soul, as trading away an option.

After reading mostly positive reviews on this webpage concerning Lord Dunsany's novel I went in search of it, and found it at my university library. Reading it was quite a different experience for me, but people who aren't prepared for the style of writing like I was might be disappointed, confused or scorning of the slow, dream-like pace, archetype characters and poetical language. This might be especially true of fans of typical 'fantasy' genre books (authors such as David Eddings or Terry Brooks) where a fantasy universe is deemed to be good only if it has a solid backing and an exhaustive array of facts and figures to add realism to the stories. Lord Dusany however, expects the reader to take for granted the existence of Elfland, trolls, elves and will o' the wisps, without trying to explain them. 'The King of Elfland's Daughter' is refreshingly free of geographies, biologies, cultures, or other infinite details that are so prevailent in other fantasy cult books.

The story goes that the Parliament of Erl approaches their king, eager for their small country to be known throughout the lands. The solution is for it to somehow imbue magic into its royalty, and to achieve this the king sends his son Alveric into Elfland to make the King of Elfland's daughter his wife. Alveric is successful in this, and brings the beautiful Lirazel back to Erl, where they have a child Orien. The King of Elfland however desparatly wants his daughter returned to him, and by use of three powerful runes, contrives to bring her back to her home.

Dunsany delves into several themes throughout the book, all framed by the contrasts of Erl and Elfland. Within this, he explores the differences between Paganism and Christianity, freedom and restrictions, the passage of times, mortality and immortality, male and female, parent and child - the list goes on. Running through these is the main story thread that makes clear that everyone desires what they cannot have, and although by the end of the novel their desires come to furfillment, it is in an ironic resolution that no one (including this reviewer) could have ever wished for. The ending is thus happy, but contains a certain sense of something bittersweet, like a lost childhood that Dusany continually likens Elfland to.

It was acknowledged by many later fantasy writers that they were inspired by Dunsany, including (obviously) Tolkien. It is no coincidence that Alveric and Lirazel have a certain resemblance to Aragorn and Arwen in way of their courtly love and somewhat 'forbidden' romance. However, I feel that Dunsany hits upon notes of inevitable dischord between the two that Tolkien neglects. I wonder for example if Arwen ever felt: 'the years that assail beauty, and the harshness that vex the spirit that were already about her, and the doom of all mortals hung over her head.' It is something for devoted Tolkien fans to think about, as well as potent storytelling. (That wasn't a dig at Tolkien by any means, just a thought to dwell on).

On the actual styles of storytelling, many people might feel frustrated at the continued use of 'the fields we know' to describe earth, and faery as a place 'only told of in song'. However, as I went through the story, I found the repetition to become quite familiar and comfiting, like a steady rhythm or heartbeat, and the final sentence making use of this repeated phrase made me take a deep sigh of contentment. Lord Dunsany's other gift is his use of metaphor and imagery. For instance, his use of the priest likening Lirazel to a mermaid, and then later echoing this thought with 'there was something in [the priest's] voice as he spoke, a little distant from her, and [Lirazel] knew that he spoke as one that walked safe upon the shore, calling far to a mermaid in a dangerous sea,' makes this not a book, but literature. Dunsany's soft, poetical, vivid, mellow language is what makes this book so appealing, and used to unforgetable descriptions of Elfland, twilight, the countryside, and beauty in all its forms.

A couple of times he faulters when he slips into what I've described above - trying to make story *real*. References to Tennyson and the infamous unicorn horn of Rome are jarring, and pull one out of the dreamy atmosphere. The archetypes are expected and unsurprising - the mighty king of Elfland, the elusive witch-upon-the-hill, the elfin beauty, the warrior-king, the hunter-prince, the trickster fey - we've encounted them countless times in one form or another.

But overall, this book has my recommendation, for a novelty to see how the fantasy-writers wrote before Tolkien, and for a wonderful escape into a glorious world. Plus, you can learn some little bits of trivia that you may of not known before, for instance - did you know that faeries hate dogs? That they cause clocks to stop? That their infants can talk?

Reading this short, powerful novel is like falling into a dream from which it is hard to awaken. Dunsany's prose is deliciously rich, and he moves through this tale of love and loss and strange longing with infinite grace, never laboring over a point or rushing the majestic pace. Those who are too entrenched in modern prose styles certainly might find the work lacking in the kind of day-to-day detail of the characters' lives, but readers should approach this work with more of a sense of the classic fairy tale or perhaps the biblical parable. I intend to pass this book along to everyone I know who enjoys a good story, and I hope to read it again many times myself!

When Terry Goodkind's "Soul of the Fire" - part of one of those multi-volume "epic" fantasy series so popular these days - was not yet released, Amazon readers had already posted a few hundred reviews of the book, almost all of which rated it at 5 stars. None of them had read a word of what they were reviewing, but that didn't stop them.

At the time of writing this, there are just a handful of reviews of Dunsany's "The King of Elfland's Daughter", which was first published in 1924 and which is one of the true classic fantasies of all time. And I doubt a great number will follow.

That's fashion for you.

Still, in about twenty or thirty years from now, I very much doubt if a lot of fantasy afficianados will be able to remember Terry Goodkind at all (let alone "Soul of the Fire"). But I do know that they'll remember Dunsany. As they will William Morris, E.R. Eddison, C.S. Lewis, and - of course - J.R.R. Tolkien.

You see, these are the original masters of fantasy. A lot of good - at times great - fantasy has been written since then (writers like Patricia McKillip, Stephen Donaldson, Ursula LeGuin, Guy Gavriel Kay come to mind), but these are the Old Ones. The ones, if you like, Who Knew What They Were Talking About.

To explain (in the case of Dunsany): a few years back, when in Ireland, I tried to visit the Dunsany ancestral home (yes, this is real aristocracy). I remember asking a local farmer for directions; then, after a little searching, I found a secluded gateway. I drove up the lane, crowded with trees, turned right - and there it was. One of the most beautiful and hospitable - and very real - castles you could imagine. And it suddenly dawned on me: if you lived in such a place - if your family had, for generations, lived in such a place, in such a troubled country, with so much pain and turmoil - you probably couldn't help but turn to some sort of fantasy. And that fantasy couldn't help but be more true than what all of us could come up with, munching our microwaved Internet dinners before flickering monitors and filing billion dollar law suits against any company that produces potentially harmful products.

Not knowing where it came from, it's easy for us to try to decide what good fantasy is - it seems we don't even need to read to book to review it - but we might do well do realise, every now and then, that some of it was written with a far greater perspective than we could aspire to.

In the end, "The King of Elfland's Daughter" is one of the masterpieces of early fantasy. It takes a little getting used to - like Henry James, for example - but if you like fantasy fiction at all, you must read this book. It is one of the very few fantasy books that if worth just about any price you pay for it.

One final remark: an absolutely excellent collection of Dunsany's shorter fiction was recently published by Victor Gollancz under the title "Time And The Gods" (Fantasy Masterworks Series). As far as I know, this has not been published in the US, but you should be able to get it from Amazon.co.uk. Buy it immediately; these stories will probably be out of print again very soon.

I'm a fan of Dunsany's work. I was drawn to this novel due to his magical descriptions of the natural world in his short stories. There is an innocent childish wonder in his narration which works well when the text is inspired. This book, however, I felt is written for children -- more so than his other work. He repeats obvious details over and over, almost chant-like. The plot is obvious and fatalistic. When I read this book, I felt it should be spoken aloud, to children, and each chapter is only a few pages long. I've seen many comparisons here to Tolkien, but I think they are missing the fact that Tolkien brought fantasy to an adult level of text, whereas Dunsany doesn't. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone just recently introduced to Dunsany unless I'd want them to be turned off to his work. However, if you are into story-telling to children, this is an excellent choice!

You should read this book- but not because it has a good plot, or because the characters are interesting- but because it is a classic and the author has a gift for language. Reading it is like eating some stale bread filled with treats- it is painful to endure, but the morsels inside make it bearable.

The plot is basically- lame, lame, lame. The characters do not rise much above the plot. The magnificent thing about this book is that it was written before most other modern fantasy works- and it set the stage for them. Thus, it is worth reading to see how it influenced the genre. The author also has a clever wit and a gift for language. However, many of the scenes seem simply poorly thought out- which seems impossible because others have a deep intracacy. It is almost as if he were writing down a tale he was saying aloud- and in which he was forgetting certain bits and overemphasizing others.

However, with all that said- you should read the book. It disappoints me, but is fascinating at the same time. The culture of the 20's must have been unbearable to live in, if the book is any reflection whatsoever of the time period.

It isn't a very long story, so it isn't really a waste of time even if you don't like it. It is like taking medicine- your responsibility to be a complete fantasy reader.

Before Tolkien told his children bedtime stories about hobbits and dwarves, there was Lord Dunsany. One of the early fantasy writers, Dunsany only wrote a few full-length novels -- one of which was the haunting, beautifully-written "Charwoman's Shadow." (And if anyone thinks that J.K. Rowling made up the immortality elixir and "philosopher/sorcerer's stone," they better read this!)

Ramon Alonzo is a young Spanish nobleman sent to find a dowry for his sister Mirandola. He goes to a powerful magician to learn alchemy -- how to turn dross into gold. The magician agrees, at a price: Ramon Alonzo's shadow. At first he's inclined to give up his shadow, but an elderly charwoman warns him not to. She gave up her shadow, and now is shunned by everyone except the magician because if her contact with dark magic.

Eventually Ramon Alonzo agrees to give up his shadow in exchange for a replacement, which turns out to be a dud. His attempts at magic for his sister's sake begin to go horribly wrong, and he finds his very soul in peril as he struggles to fulfil his promise to the charwoman, and get back both of their shadows.

Most of Dunsany's fantasy stories are set in fictional lands full of magic and wizards and gods. This one is slightly different, as it is set in a sort of semi-fictional part of Spain, and magic is something which seeps naturally to great evil. But the entire world it's set in has the same sort of fantastical edge that his books usually do. Kids with a good attention span can read this, though some may be bored by the gradual pace and flowery language. And the language is very flowery. Dunsany writes in his standard dreamy prose, with a lot of very strange imagery (like the charwoman scrubbing a bloodstained floor stone, or Ramon Alonzo's fake shadow getting up and racing away).

Ramon Alonzo is a nice leading character -- he's a good guy who gets enmeshed in bad things for good reasons. His spiritual struggle and chivalrous rescue of the charwoman Anemone and her shadow are central to the plot. Anemone herself remains a mystery for most of the book, although one development is rather obvious early on. The magician is a cold, unsympathetic character who "scorns salvation" and shows no pity to someone he's wronged. Father Joseph serves as the counterbalance for the magician, a kindly priest who helps Ramon Alonzo out.

A beautiful story about love, magic, and kindness, this is a must-read for fans of classic fantasy. See why Dunsany is still one of the best.

I have just received this book in the mail and I am sending it back on Monday. For one thing, the materials this book is constructed out of are very cheap. The cover picture is made with an off-the-shelf 3D graphics program and done in a very amateurish manner. The title "The Hashish Man" was chosen purely to attract what the publishers thought of as a "hip" target audience and smacks at Lord Dunsany's sober genius. Lord Dunsany never took drugs and one would know where he got his inspiration if they read any books about him. Of course, because our times produce writers of infertile minds we automatically assume he had to have been on a drug to write these beautiful and imaginative stories. The publishers are associating Lord Dunsany with "the Hashish Man", the title of this anthology, when in fact in his (fictional) short story Lord Dunsany is approached by the "Hashish Man" who relates to Lord Dunsany how HE travels to dream worlds (via hashish) which is in contrast with Lord Dunsany.

Besides trashing Lord Dunsany's character the introduction is a bad two-page college essay written by a person who is totally unknown. Who is Jon Longhi of San Francisco? Here are a few pathetic quotes by Mr. Longhi: Describing Lord Dunsany's writing, "At times these details veer toward the noisome realm of elves and hobbits". The "realm of elves and hobbits" is only "noisome" because the publishers think that readers of H.P. Lovecraft don't like fantasy writing and that Tolkien is not popular right now. However when Ballantine Books published "The King Of Elfland's Daughter" in 1977, when Tolkien was the flavor of the month with publishers, they boasted "A fantasy novel in a class with the Tolkien books!," which ever way the wind blows I guess. Another quote: "psychedelic rave-up of language and imagery...it's great fun riding on the hallucinations." More drug association. "Captain Shard pilots a boat which sails across the desert on huge wheels, just like the main vehicle in the movie Time Bandits." Doesn't this sound childish? What main vehicle in Time Bandits? The only thing with sails in that movie was the ship on the giant's head, but it did not have wheels. Mr. Longhi might be thinking of the building with sails traversing barren wastelands manned by the intrepid crew of the Crimson Assurance Co. in the mini-movie before Monty Python's Meaning of Life.

Either this guy is an absolute idiot or he is just failing miserably to convince me that he is really anything like the people he is trying to reach. Mr. Longhi, like some desperate college sophomore, has padded out his introduction with a variety of multi-syllabic words in the hopes of impressing the average (ignorant) reader. This introduction should be in an anthology of drugstore-swords & sorcery-escapist-self-indulgent-trash.

I know that anthologies of Lord Dunsany's writings are rare but I would rather have them rare and cherishable instead of common and degraded. Most libraries have some of Lord Dunsany's works and through interlibrary loan you should be able to get just about anything written by this laudable fantasist. Do not pollute your personal library with this trash. Let us not reduce Lord Dunsany to the level of pulp. Let us not patronize publishers that drag remarkable writers down to their seedy level so they can make an easy buck. We need to have more respect.

Lord Dunsany's works are gradually coming back into print, a great relief to someone who has liked his works for a long time. The pre-Tolkien fantasy authors are too often neglected because of their different style, but any person who appreciates beautiful language will appreciate Dunsany's unique fantasies.

This includes such stories as "Charon," a brief story about the ferryman of the dead; the rather odd "Three Infernal Jokes"; "The Guest," about a young man who launches into a strange monologue; "Thirteen at Table," about a strange house and a fox-hunt; "Three Sailors' Gambit" is somewhat more prosaic, the tale of three sailors in a pub; "The Exiles' Club" is the story of a sumptuous but somehow strange and sinister house in London; "Where the Tides Ebb and Flow" is a dream -- and a darn disturbing one at that, where a young man dreams that "I had done a horrible thing, so that burial was to be denied me either in soil or sea, neither could there be any hell for me"; "The Field" is at first mysterious and then saddening, where someone visits a beautiful field where he senses something terrible; "A Tale of London," where a sultan asks his hashish-eater to tell him about the far-off city of London; "Narrow Escape" tells what occurs when an evil magician decides to obliterate London; "Bethmoora" is the reminiscences of an exotic city that no longer exists; "Hashish Man" is something of a sequel to "Bethmoora," in which a man tells the narrator about how he uses hashish to travel to the city of Bethmoora. "How An Enemy Came to Thlunrana" is how a mighty wizards' citadel was overcome by an unexpected means; "In Zaccarath" is the story of a mighty, beautiful, and seemingly everlasting city and its king; "Idle City" is a very odd one, about a polytheistic/monotheistic city, now very lonely-looking; "The Madness of Andelsprutz" is another story about a "dead" city, in which the narrator is told how a certain city became "soulless".

"Secret of the Sea" is about a very sad sailor; "Idle Days on the Yann" is exactly what it sounds like, a pleasantly plotless but beautifully written story about sailing on the mythical Yann River; "A Tale of the Equator" is about the foreseeing of a magnificent city; "Spring in Town" is about the arrival of a season; "In the Twilight" is the beautifully-written vision of a man whose boat had capsized; "Wind and Fog" is a slightly odd little story about the North Wind and some fog; "A Story of Land and Sea" is the sequel to a story in Book of Wonder, more about Captain Shard; "After the Fire" is what happens when a dark star collides with the world, and what other creatures see in man's temples; "Assignation," the last story in the collection, is about what a poet and Fame have to say to one another.

As for this edition: I must agree with the previous reviewer who commented on the lame cover and unfortunate title, as well as the fact that the binding could be better. That's why it rates four out of a potential five stars. I will also warn buyers that several of these stories appear in other anthologies, so don't be surprised if you bump into things you already have. Many are from the "Last Book of Wonder" or "Dreamer's Tales" and overall they tend to the less fantastical stories.

Dunsany's prose tends to be dreamy, lush, and unabashed in its Eastern tone. There's no starkness here. Despite the title of the collection, there is minimal drug use and it is definitely not recommended by Dunsany's works. His story vary widely in range, but this is an excellent collection and well worth finding.

While I'm not a die-hard fan of fantasy and science fiction, I really liked this collection of short stories, which transcend the usual definitions of the genre. Unlike some readers who believe that obscure literary gems like these tales should be hallowed in the dusty stacks of libraries, I salute the publisher who has made these amazing works available again - I certainly would have never stumbled upon this book otherwise! Edgy like Lovecraft (whom I adore), these stories reflect a sense of wonder and imagination that is often missing from the fiction of today - a great read, highly recommended!

Arthur C. Clarke is most well-known for writing 2001: A Space Odyssey; Lord Dunsany for his fantastic The King of Elfland's Daughter and serving as a primary influence for H.P. Lovecraft. For such gifted writers, this correspondance is remarkably dull - mostly an eager, young, as-yet-unpublished Clarke fawning to his hero, who seems grateful for the attention. This collection is well-meaning but almost completely meritless.

Fenbug needs to get hir facts straight. Arthur C. Clarke was already a published author when he began to correspond with Lord Dunsany in 1944, and by 1956 -- the last year of their correspondence -- Clarke had published some of his best classic fiction, most notably Childhood's End (1953).

If engaging in reasoned dialogue on topics as fascinating as space exploration and imaginative literature is "fawning," then so be it.

This book is a valuable resource for literary scholars, fans of Clarke and/or Dunsany, and anyone with an interest in the early years of the Space Age. Keith Allen Daniels is to be commended for his editorial and publishing acumen, and for his understanding of the importance of these letters.

Oh dear. This could have been a very good short story, especially if given a better twist ending, but stretched to novel length, even a very short novel like this one, the tale wears terribly. The story is of a Dean (the religious kind) who when made drunk on imperial tokay remembers his former life as a dog. The kindest thing I can say (and why it's got two whole stars) is that the observations of a dog's behaviour are spot on. But, oh dear, there is no Characterisation at all, all of them are flat as though cut from cardboard. One person says "never trust a teetotaller or a man that wears elastic-sided boots" - it would have only taken 3 repetitions to get over that he's a drunken bore, but he says it ten times or more - and he's supposed to be a great wit among the group, not a bore. There is no plot, just a series of encounters all of which are the same - and the punchline? That the narrator finds out the meaning of doggy life but he himself had got too drunk to remember it. Oh that it had been something like he got so drunk he remembered his own doggy life, or he remembered being a cat and was chased by the Dean or that the Dean was really a dog imagining that he was a Dean when sober. Lord Dunsany is reported to be one of the originators of science fiction, so perhaps I've seen the worst of him, but on the basis of this book he seems to have been an amateur that got published because of his wealth and connections - a dilletante with half-developed stories and ideas. Sorry, Your Honour.

This is an entertaining read but not one of my favorite Dunsany's! The writing is delightful as always and the outre tale is consistently dottily amusing, it just isn't the grand fantasy Dunsany could do so well. A London clubman discovers that when slightly drunk a Dean drifts into a reminiscent mood - but what the Dean reminisces ABOUT is his previous incarnation - he was the family dog on a country estate! A very clever novel in its own way.