17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Three Reasons to Buy This Book Today, December 30, 2006
This review is from: The Magic Ring (Valancourt Classics) (Paperback)
I read Amazon reviews by thoughtful readers (who care enough to comment critically without compensation) because I want to know if a book is worth buying or not. "The Magic Ring" is a book worth buying for three reasons.
1. It is a story so well conceived and written that you will marvel that it has been out-of-print so long, you will return to it again and again, and you will share it with friends, if they share your taste for edifying, challenging fiction, fantasy or no. That has been my experience, at least. "A seamless blend of medieval quest, epic fantasy, and Gothic nightmare" indeed. To grasp the stream of romantic genre-rolling from which MacDonald, Yeats, Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowling draw so heavily, reading de la Motte Fouque is essential - and delightful. I have friends, Harry Potter fanatics, who won't read Jane Austen because her manners-and-morals fiction sets their teeth on edge. No matter that Harry Potter is largely Emma-with-wands; they cannot enjoy Austen. Reading The Magic Ring, however, is anything but an ascetic trial only for zealot Tolkienites schooled in Elvish, survivors of Icelandic saga readings. This is a great read that has the bonus of opening windows into other beloved books.
2. My second reason for recommending the book to you for purchase may mark me as a sad, not to say pathetic, bibliophile, but I think it is an important note. This new edition of The Magic Ring has been published with loving care. Not only is the book physically beautiful, from the challenging cover painting to the typset that is suggestive of the Gothic without causing anguish at antiquarian fonts, to the way the book feels in your hand. I will be buying other Valancourt Books on the strength of the care they invested in making The Magic Ring a pleasure to read and own. I don't loan books as a rule, but friends whom I have urged to buy it, after seeing it, almost always do. This is that rarest of things these days, a book whose appearance points to the value and delights within.
3. Dr. Amy Sturgis' appendices, especially her very helpful pages about Jakob Boehme, the Gothic Tradition, and German Romanticism, are worth the cost of the book in themselves. Most books that come with "Inspired Your Favorite Author!" blurbs on the cover either mechanically draw connections in overly long introductions or leave you to your reflections and research to make the connections with the inspired author yourself. Dr. Sturgis avoids both these pitfalls by succinctly summarizing the influences on and from The Magic Ring - and adds excellent aditional reading suggestions. I hope someday Dr. Sturgis will expand her appendices into a full-text introduction to Fantasy Literature and its 19th Century Gothic/Romantic roots. She seems uniquely qualified for this work.
Valancourt Books has done the reading public a great service in bringing this Gothic Classic back into print as they have. Their care with the text, the beauty of the book, and the quality of the editing and commentary by Dr. Sturgis have made The Magic Ring come to life again. I encourage you to buy it today.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reads like George Macdonald, September 1, 2006
This review is from: The Magic Ring (Valancourt Classics) (Paperback)
This is a lost treasure of high-fantasy rediscovered. I've become a fan of George Macdonald over the past several years, and now I can see where much of his inspiration must have come from. Follow the trail leading back in time from Lewis & Tolkien, you find MacDonald. Look a little further down the path and there is Motte-Fouque. This is a must-read for fans of Faerie / high-fantasy romance. Or for those who've read Phantastes and Lilith and are looking for something more.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-have for readers of classic fantasy., October 7, 2006
This review is from: The Magic Ring (Valancourt Classics) (Paperback)
Preceding The Lord of the Rings by nearly a century, The Magic Ring is a work of fantasy that has truly endured the test of time. Written by Baron De La Motte Fouque in the 1800's, The Magic Ring is set in the twelfth century, when Richard the Lionheart embarked on the Third Crusade. A young squire and his cousin have their destinies transformed forever when they observe a knightly contest for possession of the Magic Ring. Their travels will lead them from Moorish Spain to the birthplace of Norse myth, and battle amid changing allies and enemies, in an epic quest surrounding a ring of unimaginable power. This edition of The Magic Ring includes the unabridged original text of the first English version, the 1825 translation from the original German by Robert Pearse Gillies, and a new introduction as well as a glossary of literary influences and references. A must-have for readers of classic fantasy.
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