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If
If is a book in the English language by Edward John Plunkett.BILL Well, anyway, I won't let any more of them passengers go jumping into trains any more, not when they're moving, I won't. When the train gets in, doors shut. That's the rule. And they'll 'ave to abide by it.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
208 pages, Paperback
First published September 27, 2015
2 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Lord Dunsany
693 books853 followersEdward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, eighteenth baron of Dunsany, was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist, notable for his work in fantasy published under the name Lord Dunsany. More than eighty books of his work were published, and his oeuvre includes hundreds of short stories, as well as successful plays, novels and essays. Born to one of the oldest titles in the Irish peerage, he lived much of his life at perhaps Ireland's longest-inhabited home, Dunsany Castle near Tara, received an honourary doctorate from Trinity College, and died in Dublin.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 30, 2022
Very much "of its time" (1921). At the heart is what could have been a half-decent farce about the butterfly effect (man changes one tiny thing about his life ten years ago, hilarious and disastrous results ensue). The first act, where the lead character and his wife bicker in their living room, is very well written - a surprise, as I know Lord Dunsany for his fantasy writing, and had no idea that he'd be so good at this sort of Feydeau-style suburban farce.
But the sexism, classism, and in particular the racism of the play are quite jaw-dropping, even for its time, including the bizarre calumny that Muslims worship idols (do some basic research, Dunsany!) whose mouths they fill with offerings of children's blood. Even aside from that, there's bits of the play that rankle and seem to go nowhere. It's a shame because most of the dialogue is snappy, funny, and flows really nicely - I can imagine having a lot of fun staging it. Like I say, there's a decent farce in there somewhere, trying and failing to get out.
But the sexism, classism, and in particular the racism of the play are quite jaw-dropping, even for its time, including the bizarre calumny that Muslims worship idols (do some basic research, Dunsany!) whose mouths they fill with offerings of children's blood. Even aside from that, there's bits of the play that rankle and seem to go nowhere. It's a shame because most of the dialogue is snappy, funny, and flows really nicely - I can imagine having a lot of fun staging it. Like I say, there's a decent farce in there somewhere, trying and failing to get out.
July 26, 2008
If is an exotic and somewhat ham-handed wish fulfillment time travel story written as a play. A standard issue late 19th century British middle class family man receives a gem from a Persian beggar that allows him to go back in time. Despite protests from his wife he uses it to return to a time when he suffered a minor slight from a railroad attendant, thinking his life would proceed quite the same as it did the first time once this slight is corrected. Of course, he ends up in Persia, worshipped by the locals, being plotted against by a blood-thirsty woman who cannot seem to decide whether she would rather marry him or have him killed.
It is interesting enough, but many supporting characters are anachronistic two-dimensional stereotypes (the servile but mystic Persian, the blathering wife, the cold-blooded femme fatale). Not a big fan.
It is interesting enough, but many supporting characters are anachronistic two-dimensional stereotypes (the servile but mystic Persian, the blathering wife, the cold-blooded femme fatale). Not a big fan.
April 12, 2015
Lord Dunsany. That's it. No more reasons needed.
Nah, let's be bold. This is one of the most famous plays by Lord Dunsany (and maybe the longest, also). It has all the elements you could expect from him: humour, some really gullible-adorable characters and that bit of magic and tragedy that makes you wonder and continue reading no-matter-what-infernal-noise-your-neighbours-are-making. Although it is true that time travelling is nothing new right now, and that the plot is quite predictable given the reading backgroung of today-readers, I think you will find it really interesting and, no matter how much you would want to cover it, catching. So, stop reading this and open that book!
Nah, let's be bold. This is one of the most famous plays by Lord Dunsany (and maybe the longest, also). It has all the elements you could expect from him: humour, some really gullible-adorable characters and that bit of magic and tragedy that makes you wonder and continue reading no-matter-what-infernal-noise-your-neighbours-are-making. Although it is true that time travelling is nothing new right now, and that the plot is quite predictable given the reading backgroung of today-readers, I think you will find it really interesting and, no matter how much you would want to cover it, catching. So, stop reading this and open that book!
September 25, 2025
If is Lord Dunsany's longest play. It was published in 1921 in a standalone volume, and then bundled together with a new edition of Plays of Near and Far in 1923. We can count If as a fantasy of sorts, in the vein of Dunsany's earlier fantasy dramas in Five Plays and Plays of Gods and Men—though most of the earlier plays consist of one act, and If stretches over four acts.
The play begins with Hafiz giving the main protagonist, John Beal, a crystal from the East with magical powers. John is able to go back to change the past, to do something differently. Hafiz says of the god from the whom comes the crystal,
A short speech like this could almost have been lifted from one of Dunsany's limpid early fantasies.
John takes the chance. He catches a train that earlier he had missed. The consequences of changing the past, however minor, are unfathomable. The protagonist winds up in Al Shaldomir, a land in the East that is isolated and unknown by outsiders. John becomes the ruler of this land. However, all is not well, and the play continues to a surprising conclusion.
I found this play very easy to read, and even difficult to put down at times. Dunsany's writing, whether of plays, poetry, novels, or short stories is always effortless and flowing. Reputedly, Dunsany never edited his writing, so what you get is always a first draft—which shows in the best possible way as pure, uncomplicated romance.
Then, halfway through the play, between Act II and Act III, I came to a screeching halt. Dunsany had placed a beautiful poem between the two acts, seemingly unrelated to the play:
"THE SONG OF THE IRIS MARSHES
"When morn is bright on the mountains olden
Till dawn is lost in the blaze of day,
When morn is bright and the marshes golden,
Where shall the last lights fade away?
And where, my love, shall we dream to-day?
"Dawn is fled to the marshy hollows
Where ghosts of stars in the dimness stray,
And the water is streaked with the flash of swallows
And all through summer the iris sway.
But where, my love, shall we dream to-day?
"When night is black in the iris marshes." (p. 113)
John briefly cites this poem or song as an expression of love in Act III (p. 119), but otherwise it is disconnected from the play. Why, otherwise, was the poem there? An obvious answer is that it plays the part of an interlude in the play, much as in an actual production the audience would head to the bar in the intermission. I wondered if Dunsany had someone on the stage recite or sing the poem before Act III, to set the tone for the second half of the play. Dunsany expresses the sentiment of the poem nowhere else in the play: it's like a brief vision of another dimension, and much improves the play, in my view.
On a completely different note, Dunsany gives very bizarre stage directions to a group of soldiers:
These directions reminded me of John Cleese and the Ministry of Silly Walks. Was Dunsany really serious here, or was he giving vent to an absurdist strain of humour?
All is not good, though. Characters like John Beal are openly racist. Perhaps the author was accurately portraying typical colonialist attitudes in the late British Empire. However, I wish Dunsany had not used ethnic names for the people of Al Shaldomir. He could have given his characters fantastic invented names, even as he did in his early fantasy short stories. The play would have been far better in consequence, in my view, for otherwise Dunsany is misrepresenting some of his characters.
Aside from this flaw, the play is very readable, with flashes here and there of Dunsany's early fantasy. Nevertheless, perhaps I prefer the succinctness of Dunsany's shorter plays, like generally I prefer his short stories to his novels.
The play begins with Hafiz giving the main protagonist, John Beal, a crystal from the East with magical powers. John is able to go back to change the past, to do something differently. Hafiz says of the god from the whom comes the crystal,
He is carved of one piece of jade, a god in the greenest mountains. The years are his dreams. This crystal is his treasure. Guard it safely, for his power is in this more than in all the peaks of his native hills. (p. 21)
A short speech like this could almost have been lifted from one of Dunsany's limpid early fantasies.
John takes the chance. He catches a train that earlier he had missed. The consequences of changing the past, however minor, are unfathomable. The protagonist winds up in Al Shaldomir, a land in the East that is isolated and unknown by outsiders. John becomes the ruler of this land. However, all is not well, and the play continues to a surprising conclusion.
I found this play very easy to read, and even difficult to put down at times. Dunsany's writing, whether of plays, poetry, novels, or short stories is always effortless and flowing. Reputedly, Dunsany never edited his writing, so what you get is always a first draft—which shows in the best possible way as pure, uncomplicated romance.
Then, halfway through the play, between Act II and Act III, I came to a screeching halt. Dunsany had placed a beautiful poem between the two acts, seemingly unrelated to the play:
"THE SONG OF THE IRIS MARSHES
"When morn is bright on the mountains olden
Till dawn is lost in the blaze of day,
When morn is bright and the marshes golden,
Where shall the last lights fade away?
And where, my love, shall we dream to-day?
"Dawn is fled to the marshy hollows
Where ghosts of stars in the dimness stray,
And the water is streaked with the flash of swallows
And all through summer the iris sway.
But where, my love, shall we dream to-day?
"When night is black in the iris marshes." (p. 113)
John briefly cites this poem or song as an expression of love in Act III (p. 119), but otherwise it is disconnected from the play. Why, otherwise, was the poem there? An obvious answer is that it plays the part of an interlude in the play, much as in an actual production the audience would head to the bar in the intermission. I wondered if Dunsany had someone on the stage recite or sing the poem before Act III, to set the tone for the second half of the play. Dunsany expresses the sentiment of the poem nowhere else in the play: it's like a brief vision of another dimension, and much improves the play, in my view.
On a completely different note, Dunsany gives very bizarre stage directions to a group of soldiers:
Enter R. some men in single file; uniform pale green silks; swords at carry. They advance in single file, in a slightly serpentine way, deviating to their left a little out of the straight and returning to it, stepping neatly on the tips of their toes. Their march is fantastic and odd without being exactly funny. (p. 156)
These directions reminded me of John Cleese and the Ministry of Silly Walks. Was Dunsany really serious here, or was he giving vent to an absurdist strain of humour?
All is not good, though. Characters like John Beal are openly racist. Perhaps the author was accurately portraying typical colonialist attitudes in the late British Empire. However, I wish Dunsany had not used ethnic names for the people of Al Shaldomir. He could have given his characters fantastic invented names, even as he did in his early fantasy short stories. The play would have been far better in consequence, in my view, for otherwise Dunsany is misrepresenting some of his characters.
Aside from this flaw, the play is very readable, with flashes here and there of Dunsany's early fantasy. Nevertheless, perhaps I prefer the succinctness of Dunsany's shorter plays, like generally I prefer his short stories to his novels.
November 23, 2022
This was the least interesting of the plays and books by Lord Dunsany which I have read. On the plus side it features his subtle whimsy, with the main character's only regret in life is having missed a train ten years ago. He gets a mystical opportunity to catch that train and relive the past ten years of his life, and does so, thinking that catching this train won't change a thing in the life that he has lived.
Naturally, this one small change makes a big difference, and he ends up becoming an imperial colonialist ruler of a tiny central Asian country. This section is replete with unpleasant stereotypes generally found in English language adventure fiction of this era. Romance and political intrigue are shoehorned into an otherwise contrived situation, things go horribly wrong, and the protagonist learns his lesson.
Or maybe not. A not-unexpected twist ending reverses the main character's fortunes, and he is left with no memory of his failed experiment, and life goes on. Being a play, it is unfortunate that the often tediously repetitive dialogue is the least interesting part of this work. If you're a reader looking to sample the best of Lord Dunsany, you won't miss out if you choose not to read this one.
Naturally, this one small change makes a big difference, and he ends up becoming an imperial colonialist ruler of a tiny central Asian country. This section is replete with unpleasant stereotypes generally found in English language adventure fiction of this era. Romance and political intrigue are shoehorned into an otherwise contrived situation, things go horribly wrong, and the protagonist learns his lesson.
Or maybe not. A not-unexpected twist ending reverses the main character's fortunes, and he is left with no memory of his failed experiment, and life goes on. Being a play, it is unfortunate that the often tediously repetitive dialogue is the least interesting part of this work. If you're a reader looking to sample the best of Lord Dunsany, you won't miss out if you choose not to read this one.
October 25, 2021
If is an enjoyable fantasy comedy about a man who tries to change one little thing about the past, and ends up changing more than he expects to.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews