The Big Book of Classic Fantasy

·
· Sold by Vintage
3.3
3 reviews
Ebook
864
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

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!

Ratings and reviews

3.3
3 reviews
*n *s
June 27, 2023
BEFORE YOU BUY: Consider this quote from the introduction: "Even some first-wave feminists (for example, the then-popular Mary Elizabeth Counselman) could be an example to white women while in her stories crafting depictions of African Americans that were based on the worst stereotypes." Dear God I wish I had not bought this. The woke censors probably rewrote some of the stories they/them chose to include. This is not freedom. It's not objective respect for the past. Just find something better and don't give your money to the socialists, what do they/them want money for anyway?
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Sam Schrader
February 3, 2024
Fantastic modern collection of classic fantasy. The reviewer having a tantrum about the "wokeness" of the book chose a quote immediately following the denunciation of a literal Nazi, so their opinion is irrelevant.
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About the author

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.

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