Phantastes, George MacDonaldI read 2 of the books during my young adult years. I've always been impressed by George MacDonald. The C.S. Lewis book is part of the "Space" trilogy. It's been so long it's hard for me to say much about them.
Masters of Atlantis, Charles Portis
Looking for the General, Warren Miller
Doom, William Gerhardie
That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis
Lud in the Mist, Hope Mirlees
The Boats of the Glen Carrig, William Hope Hodgson
All Hallows’ Eve by Charles Williams
The Great Dark, Mark Twain
The Fabulous Baron Munchausen and The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, two films by Czech director, animator, and special effects genius Karel Zeman
I've added the others (ones that are in print, that is) to my overloaded list at Amazon and will be looking for the movies.
HT: SF Signal
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"Immediately"! No pressure there.
ReplyDeleteI also read the Space trilogy by Lewis, some ten or fifteen years ago. I liked the first two books, but he kind of lost me in the third. I can´t remember exactly why, but I seem to remember something about too many people running around doing too many things at once.
Münchhausen´s adventures was a favourite when I was little. Didn´t Terry Gilliam make a film also? Didn´t realize Twain had written fantasy - that is one I might look at. Should I go for MacDonald? Why is he impressive?
Wait.. Mark Twain wrote fantasy? I need to buy that. Thanks for this post!
ReplyDeletei'm not sure i would call twain's work "fantasy" at all, more like "weird fiction" maybe. amazon has it: http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0520238931 . i can't imagine it's something that needs to be read immediately, but i'll find it online and read it there just to see.
ReplyDeletei've read several by macdonald. he was influential in the writings of e. nesbit, c.s. lewis, chesterton, madeleine l'engle, tolkien, lewis carroll, twain... i particularly liked "lilith", but i also loved "the princess and the goblin", "at the back of the north wind", "phantastes" and the rest of his fantasy just as fun stories. i didn't read them as a child, and my kids weren't that fond of most his work when i tried introducing him to them. i do remember them liking some stories like "the light princess".
ReplyDeletephantastes is online: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Phantastes
as is lilith: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/macdonald/lilith/Lilith.html
oh, and yes, gilliam made a munchhausen film. i remember liking it except for robin williams. i like williams fine when he's strictly scripted but not whhen he's ad-libbing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the MacDonald links! Will check them out.
ReplyDeleteYes, I suppose it's as much fantasy as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court was! I just happen to like Twain a lot and was surprised that I'd never heard of this book. But you're right, I can't imagine why it would be one of just the ten best forgotten fantasy novels!
ReplyDeletepriya, i think this particular twain concerns confusion over a dream and the nature of reality. "fantasy" is a slippery concept for me. i never know what folks mean when they are putting together lists like this. i ran across some folks online recently who were suggesting books for a list of best fantasy of all time, and they were including books like gilgamesh, the iliad, the odyssey and the bible. i think there's a lot about "fantasy" i just don't understand.
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