Pathways to Elfland: The Writings of Lord Dunsany [Paperback]

Darrell Schweitzer (Author), Tim Kirk (Illustrator), L. Sprague de Camp (Foreword)

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Betancourt & Company (December 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587151332
• ISBN-13: 978-1587151330
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,947,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Less than a paragraph on pathways; actually a rambling bibliography, August 10, 2006

By 

Tevis Fen-Kortiay (Bloom county) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Pathways to Elfland: The Writings of Lord Dunsany (Paperback)

I am a huge fan of Dunsany and have been looking forward to getting my hands on "Pathways to Elfland" for years. I thought it would be what the title suggests, the pathways Dunsany followed to become one of the world's most influential writers on Elfland. That is: an exhaustive 200-page essay on Dunsany's creative process, how that process evolves, which influences he drew from, and which specific motifs he borrowed from each influence. Instead I was unpleasantly surprised to find that the book is essentially one long poorly written stream-of-consciousness ramble through Dunsany's bibliography, usually with 2-3 sentence summaries of each story. Overall it reads like a C- college thesis.

Of Dunsany's pathways to Elfland, we learn only one valuable thing: Dunsany never rewrote anything. He published only first drafts. This goes a long way in explaining why his fiction is universally considered superior to his poetry: Dunsany's powerful ability to create a sense of wonder is often enough to carry a story, while poems mandate fine-tuning.

Of Dunsany's sources, everything we learn may be summarized in a few sentences: Schweitzer believes that Dunsany's strongest influence was Greek stageplays. He also drew from Herodotus, the King James Bible, Grimms' and Andersen's fairy tales. Dunsany studied Greek and Latin. As has been noted elsewhere, the most explosive Dunsany influence might be the stageplay The Darling of the Gods (1904), which presents a fantastical version of Japan that seems to have been Dunsany's original template for the magical kingdoms he spent most of his life creating. The title of Time and the Gods comes from a line of Swinburne, "Time and the Gods are at strife."

The least pleasant aspect of the book might be the author's wearisome, unbroken tone of superiority. Nearly every page describes Dunsany's work using words like "failed, irrational, obscure, obvious," etc. This is broken by occasional moment of praise to describe patches of Dunsany's writing style and his ability to evoke a sense of wonder. But overall it quickly becomes unpleasant to read page after page of the author's apparent conviction that he has a complete grasp of everything Dunsany did right and wrong, his clumsy prose is infinitely superior to Dunsany's, and if he so wished, could easily write circles around him; if that were true, where are the best-selling, hugely influential and beloved Schweitzer fantasies?

Schweitzer lists Dunsany's strongest book-length fantasies, in descending order of quality, as:
1. The Curse of the Wise Woman
2. The Charwoman's Shadow
3. The King of Elfland's Daughter (Dunsany's most famous)

It's a shame this book does not include illustrations by Sidney Sime, a frequent Dunsany collaborator. It does include a full-color cover, four full-page black-and-white illustrations and a spot illustration by Tim Kirk, all of which are excellent and suit the tone of the book.

The book's greatest strength might be the bibliography, which is fairly complete. However, an even stronger bibliography - including cover illustrations and short descriptions - is available free online:
[..]

Despite the low quality of the book, it is certainly the only guided tour through Dunsany's catalog one is likely to find, and a mercifully quick read. Anyone doing a thesis- or book-level study of Dunsany is encouraged to skim the book at a library. I believe Schweitzer is correct in summarizing Dunsany's contribution as, "the first person to adapt the heroic fantasy into the short story form," thus creating a good deal of the basic blueprint for the current sword-and-sorcery genre.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The complete guide to the life and work of Lord Dunsany, November 5, 2000

By 

John Betancourt "Publisher Guy" (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pathways to Elfland: The Writings of Lord Dunsany (Paperback)

The complete guide to the life and work of Lord Dunsany by one of the world's foremost Dunsany experts. Covers every aspect of his writing, from the early fantasies to the later mainstream novels and mysteries. Highly recommended.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended introduction to Dunsany, September 9, 2011

By 

Paul Brooks (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pathways to Elfland: The Writings of Lord Dunsany (Paperback)

Pathways To Elfland: The Writings of Lord Dunsany by Darrell Schweitzer is a consicise guide to all the writings of Lord Dunsany.

My main purpose in purchasing this book was to acquire some knowledge of Dunsany's fantasy writings. I have come to greatly admire this author although I have only read two of his fantasy novels. Mr. Schweitzer covers the author's fiction - and everthing else - with succinct plot summaries and personal reviewer's comments/oppinions.

I was amazed to read that Lord Dunsany wrote extensively, and successfully (that is he made money selling his writings) in many fields: plays, essays, autobiography, (3 volumes) poems and straight fiction - even a few detective stories. He was more that just another fantasy words smith toiling in "that" fictional ghetto.

Certainly this is a very specialized book and probably has limited appeal but if you are so inclined I would recommend it.

A few words about the actual book: the one and only printing of this title is a scrumptious hardbound edition published by Owlswick Press in 1989. Let's start with a wonderful Tim Kirk color cover, rich boards, thick, cream colored pages and excellence binding, well, it screams quality. Alas, I own a Kindle and I read recently that sales of books on this E-reader exceeded printed books, too bad, to say the least. Honestly there is just something about the feel of a well made book.