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Lud-in-the-Mist

by Hope Mirrlees, Douglas A. Anderson (Introduction), Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author)

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 · rating details · 1,175 ratings · 143 reviews

Originally published in 1926, and unavailable in the US for many years now, this was one of the most well-loved fantasy novels of its day. This is the story of Master Nathaniel Chanticleer, a respectable burgher who learns that his young son has eaten forbidden faery fruit. Lud-in-the-Mist, of the title, is a quasi-medieval town, governed by Master Nathaniel Chanticleer. T...more

Paperback, 239 pages

Published March 22nd 2005 by Cold Spring Press (first published 1926)

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Mar 02, 2009 Sandi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, 2009

30-odd years before Tolkein published “The Lord of the Rings”, a British woman named Hope Mirrlees wrote a fantasy called “Lud-in-the-Mist”. Neil Gaiman wrote an introduction to the edition I read and I can see that he meant every word. His own “Stardust” draws very heavily on “Lud-in-the-Mist”, especially in setting and tone. Other recent novels that are reminiscent of “Lud-in-the-Mist” are “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell” by Susannah Clarke and “Little, Big” by John Crowley. They all share...more 30-odd years before Tolkein published “The Lord of the Rings”, a British woman named Hope Mirrlees wrote a fantasy called “Lud-in-the-Mist”. Neil Gaiman wrote an introduction to the edition I read and I can see that he meant every word. His own “Stardust” draws very heavily on “Lud-in-the-Mist”, especially in setting and tone. Other recent novels that are reminiscent of “Lud-in-the-Mist” are “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell” by Susannah Clarke and “Little, Big” by John Crowley. They all share a theme of the real world bordering on the fairy world and how the two interact. However, none of the novels I mentioned have quite the impact of “Lud-in-the-Mist”.

Written in 1926, “Lud-in-the Mist” is one of the most charming fantasies I have ever read. It’s a beautifully written tale with layers upon layers of meaning. The language and imagery are breathtaking. There is a tension throughout the narrative that grows as the story progresses. It has humor and pathos. It has a bit of mystery and a bit of courtroom drama. It has heroes and villains and a villain who thinks he’s a hero. It has ordinary people moved to do the extraodinary and ordinary people being ordinary. It’s a tightly woven story that packs a lot into its slightly-over 300 pages and it reaches a dramatic, satisfying conclusion.

What really charmed me was the way Mirrlees was able to say so much about her characters and their development with so few words. In particular, the character of Marigold Chanticleer seems to be so minor, just a background character. But, with very few words and very little to do, she grows from a docile wife, mother and woman into a very strong one—all without ever doing much of anything. Her growth comes from inside as her loyalties are challenged and her family threatened. It’s masterfully subtle.

This novel did make me wonder if England had a temperance movement going on around the same time the US was enacting Prohibition. There seems to be a strong resemblance between the Ludite’s attitude towards fairy fruit and the American attitude towards alcohol during Prohibition. It also has a fair amount of political allegory going on. Clearly, the author was not an isolationist and the novel reflects that.

I recommend “Lud-in-the-Mist” for every serious fan of fantasy. No, it’s not a multi-tomed epic with an endless quest and grand goals. But, it is a terrific, beautiful story that shows that there was great fantasy before “The Lord of the Rings” and that fantasy is something completely different.
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Jan 16, 2009 reed rated it 4 of 5 stars

Neil Gaiman raved about this book, so I read it. I wish I could have read it without knowing anything about it -- but I still liked it. It was written in the 1920's -- before fantasy tropes were so set in stone -- so it goes in directions you don't expect it to. Also, it's as though the author never heard of the idea that fantasy is a juvenile and disreputable genre, so she takes herself and her book seriously and uses fantasy to explore real and important ideas.

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Dec 08, 2010 JackieB rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fiction

This started out as though it was going to be a gently comic book and then got darker and more sinister although it still had comic moments. It was about an imaginary country which bordered on fairy land but which had broken off all contact with fairies and ignored their existence. However the fairies were trying to change that. It had loads of twists and turns and there were times when you weren't completely sure who was working for the fairies and who was not but appeared to be.You also only h...more

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Oct 13, 2012 D.M. Dutcher rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic, fantasy

It's a dreamy book, but it's confused in what it wants to be, and in the nature of fairyland.

Nathaniel Chanticleer is a village mayor in the town of Lud-in-the-mist. Lud is on the border between the real world and the fairy one, but the townspeople have prohibited and stigmatized most dealings with fairies to the point of them being used as curse words. But all isn't that well, as Chanticleer is haunted by the sound of a mystical note, and his children might be eating the fairy fruit...

It's a d...more It's a dreamy book, but it's confused in what it wants to be, and in the nature of fairyland.

Nathaniel Chanticleer is a village mayor in the town of Lud-in-the-mist. Lud is on the border between the real world and the fairy one, but the townspeople have prohibited and stigmatized most dealings with fairies to the point of them being used as curse words. But all isn't that well, as Chanticleer is haunted by the sound of a mystical note, and his children might be eating the fairy fruit...

It's a dreamy fairy-tale of a book. Some people mention the Hobbit, but Tolkien's Leaf by Niggle and Smith of Wootton Major are closer, with less anarchy. It's langourous and ambiguous, with a hint of madness and existential angst too.

The problem I think is that it tries to be so many things. It starts out with some quiet horror, as both the fairies and fairy fruit are harbingers of madness. Just a single note from a fairy lute has filled Nat with dread, and his life is spent among normal things that bring comfort to ward it off. It gets worse, as Nat's children are affected. Then, it turns into a murder mystery and intrigue about a certain person, and finally we get back to Nat's kids. It's more a collection of images and scenes at times than a unified plot.

The idea of fairyland also wars against the plot. You get the sense that balance is needed, that Lud needs both Law and Fairy, but to be honest they were doing fine with just Law. There's a point that this is due to corruption, but the fairy people themselves seem just as capricious and arbitrary, and what may be corruption may also be the caprice of a fickle master. That idea of fairyland isn't bad, but I'm not sure the proper response isn't war as opposed to embracing it. It's just too close to madness to really end with "everything well," and the more fey-touched, the madder at times a person seems.

Still a great book though. If you're in the right kind of mood, it's wonderful indeed:

To the imaginative, it is always something of an adventure to walk down a pleached alley. You enter boldly enough, but soon you find yourself wishing you had stayed outside-it is not air you are breathing, but silence, the almost palpable silence of trees. And is the only exit that small round hole in the distance? Why you never will be able to squeeze through that! You must turn back...too late! The spacious portal by which you entered has in its turn shrunk to a small round hole.(less)

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Sep 04, 2012 Leah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

A sweet and simple book that has a lot more to it than meets the eye.

I'm not too high and mighty to admit that I bought this because Neil Gaiman recommended it. He has an undeniably good nose for classics, and his taste is clearly similar to mine, despite all the issues I have with his writing.

Mirrlees writes beautifully, lightly, intelligently, with great vision and simple, evocative prose. She has the subtle skill that I admire so strongly in Diana Wynne Jones of describing a sense, or a thoug...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Ian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fairyland, favorites

This a wonderful book that, in a way, could be called a fantasy of manners. The story is about a small city bordering with Fairyland, something which the citizens pretend doesn't exist since the merchants too control of the country. The tranquillity of the town gets turned upside down when some people are found partaking of fairy fruit, and odd happenings start popping up all around Lud. It will take a very peculiar sort of hero - the old, plump and very respectable mayor of Lud-in-the-mist - to...more

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Apr 30, 2011 Ea Solinas rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, favorites

The oddness of this story can be detected just by checking out the main character. Most fantasy heroes are not round, stodgy, middle-aged men who are respected pillars of the community.

But Hope Mirrlees' enchanting fantasy "Lud-in-the-Mist" defies many such fantasy cliches, written as if "The Hobbit" had been spun up by Lord Dunsany. It's a sweet pastoral story that slowly blossoms out into a very unique story -- there's a little murder mystery, an amusing village of hobbity people, and a quick...more The oddness of this story can be detected just by checking out the main character. Most fantasy heroes are not round, stodgy, middle-aged men who are respected pillars of the community.

But Hope Mirrlees' enchanting fantasy "Lud-in-the-Mist" defies many such fantasy cliches, written as if "The Hobbit" had been spun up by Lord Dunsany. It's a sweet pastoral story that slowly blossoms out into a very unique story -- there's a little murder mystery, an amusing village of hobbity people, and a quicksilver dream of beautiful fairyland and otherworldly danger.

Fairy is forbidden in the town of Lud -- not just fairy creatures and their exquisite fruit, but mentions of them, the dead who walk with them, and the Duke Aubrey who left with them.

But all his life, the steadfastly dull Mayor Nathaniel Chanticleer has a lingering longing/fear for a strangely magical musical note. Despite all this, life remains boring and rather pleasant -- until Chanticleer's son Ranulph begins acting strangely, claiming that he's eaten fairy fruit.

After Chanticleer sends his son off to a farm for a vacation, the teenage girls at Miss Primrose's Crabapple Academy suddenly seem to go pleasantly nuts, and then race off into the hills. Life seems to seep out of the old town,and Nathaniel must connect the present crises to a past conspiracy, all of which hinges on Fairyland, fairy fruit, and the sinister doctor Endymion Leer. The journey to discover the truth will take him out of the everyday world -- and change him forever.

Haunting music, mad dancing, and ethereal meadows filled with fairy people and strange flowers. All through "Lud-in-the-Mist," there's the underlying feeling that there's a frightening, exquisite world that is barely separated from ours. Rather than cliche elves with pointy ears, it relies on a dreamlike atmosphere and faraway lands that are only glimpsed in passing.

Originally written in 1926, Hope Mirrlees' third book is an utterly unique experience -- it takes place in a pleasantly ordinary British town and charming pastoral towns, with fairy magic seeping into the cracks. And it's something of a love ode to "fairy" -- even though the inhabitants of Lud cherish their prosperous, staid existance, the the strange and exquisite blooms over the course of the book.

And Mirrlees' writing is capable of bringing that to life -- she intertwines a fantasy, a murder mystery and a personal journey into one. The first part of the book is written in a pleasantly cozy, mellow style that focuses on the colourful, staid town of Lud. But as the story blossoms into a tangle of crises and mysteries, Mirrlees' writing becomes more lush, exquisite and haunting.

Chanticleer is very reminiscent of Bilbo Baggins -- he's pleasant, boring, stodgy but has a brave, eccentric interior that helps him become a very unusual hero. And the other inhabitants of Lud are similarly engaging and just a little bit quirky -- fairy-struck teenagers, snippy old ladies, the haughty farmer's wife, the quietly malevolent Endymion Leer, and the happily mad people.

"Lud-in-the-Mist" emerged before the mold was made for fantasy novels, and its exquisitely funny writing shows why it's an enduring classic.
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Apr 21, 2011 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: esoterica

Hope Mirrlees is an often overlooked writer of fantasy. I found this book to be interesting, but if you are looking for a page-turner this isn't the book. The story is meted out like straw on a lazy brook.
There in a the small village of Lud in the Mist in the country of Dorimare lives Mayor and High Senechal Nathaniel Chanticlee. He and most of the citizens of the place have languished in inattention in the peaceful beauty of their town where the Dapple and Dawl rivers meet. The terrifying histo...more Hope Mirrlees is an often overlooked writer of fantasy. I found this book to be interesting, but if you are looking for a page-turner this isn't the book. The story is meted out like straw on a lazy brook.
There in a the small village of Lud in the Mist in the country of Dorimare lives Mayor and High Senechal Nathaniel Chanticlee. He and most of the citizens of the place have languished in inattention in the peaceful beauty of their town where the Dapple and Dawl rivers meet. The terrifying history of Lord Aubrey and the fairy world is all but forgotten.
Still, old nurses remember and pass on bit of the ancient spelled and delusional life to children via their stories and old habits. All is deemed harmless nonsense in modern Lud. Still, the citizens unknowingly carry fantastical fairy names, and are all too mindful of the ancient plague of Fairy Fruit, which drives people to madness or joy by turns. A strange, but highly effective Doctor Endymion Leer arrives on the scene. Nathaniel is possessed of a most haunting fear in the seeing and hearing of ordinary things, the feat he calls the NOTE. His outward appearance to the contrairy, he's plagued by a creeping doom. Dr. Leer promises to make it right.
Trouble comes as it will. Nathaniel's son Ranulph is suddenly possessed by madness; and it is suspected that he has somehow eaten Fairy Fruit being smuggled into Lud. Thus, the mystery begins.
The story contains much of the fairy lore of the ages- both good and bad. Sacred objects, stone of Hermes lovingly rubbed, walking dead, spirits of herbs and plants, descriptions of nature that is lush worshipful poetry. You may see forshadowing of great poets such as Eliot.
One is presented in the book with class struggle, the conflict of life and art, world of trade and the factory vs. the seductive world of dreams. Is there a healthy balance between the mundane and miraculous; the outer and inner self? Is there right nourishment for the souls of men, a higher spiritual destiny? What is the cost of banishing Fairyland altogether?
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Sep 13, 2010 Abigail Hilton rated it 5 of 5 stars

I found Lud-in-the-Mist after Neil Gaiman recommended it (I believe in the audio version of Stardust). What a find! This is a gem of a book. The language is amazingly beautiful. This is what purple prose is *trying* to be.

Lud-in-the-Mist is a fairytale about a village on the edge of Fairy that has tried, for years, to deny the fairy half of its heritage. The resulting imbalance creates trouble, kidnapping, and murder, which must be addressed by the town's day-dreaming, scatter-brained Senechal,...more

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May 13, 2010 Rusty rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: dedicated readers of fantasy

Shelves: fantasy

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees, written pre-1950: This is truly a fairy tale for adults. I was at first confused as I tried to understand the story line but in the end it was really quite simple. Lud-in-the-Mist is a town situated between two rivers - the Dapple and the Dawl. The Dapple originates beyond the Debatable Hills west of Lud-in-the-Mist, in Fairyland. Fairy things were once revered by the residents but when Duke Aubrey was expelled from the country, Dorimare, all things fairy became...more

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Feb 16, 2010 Jenni rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I bought this a long time ago - on a short break from schoolwork in the Easter before my A levels, I think it was, my Dad having encouraged me to have that break as a few days by myself. I had a day in Durham and a day in Carlisle, staying in B&Bs, and in Carlisle I found this in a second-hand bookshop.

There was no sense then that this was a feted book, lauded by the likes of Neil Gaiman; it has a very old-fashioned, American cover and it cost me a princely 75p by the looks of it. It's staye...more

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Jan 05, 2011 Alice rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fairytales are generally associated with childrens stories, such as Brothers Grimm et all, however, having recently read Neil Gaiman's 'Stardust' this peaked my interest.

What initially attracted me to the book, however, was not Startdust's author, but the book cover. There's the phrase, 'never judge a book by it's cover' but I couldn't help but want to read this book based on the cover. I'm glad I chose it as well. It was certainly an interesting, if at times somewhat difficult, read. I say diff...more

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Sep 08, 2010 Jackson rated it 3 of 5 stars

More fairytale than fantasy, Lud-in-the-Mist reminds me strongly of The Lord of the Rings. The story draws heavily from folklore, and like Tolkein, Hope Mirrlees is prone to wandering off from time to time. However, Lud is a mere 238 pages, meaning the whole book could fit into some of the more tedious passages in LOTR.

Eccentricities aside, I really enjoyed the story, and found myself growing fond of the main character, Nathaniel Chanticleer. The world of Lud is one where the rule of law is used...more

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Sep 05, 2009 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: in-my-library

For a quick round-up on what happens in the book, I am going with a review from Elisabeth Carey found on Amazon.Com (with a few alterations for clarity and to hide some things). It gives a good, broad description, without giving away anything:

Dorimare is bordered by Fairyland, although these days it does its very best to ignore that fact. Two or three centuries ago, under Duke Aubrey, it was different. Trade between the two lands was thriving, and the people of Dorimare enjoyed eating fairy fru

...more For a quick round-up on what happens in the book, I am going with a review from Elisabeth Carey found on Amazon.Com (with a few alterations for clarity and to hide some things). It gives a good, broad description, without giving away anything:

Dorimare is bordered by Fairyland, although these days it does its very best to ignore that fact. Two or three centuries ago, under Duke Aubrey, it was different. Trade between the two lands was thriving, and the people of Dorimare enjoyed eating fairy fruit. But the merchants rose up and drove Duke Aubrey out – he was capricious and bad for business – and now the mention of Fairy is banned as indecent, and fairy fruit is so illegal that smugglers of it have to be prosecuted for smuggling silk.

And then one day the Mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist (the capital of Dorimare), Master Nathaniel Chanticleer, discovers that his son Ranulph has been fed a piece of fairy fruit, and his quiet, orderly, respectable life is thrown into chaos. His city becomes strange to him, his daughter runs off to Fairyland, his friends turn against him, and he has no choice but to learn more than he has ever wanted to know about Fairyland, fairy fruit, Duke Aubrey, and the hidden mysteries of Lud.

The word “mysteries” is so important here, because there are many, and turns into a good mystery story of a sort, not just fantasy.

In the edition I have, Neil Gaiman wrote the introduction, and I don’t normally read those, or comment about them in my reviews. However, I make this note since this book is similar to “Stardust”. Even without reading the introduction, this book could be seen as a possible influence on Gaiman’s story.

There is a very unique style to Mirrlees’ writing in this book. I have read snippets of other fantasy novels published around the same time (this was published in 1926), and the prose is so thick, it even becomes the mode in which all characters speak. “Lud-in-the-Mist” though is written with great prose that is incredibly descriptive and poetic, yet is accessible to those not as well read (like me). And her characters don’t speak with her descriptive prose. Sure, they can be well spoken, but you do hear characters swearing, or what makes up swearing in this world (my favorite, as is other readers’, “By my Great Aunt’s rump!”). They stumble in their words, and say stupid things or unthoughtful things. Some come across as not very well educated. They are real, in other words. They may not be terribly deep, but believable and different from one another.

Mirrlees descriptions become a real treat. Sometimes she would go a long way in describing scenes or telling stories within the story as background, using her beautiful prose. And other times she could describe so much in just a few words. She also seemed to know what approach to take and when with very little flaws. (Either that or she had a great editor.)

The story itself took some time to get rolling. Part of this is due to background information that Mirrlees gives the reader in the earlier chapters. It is done, as is the whole story, in a folklore manner of someone recording history, or telling you the story. This gives these lulls a great quality about them, even if the reader isn’t getting very far. As the book progresses, the story becomes more and more engaging, evolving into many mysteries of the past, and what they mean to the people of Lud-in-the-Mist.

The character of Nathanial Chanticleer becomes more and more interesting as the story goes. He is frumpy at first, and even a bit of a bore, though loving his cheese and a good thyme gin. But when he is faced with issues that are destroying all that is natural to him, his love of his job wins out in the end, propelling him into these mysteries. At first, it seemed uncharacteristic for him to take on such tasks. But the deeper the reader gets to penetrate his brain, the more you find out that it was hidden beneath Nat’s surface, and was bound to come out. The other characters don’t give so much depth, though as I mentioned there is enough of them to make it all believable. And if anything, some of them are very interesting “characters” (nudge-nudge, wink-wink).

The original plot, the mysticism of Fairyland, and the great prose made this story a treat. I see why many feel this is a lost or underrated classic. However, given the nature of fantasy writing these day though, I don’t see that status changing, which is a shame.(less)

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Mar 01, 2009 Ryan rated it 1 of 5 stars

The people of Lud-in-the-Mist enjoy their steady, structured lives, and fear the mystical stories of the mischievous Faeries who live in the West, and especially fear the influence of their magical Fairy Fruit, which can supposedly turn the most able-minded citizen who eats it into a poetic, quixotic, and babbling lunatic. When the Mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist, Master Nathaniel Chanticleer, discovers that his own son has eaten this forbidden fairy fruit, he must unravel the mystery of how this contr...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Tanja Seppä rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, kindle

My hopes for this book weren't quite fulfilled. When I came across this fantasy novel written in the 1920's, that Neil Gaiman has so raved about I figured it could only be good. Of course, I read it during the most intense work-week so far this year. It was difficult to concentrate anyway and I never really got into it. It's quite a charmging story nonetheless and it probably has a few layers of depth that I simply couldn't grasp, given my circumstance.

Lut-in-the-Mist is a small town set between...more

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Feb 03, 2013 DavidO rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This book will probably be liked by fans of Susanna Clarke.

, as it has many similar qualities. Magic is a dreamy unreal thing, the fae folk live nearby but no one just walks there. The fae actually live amongst the human but don't say so. And the Duke in this series is very similar to the King who appears in Clarke's book.

Although there is a blurb by Neil Gaiman, this book isn't really like his books, imho. Lud-in-the-Mist got a more feminine touch and I found it much funnier than his work. Th...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Blue violent rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lud-in-the-Mist has been showing up on recommendations pages for me for ages, but for some reason I kept overlooking it. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I did I really loved it. It has all the classic elements of a fairy story: trickster fae causing mayhem in an otherwise normal town, a mysterious other world over the distant hills, imminent peril induced by fairy thrall, and a flawed hero. This book reads like a fairy book of an earlier era and I would have placed it in the mid 19th c...more

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Aug 14, 2009 Zen Cho rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sff

ahhhh this rocked!!! It's funny how this mostly takes place in the Real World (as opposed to Fairyland) and Neil Gaiman's Stardust mostly takes place in Fairyland (not the Real World), and yet there is more magic in a single serif on any letter of any word on any page of Lud-in-the-Mist than there is in the ENTIRE BOOK of Stardust.

I should note that its handling of race is weird -- Tolkien-style "all the non-white people are from somewhere else". Indigo people appear to be the world's analogue f...more

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May 19, 2012 Sashko Liutyj rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

В анотації до книжки написано:
"це роман-притча про те, які небезпеки приховує в собі спроба витіснити з життя все незвідане, таємниче, те, що не вписується в традиційні рамки".
Чарівна Країна, створена автором – безгранична, невичерпна, хаотична, не підпорядкована ні моральному закону, ні єдиному сюжету".
І, схоже, саме у останній фразі вся проблема: сюжетна лінія не прописана,
таке враження, що це чорновий варіант, рукопис, що підлягає грунтовному редагуванню. Дивні образи: наркотичні фрукти, мерц...more

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Nov 13, 2009 Leif Schenstead-Harris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Resisting the temptation to say things like "considering its age" is difficult for a book like this one. Lud-In-The-Mist is a vibrant, nuanced, and very very tempting classic fantasy text, an engaging story that asks the reader to examine the relationship between "fairy" and the mundane. It's a bit damp in parts, and the ending is perhaps not as clearly positive as it might believe (I still have trouble with the valedictory accord lent the Duke) but on the whole this is a revelatory read for tho...more

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Jun 27, 2007 Mare rated it 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely brilliant. Gorgeous, gorgeous writing. I need to write a real review of this. I loved this book to bits.

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Apr 02, 2011 Zeborah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: women-authors, fantasy, 2011

This is the mode that Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell echoes. The entry is a little slow (so a glance some years back wasn't sufficient to pull me straight in), but that slowness covers a great depth and wit.

The parallelism of the delusions of Faerie and Law was wonderful, subtly made manifest in the way the Law refers to fairy fruit as silk, and then when Nat's house is searched for silken vanities, fairy fruit hidden by one of the Silent People is found instead.

And every word and moment deeply...more

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Apr 30, 2009 Scott rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, own, classics

This was an ok book, and was important because of the authors it has influenced throughout fantasy. Other than that, I thought Mirrlees was a bit too verbose and would go off on descriptive tangents that had nothing to do with the story. While the descriptions were well done, they had no relevance and seemed like filler.

Here is one such passage of overly descriptive prose that I actually enjoyed (the other ones I would just skip/skim over), this is Mirrlees describing the coming dawn:
-"Then, som...more

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May 14, 2012 Ann Klefstad rated it 4 of 5 stars

Gaiman loves it, as well he should-- the currents that run along the bottom of rivers, the slightly malign but amusing liveliness of the dead, the need for ambiguity in border states, all these are attributes of his own fiction. But this one, from 1926, one of the first written texts from that inner country, is different too, maybe because of its loneliness at the time it was written. Its author produced several novels in a few years, and then, with the death of her companion, ceased writing. So...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Tess rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, classics, fairies

I don't quite know what to say about this book except that is was a wonderful read. The story starts out slowly, taking its time to introduce the reader to Lud-in-the-Mist and its characters, and then eventually dives into a plot, that is mystery, detective-story and melancholic, playful fantasy all rolled into one. The language is beautiful - sometimes almost too flowery, but it fits the mood (and here I regret that I didn't have the chance to read the English version).
What I particularly loved...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Jen rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Sorry, but this fantasy was very dated. I read it because it was touted by Neil Gaiman, and in its day was probably very innovative in its use of the fantasy genre, but ... So, the town of Lud is quite conservative, having outlawed all aspects of Fairy, until the Mayor's son is fed fairy fruit, and his sister and her friends at the local Ladies Academy are also fed the fruit. This causes Nathaniel Chanticleer, the Mayor, to pursue the culprits and overturn the conservative factions of the town a...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Cara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Most probably my favorite book of all time (at least, it's neck to neck with my most favorite of favorites). God, I love this book. The writing is so masterful - subtle, sly, terrifying, funny, precise. Mirrlees is a prime example of a female genius whose ideas and techniques were appropriated by other (male) writers and overshadowed by the academic "canon."

It's one of those books that literally leaves you open-mouthed by the consistent bad-assedness of its social satire and linguistic inventio...more Most probably my favorite book of all time (at least, it's neck to neck with my most favorite of favorites). God, I love this book. The writing is so masterful - subtle, sly, terrifying, funny, precise. Mirrlees is a prime example of a female genius whose ideas and techniques were appropriated by other (male) writers and overshadowed by the academic "canon."

It's one of those books that literally leaves you open-mouthed by the consistent bad-assedness of its social satire and linguistic invention. One of those books whose enjoyment is only tainted by your realization that the writer had been screwed over by crap critics, and that you should have encountered it far earlier. A high school teacher should have taught it, it should have been one of those titles on that To Read List you've been carrying around with you for fifteen years, women's studies courses should make it required reading, it should post-post-posthumously win every fantasy award. The only consolation is that now you have it at the right age, when you're old enough to appreciate the skill of the author and to recognize just how much modern and contemporary fantasy writers ripped off her stuff.

If you are a lover of sophisticated writing, fantasy or otherwise (think Woolf, Austen, Susanna Clarke, Joyce, Emily Bronte, Anne Carson, the better parts of Rowling), you need to buy this book. Do not walk to the bookstore - run (or order it one-day shipping if you're into supporting Amazon). Even the chapter titles are phenomenal: "The Duke Who Laughed Himself Off a Throne and Other Traditions of Dorimare"; "Master Ambrose Honeysuckle Chases a Wild Goose and Has a Vision"; "Panic and the Silent People"; "The Berries of Merciful Death;" "Watching the Cows."

Just look at the quality of one of the first passages, after Master Nathaniel accidentally plays a note from an enchanted lute: "He was never again the same man. For years that note was the apex of his nightly dreams; the point towards which, by their circuitous and seemingly senseless windings, they had all the time been converging. It was as if the note were a living substance, and subject to the law of chemical changes - that is to say, as that law works in dreams. For instance, he might dream that his old nurse was baking an apple on the fire in her own cosy room, and as he watched it simmer and sizzle she would look at him with a strange smile, a smile such as he had never seen on her face in his waking hours, and say, 'But, of course, you know it isn't really the apple. It's the note.'"

A little later...

"[the Note] had generated in him what one can only call a wistful yearning after the prosaic things he already possessed. It was as if he thought he had already lost what he was actually holding in his hands.

From this there sprang an ever present sense of insecurity together with a distrust of the homely things he cherished. With which familiar object - quill, pipe, pack of cards - would he be occupied, in which regularly recurrent action - the pulling on or off of his nightcap, the weekly auditing of his accounts - would he be engaged when IT, the hidden menace, sprang out at him? And he would gaze in terror at his furniture, his walls, his pictures - what strange scene might they one day witness, what awful experience might he one day have in their presence?

Hence, at times, he would gaze on the present with the agonizing tenderness of one who gazes on the past..."

Seriously, if I could only take three books to a deserted island, I would take three copies of this book. Not that it matters, but I give it 20 billion stars.(less)

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Dec 08, 2011 Isabel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Poor Chanticleer! Poor John o' Dreams!" he said gently. "I have often wished my honey were not so bitter to the taste. Believe me, Chanticleer, I fain would find an antidote to the bitter herb of life, but none grows this side of the hills - or the other."
"And yet . . . I have never tasted fairy fruit," said Master Nathaniel in a low broken voice.
"There are many fruits in my orchard, and many and various are the fruit they bear - music and dreams and grief and sometimes, joy. All your life, Cha...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Simon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fantasy-masterworks

A fairy tale for adults. Both serious and light, this is a story that works on more than one level. The surface narrative is an intriguing story and mystery that gradually builds tension and is delivered with a pleasant, leisurely prose style. But also the author is trying to say something about society and the meaning of life.

Stylistically, I found echoes of this in Jack Vance's "Lyonesse" books. Certainly I think if you liked one then you'll like the other. But don't read this if you want more...more

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