Kingdoms of Elfin: 5 (Handheld Fantasy Classics, 3)

by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Paperback, 2018

Status

Available

Call number

PZ3.W2473 PR6045 .A812

Genres

Publication

Handheld Classics (2018), Edition: New, 263 pages

Description

Endorsed with a cover blurb by Neil Gaiman'Handheld Classic's republication this month is a triumph, with a beautiful Arthur Rackham cover' The Bookseller, Paperback Preview Book of the Month for October, 27 July 2018.Sylvia Townsend Warner's final collection of short stories was originally published in The New Yorker, and appeared in book form in 1977. This reprint brings these sixteen sly and enchanting stories of Elfindom to a new readership, and shows Warner's mastery of realist fantasy that recalls the success of her first novel, the witchcraft classic Lolly Willowes (1926). Warner explores the morals, domestic practices, politics and passions of the Kingdoms of Elfin by following their affairs with mortals, and their daring flights across the North Sea. The Kingdoms of Brocéliande in France, Zuy in the Low Countries, Gedanken in Austria and Blokula in Lappland entertain Ambassadors, hunt with wolves and rear changelings for the courtiers' amusement. But love and hate strike at fairies of all ranks, as do poverty and the passions of the heart. Enter Elfindom with care.The Foreword is by the noted US fantasy author Greer Gilman, and the Introduction is by Ingrid Hotz-Davies.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Michael.Rimmer

A collection of wickedly witty stories about an imagined world of Elfin kingdoms (though they are all ruled by rather fickle queens, and their kings tend to be in rather precarious positions).

Although mainly about the Elfin aristocracy, there is also a rag-tag collection of common elfins,

changelings, werewolves and humans to add a little breadth and depth. The locales are mainly northern Europe, with the occasional excursion to eastern Europe and the Near East. The time is vaguely 13th to 17th century - it doesn't really matter to the elfins as they live for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years.

These aren't jolly gnomes and fairies, nor noble elves battling evil goblins: the elfins are selfish, untrustworthy, cruel and unpredictable, all beneath a veneer of courtly manners and tradition.

The stories read like folktales, and like such they often end suddenly leaving you wanting more. The endings are rarely good ones for the protagonists, few coming away unscathed, though you can never be quite sure. I like this, as nothing is guaranteed and you usually can't predict (at least I couldn't) which way the stories will run.

Fantasy and folklore, murder and the macabre, wonder and wit: brilliant!

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LibraryThing member kgib

A book about fairies that you don't have to be embarrassed about reading. Looking-glass versions of monarchies/aristocracy/courts. Their amorality is interesting and sometimes funny. (Oh... did not quite finish this.)

LibraryThing member deckla

Interconnected stories from the fairy kingdom. Not sweetness and light. Great bedtime reading for adults.

LibraryThing member lquilter

I love Warner's whimsical stories. It's a collection, so some are not as spot-on as others, but overall, delightful, slyly funny, highly recommended.

LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV

Difficult to get into. It is *not* for children. It is *not* as old as the style & mannerisms affect. It is told almost matter-of-factly, but is often witty.

Looking about for shelter, they saw a ruined castle on the hilltop (at that date the Scottish Border was peppered with ruined castles)."

",,,

court life at B. was much the same as in other Kingdoms. There were fashions of the moment - collecting butterflies, determining the pict of birdsongs, table-turning, cat races, purifying the language, building card castles."

And yet mostly the stories are melancholy, even tragic. The roles of Fate and Tradition have much more influence on the lives of both mortals and fairies than those peoples' own actions or character have. Few of the stories end, per se, and even fewer end with a Happily Ever After.

I can absolutely see Literary people going ga-ga over it. I wish I enjoyed it more. But somehow it seemed as weighted as gossamer, and all too soon it will fade as dreams do....

;)"

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LibraryThing member antiquary

These stories are brilliantly written but have for me a kind of sad bitter flavor I do not enjoy. I read them long ago and recall only that flavor, and something about two outcasts from faerie dying.As I dimly recall, they stories are only loosely linked by the faerie background.

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