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!
Edited by:
Ann Vandermeer,
Jeff VanderMeer
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 232mm,
Width: 177mm,
Spine: 37mm
Weight: 873g
ISBN: 9780525435563
ISBN 10: 0525435565
Series: Classic Fantasy
Pages: 848
Publication Date: 02 July 2019
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
INTRODUCTION by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer THE QUEEN’S SON Bettina von Arnim HANS-MY-HEDGEHOG Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm THE STORY OF THE HARD NUT E. T. A. Hoffmann RIP VAN WINKLE Washington Irving THE LUCK OF THE BEAN-ROWS Charles Nodier TRANSFORMATION Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley THE NEST OF NIGHTINGALES Théophile Gautier THE FAIRYTALE ABOUT A DEAD BODY, BELONGING TO NO ONE KNOWS WHOM Vladimir Odoevsky THE STORY OF THE GOBLINS WHO STOLE A SEXTON Charles Dickens THE NOSE Nikolai Gogol THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR Edgar Allan Poe THE STORY OF JEON UNCHI Anonymous FEATHERTOP: A MORALIZED LEGEND Nathaniel Hawthorne MASTER ZACHARIUS Jules Verne THE FROST-KING: OR, THE POWER OF LOVE Louisa May Alcott THE TARTARUS OF MAIDS Herman Melville THE MAGIC MIRROR George MacDonald THE DIAMOND LENS Fitz-James O’Brien GOBLIN MARKET Christina Rossetti THE WILL-O’-THE-WISPS ARE IN TOWN Hans Christian Andersen THE LEGEND OF THE PALE MAIDEN Aleksis Kivi LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE Lewis Carroll FURNICA, OR THE QUEEN OF THE ANTS Carmen Sylva THE STORY OF IVÁN THE FOOL Leo Tolstoy THE GOOPHERED GRAPEVINE Charles W. Chestnutt THE BEE-MAN OF ORN Frank R. Stockton THE REMARKABLE ROCKET Oscar Wilde THE ENSOULED VIOLIN H. P. Blavatskaya THE DEATH OF ODJIGH Marcel Schwob THE TERRESTRIAL FIRE Marcel Schwob THE KINGDOM OF CARDS Rabindranath Tagore THE OTHER SIDE: A BRETON LEGEND Count Eric Stanlislaus Stenbock THE FULNESS OF LIFE Edith Wharton PRINCE ALBERIC AND THE SNAKE LADY Vernon Lee THE LITTLE ROOM Madeline Yale Wynne THE PLATTNER STORY H. G. Wells THE PRINCESS BALADINA—HER ADVENTURE Willa Cather THE RELUCTANT DRAGON Kenneth Grahame IKTOMI TALES Zitkala-Ša MARIONETTES Louis Fréchette DANCE OF THE COMETS: AN ASTRAL PANTOMIME IN TWO ACTS Paul Scheerbart THE WHITE PEOPLE Arthur Machen BLAMOL Gustav Meyrink GOBLINS: A LOGGING CAMP STORY Louis Fréchette SOWBREAD Grazia Deledda THE ANGRY STREET G. K. Chesterton THE AUNT AND AMABEL E. Nesbit SACRIFICE Aleksey Remizov THE PRINCESS STEEL W. E. B. Du Bois THE HUMP Fernán Caballero THE CELESTIAL OMNIBUS E. M. Forster THE LEGEND OF THE ICE BABIES E. Pauline Johnson THE LAST REDOUBT William Hope Hodgson JACK PUMPKINHEAD AND THE SAWHORSE L. Frank Baum THE PLANT MEN Edgar Rice Burroughs STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR Hermann Hesse THE METAMORPHOSIS Franz Kafka THE HOARD OF THE GIBBELINS Lord Dunsany THROUGH THE DRAGON GLASS A. Merritt DAVID BLAIZE AND THE BLUE DOOR E. F. Benson THE BIG BESTIARY OF MODERN LITERATURE Franz Blei THE ALLIGATOR WAR Horacio Quiroga FRIEND ISLAND Francis Stevens MAGIC COMES TO A COMMITTEE Stella Benson GRAMOPHONE OF THE AGES Yefim Zozulya JOIWIND David Lindsay SOUND IN THE MOUNTAIN Maurice Renard SENNIN Ryūnosuke Akutagawa KOSHTRA PIVRARCHA E. R. Eddison AT THE BORDER Der Nister THE MARVELOUS EXPLOITS OF PAUL BUNYAN W. B. Laughead TALKATIVE DOMOVOI Aleksandr Grin THE RATCATCHER Aleksandr Grin THE SHADOW KINGDOM Robert E. Howard THE MAN TRAVELING WITH THE BROCADE PORTRAIT Edogawa Ranpo A VISIT TO THE MUSEUM Vladimir Nabokov THE WATER SPRITE’S TALE Karel Čapek THE CAPITAL OF CAT COUNTRY Lao She COYOTE STORIES Mourning Dove UNCLE MONDAY Zora Neale Hurston ROSE-COLD, MOON SKATER María Teresa León A NIGHT OF THE HIGH SEASON Bruno Schulz THE INFLUENCE OF THE SUN Fernand Dumont THE TOWN OF CATS Hagiwara Sakutarō THE DEBUTANTE Leonora Carrington THE JEWELS IN THE FOREST Fritz Leiber EVENING PRIMROSE John Collier THE COMING OF THE WHITE WORM Clark Ashton Smith THE MAN WHO COULD WALK THROUGH WALLS Marcel Aymé LEAF BY NIGGLE J. R. R. Tolkien ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ANN VANDERMEER currently serves as an acquiring editor for Tor.com and Weird Fiction Review and is the editor-in-residence for Shared Worlds. She was the editor-in-chief for Weird Tales for five years, work for which she won a Hugo Award. She also has won a World Fantasy Award and a British Fantasy Award for coediting The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories. JEFF VANDERMEER is the New York Times bestselling author of the Southern Reach trilogy, the first novel of which, Annihilation, won the Shirley Jackson Award and was made into a film by Paramount Pictures. His recent novel Borne has been selected for the NEA Big Reads program and was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
Reviews for Big Book of Classic Fantasy
The VanderMeers have compiled an eminently readable collection of stories from authors around the world, seeking to introduce fantasy lovers to many rarely seen and underappreciated gems while still including a handful of more well-known authors to balance the mix. . . . This quintessential anthology is destined to become the standard by which future fantasy classic anthologies are measured. . . . [A] must-have anthology. --Kirkus Reviews, SF/F/H Novels, Short Stories, and Sequels to Look for in July The VanderMeers bring to fantasy the same monumental efforts at curation and translation that brought about the massive, absolutely essential 2016 anthology The Big Book of Science Fiction. . . . [This] collection traces the development of an entire genre and places it into glorious context. --Tor Invaluable. . . . Varied and textured examples of fantasy in literature that readers and students may not have been exposed to previously. --The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star An impressive cross-section of early fantasy in this fascinating anthology of 90 stories. . . . This sweeping panorama of fantasy is a must-have for those interested in the roots of modern fantasy, and it gives a welcome introduction to many unexpected delights. --Publishers Weekly Dozens upon dozens of seminal fantasy stories, some well-known and others delightfully rescued from obscurity. . . . Like its SF counterpart, this dense and exhaustive collection would serve as an admirable survey course for the genre. --Kirkus Reviews
