The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany

[King Bob]

I picked this up at the library sale because I had read Neil Gaiman's introduction to it in The View from the Cheap Seats. He loved it; I did not. The story itself is not bad, but stretched out to far longer than need be. If it had been a short story I think it would have been better. And the language is convoluted; I found I often had to re-read a sentence to figure out what it meant. And sometimes I just fell asleep. It's sort of high-flown Victorian folklore style crossed with Paradise Lost. (Maybe it would have worked better as an epic poem.) Lovecraft loved his work, FYI, which probably helps explain his syntax too.

On the other hand, it did have some great imagery, so I won't call it a waste of time. But know what you're getting into if you try it. Ultimately I'd call it more historically interesting than a good read. A shorter and I think better work of his, "The Fortress Unvanquished Save for Sacnoth" can be found in the Oxford Book of Fantasy. If you just want a taste of Dunsany that will not require as much of a time investment.

[Greg]

I don't know what furor is over Dunsany. Yes, he supposed to be the father of modern fantasy, but when I've read his material in the past, it gave me a tremendous sense of meh.

[Drunk Monk]

It was the time.  Lord Dunsany pre-dates Tolkien & Lewis by a few decades.  Reading him is like watching old fantasy/sci-fi movies.  Sure, it's meh now, but if you can see how it lays the groundwork for what came after, it's interesting, at least on an academic level.

That being said, I must've read this back in my High School daze, back when I was reading fantasy.  I cannot remember a single thing about it.  Nor can I remember anything from any of Lord Dunsany's books, and I think I read most of them, at least what was available back then.