Tales of Three Hemispheres

by Lord Dunsany

From "The Last Dream of Bwona Khubla": From steaming lowlands down by the equator, where monstrous orchids blow, where beetles big as mice sit on the tent-ropes, and fireflies glide about by night like little moving stars, the travelers went three days through forests of cactus till they came to the open plains where the oryx are. When Bwona Khubla had gone there three years ago, what with malaria with which he was shaking all over, and what with disgust at finding the water-hole dry, he had decided to die there, and in that part of the world such decisions are always fatal. In any case he was overdue to die, but hitherto his amazing resolution, and that terrible strength of character that so astounded his porters, had kept him alive and moved his safari on. There is not doubt that he was a fearful man. . . . * This peculiar collection is a very real we envy you the reading of it. Among the treasures in this volume are "The Last Dream of Bwona Khubla," "How the Office of Postman Fell Vacant in Offord-Under-the-Wold," "The Prayer of Boob Aheera," "East and West," "A Pretty Quarrel," "How the Gods Avenged Meoul Ki Ning," "The Gift of the Gods," "The Sack of Emeralds," "The Old Brown Coat," "An Archive of the Older Mysteries," and "A City of Wonder," and a section he called Beyond the Fields We Know, which included "Publisher's Note," "Idle Days on the Yann," "A Shop in Go-By Street," and "The Avenger of Perdóndaris."

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Classics, Anthologies, Fiction

101 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Edward 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.

Reviews

[Jose Cruz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Recopilación de cuentos fantásticos de 140 páginas publicado en 1919 por este escritor perteneciente a la nobleza inglesa, que participó en la guerra contra los Boers. Construye una serie de mundos y ciudades de ensueños surgidos de lejanas selvas, que fueron admirados por Lovecraft, Tolkien y Arthur C. Clark.
Sin embargo, solo es eso, descripción de mundos donde prácticamente no ocurre nada, y los cuentos finalizan como si se interrumpieran. Solo me gustaron algo, los siguientes:
El cartero de Otford
La oración de Boob Aheera
Oriente y Occidente
Una hermosa batalla
De cómo los dioses vengaron a Meo
De todas formas, a no ser que os arrastre la curiosidad u os encanten las descripciones, no os recomiendo su lectura.

[Leonard McCullen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The edition I have opens with an essay from H. P. Lovecraft on the topic of Dunsany and his admiration for the mans work. In it, he politely intimates that he doesn’t care for the last two dunsany collections and hopes that the then-just-announced Tales of Three Hemispheres will mark a return to form for Dunsany along the lines of his masterful The Sword of Welleran and A Dreamer’s Tales.

I, a man living in the future have come to bring you the devastating news that this is just mostly more disappointing Tales of Wonder.
This short collection is a mishmash of uninspired oriental tales, saved only by The idle Days on the Yann (here reprinted from A Dreamer’s Tales) and its two sequels.

S. T. Joshi said in his great foreword to the Penguin collection of Dunsany stories that the reason Dunsany is not regarded higher in the literary world is because “he wrote too much”.
I’m beginning to see the truth in this as I have read eight Dunsany works and have found five masterful works, while I tally three duds in a row and hope the trend does not continue on into his novels. (Fingers tightly crossed)

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 5 out of 5]

9 I thought this collection an improvemant on 'The Book of Wonder' that I read the day before, but I see on here that most people think this one of his worst short story collections. So is my appreciation only due to now after reading 'The Book of Wonder' being used to Dunsany's style and this appreciating this more? Or did the subject matter of these stories (the clash between the real world and the dream or fantasy world, disillusionment and enchantment) connect to me more than to other readers?
As with the other collection the first stories are very short, are mostly driven by evocative descriptions and lyrical prose, with little attention to character or plot. But wow - was the prose imaginative and transporting! I loved to let it wash over me. And I thought these stories had better endings compared to those in 'The Book of Wonder', often ending with a wry twist or revelation, only a couple not really having a clear ending at all. I especially liked the conclusion of 'How the Office of Postman Fell Vacant in Otford-Under-The Wold' and it also fit with the theme of the confrontation of our world with the world of the Gods, or imagination. 'The Sack of Emeralds' also has a great ending, that works in its suggestiveness. Let horror authors take note!
The main draw and best aspect of this collection, however, was the second half of the book, with three interconnected stories under the title 'Beyond the Fields We Know': 'Idle Days on the Yann', 'A Shop in Go-By Street' and 'The Avenger of Perdondaris'. In its exploration of a dream world by a wanderer from our reality, a dream world with its own peculiar geography, it clearly inspired some stories by Lovecraft. But it has a power all of its own, with breathtaking descriptions, fascinating locations and a hefty dose of dream logic (including a talking cat). It starts elegiac, but at the end it gains a somber atmosphere, as reality comes crashing in. Here there's even a vision of a far future London, that is hardly recognizable. I was thoroughly engrossed by this story and on its own, to me it made this little book worth its five stars. Very much recommended, especially if you like lyrical weird fiction.

[Dolf Wagenaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lord Dunsany heeft veel, heel veel geschreven, maar alleen zijn vroege fantastische verhalen zijn echt bekend gebleven. Tales of Three Hemispheres zou zijn laatste verhalenbundel zijn in deze geroemde stijl. Lovecraft betreurde het verlies van deze stijl – volgens hem het gevolg van het verlies van Dunsany’s innerlijke, naïeve kind, dat een dergelijke grote ‘fantaisist’.
Volgens Lovecraft-kenner S.T. Joshi (in ‘The Weird Tale’) was Dunsany gewoon ‘klaar’ met het schrijven van dit soort verhalen. Maar volgens hem is al eerder in zijn oeuvre deze breuk zichtbaar en wordt die breuk in deze bundel definitief: “Tales of Three Hemispheres continues the lamentable tendency, with abrupt shattering of the atmosphere by direct addresses tot he reader, [and] transparant social satire (…). Self-cannibalization continues with two moderately interesting but ultimately vacuous continuations of Idle Days on the Yann.”

Zelf heb ik het gevoel dat Dunsany zelf probeert zijn ‘innerlijke kind’ te behouden en tegelijk weet dat dat niet meer lukt en er daarom een punt achter zet. Twee citaten uit het verhaal ‘The Avenger of Perdóndaris’:

“Then [als bepaalde betoverende muziek uit de droomwereld klinkt] gentle reader you would be gentle no more but the thoughts that run like leopards over the far free lands would come leaping into your head even were it London, yes, even in London: you would rise up then and beat your hands on the wall wit hits pretty pattern of flowers, in the hope that the bricks might break and reveal the way tot hat palace of ivory by the amethyst gulf where the golden dragons are.”

“and I determined to walk, as soon as I was rested, in all the streets that I knew and to call on all the people that I had ever met, and to be content for long with the fields we know.”

Joshi impliceert in het eerdere citaat ook een duidelijke tweedeling van de bundel. Het eerste deel bestaat uit twaalf zeer korte verhalen, die – zeker in vergelijking met zijn eerdere bundels – inderdaad erg tegenvallen. Het lijkt alsof hij de opdracht had snel een bundel te vullen en er eigenlijk geen zin in had. Wel is de thematiek interessant: veel van de verhalen stellen de droomwereld/fantasiewereld tegenover de normale werkelijkheid, waardoor er soms situaties ontstaan die doen denken aan ‘new weird’, zoals bepaalde verhalen van Miéville. Magisch realisme en surrealisme lijken hier en daar ook op te duiken. In aanleg zijn enkele van de verhalen interessant en veelbelovend, zoals ‘The Old Brown Coat’ – wellicht een van de verhalen die Joshi sociale satire zou noemen. Toch is het resultaat in eigenlijk alle gevallen teleurstellend doordat de verhalen te kort zijn en vaak niet duidelijk is waar Dunsany heen wil.

Het tweede deel bestaat uit drie langere verhalen. Joshi merkt niks op over het verschil met de eerste helft, terwijl dat erg opvallend is. Het eerste verhaal is (in mijn editie) een herdruk van het oudere verhaal ‘Idle Days on the Yann’. Het is een zeer dromerig verhaal, nog in de echte geroemde stijl van Dunsany, al is het niet een van zijn ‘godenverhalen’. Daarna volgen twee vervolgverhalen daarop, waarin duidelijk wordt dat de wereld uit het eerste verhaal een droomwereld is die wordt bezocht door de protagonist door via een onopvallende deur in een winkel deze dimensie binnen te treden. Uiteindelijk keert de protagonist terug naar zijn normale wereld, is erg blij en heeft de droomwereld niet meer nodig (!). Ik vind deze twee vervolgverhalen prachtig geschreven; ik kan me er ook niet aan onttrekken dat het de inspiratiebron is voor Lovecrafts ondergewaardeerde verhaal – en volgens sommigen klad voor een nooit uitgewerkte roman – ‘The Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath’.

Ik zou de eerste helft 2,5 sterren geven. De tweede helft 4 sterren – afgerond dus 3 sterren.

[Sergio Cresta · Rating 5 out of 5]

He disfrutado de un puñado (14) de relatos inéditos en castellano, de primer orden (no todos los de Dunsany lo son en igual medida), junto con otros más conocidos, ya recogidos en recopilaciones anteriores: «La oración de Boob Aheera», «Oriente y Occidente», «De cómo los dioses vengaron a Meoul Ki Ning», y «Los dones de los dioses». El libro se completa con los tres famosos relatos y un prólogo que configuran Más alla del mundo conocido: «Días de ocio en el Yann», «Una tienda en Go-by Street» y «El vengador de Perdóndaris».
De los cuentos nuevos en castellano, «El último sueño de Bwona Khubla«, relato donde los pensamientos finales de un moribundo explorador inglés dan cuerpo a un turbador espejismo nocturno. La ciudad de Londres, magnífica como un sueño de opio, se levanta en la oscuridad de la selva para aterrorizar a nativos y extraños. Tanto en «El cartero de Otford» como en «El saco de esmeraldas» se exponen las peligrosas consecuencias de cruzarse en el camino de los dioses . «Una hermosa batalla» es la breve crónica de una lucha entre enanos y semidioses, encuadrable en el marco de la denominada «fantasía heroica». En «El viejo abrigo marrón» descubriremos que lo maravilloso puede también esconderse en lo aparentemente prosaico, como una prenda de vestir de segunda mano pujada en una subasta. En «Una ciudad maravillosa» se nos ofrece una sugestiva visión del Nueva York nocturno, mágicamente entrevisto en su juego de nieblas e iluminación eléctrica.
Cuentos de los tres hemisferios es, pues, una variada y representativa colección de relatos fantásticos de Dunsany, que se abre con una evocación fantasmal de Londres y se cierra con una imaginativa visión del Nueva York más moderno; quizás porque su autor desea señalarnos que las puertas de la fantasía se abren muchas veces en el lugar más próximo e insospechado.
Una joya literaria fantástica que seguirá siendo clásico sin serlo. No muchas horas de lectura, y cientos más de relectura vivificante.

[Ian Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tales of Three Hemispheres is a slim volume in which Lord Dunsany returns to the style of his earlier short fantasy fiction, after the minor diversion of a World War. One of the longer stories in it, in fact, is a reprint of 'Idle Days on the Yann' from A Dreamer's Tales, albeit it works well here in context as the first of a three part story.

One risks being reductive by saying this is merely more of the same from Dunsany, but at a superficial level that is what it is. His fantastical prose poetry is as enchanting as ever, and will appeal to existing fans, but is neither the likeliest nor best starting point for winning new admirers.

[Wekoslav Stefanovski · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Dunsany I've read. Very well written, with a lovely and poetic cadence. Not much in it plot-wise, but I can definitely feel why this was a major influence on a host of weird-fiction writers.

[Ivan Lanìa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dopo aver terminato mesi fa A Dreamer's Tales ho scoperto che uno dei racconti ivi contenuti, "Idle Days on the Yann", fu proseguito da lord Dunsany in un breve ciclo da lui intitolato Beyond the Fields We Know e raccolto in questo Tales of Three Hemispheres , così che il mio senso maniacale di completismo mi ha indotto a recuperarlo.
Contenutisticamente questa raccolta è bipartita fra una prima sezione di racconti autoconclusivi e la suddetta sequenza Beyond the Fields We Know (di fatto un romanzo breve in tre episodi) e questa bipartizione si rispecchia palesemente nei temi e toni del volume: da un lato i testi autoconclusivi mi hanno rammentato molto i Fifty-One Tales, poiché sono tutti micro-racconti di poche pagine imperniati su un effetto sorpresa finale e improntati ora all'apologo ("A Pretty Quarrell") ora al fantastico assurdista in stile mitteleuropeo ("The Sack of Emeralds"), non di rado dedicati alla riemersione della magia atavica nella civiltà industriale contemporanea ("The Last Dream of Bwoana Kubla" ma soprattutto l'ottimo "The City of Wonders") – e dall'altro lato presentano spesso un gusto marcato e (purtroppo) stucchevole per l'orientalismo più blando, già presente nel già citato A Dreamer's Tales, a partire dal fatalismo pseudo-indù centrale in “The Prayer of Boob Aheera” fino alla pretestuosa droga cinese che fa da McGuffin nella vicenda altrimenti inglesissima di “How the Office of Postman Fell Vacant in Otford-under-the-Wold”. Analogamente, la piccola saga Beyond the Fields We Know è tutta composta da pannelli affrescati in cui il nostro protagonista sognatore ci dettaglia minutamente paesaggi incantati ove accade poco o niente (in stile A Dreamer's Tales) e il suo tono di fondo è il contrasto un po' sornione fra l'immensità degli dèi e del reame fatato e la piccola praticità umana (conformemente ad alcuni dei Fifty-One Tales), con punte particolarmente riuscite laddove Dunsany mette in scena il negozio-portale verso la terra dei sogni e la strega guardiana col suo gatto nero.

Di sicuro la raccolta si lascia leggere, specialmente in ragione di un paio di racconti al giorno prima di dormire, ma ora capisco perché viene ristampata molto meno spesso di altre produzioni precedenti: è palesemente un Dunsany iterativo su sé stesso.

N.B.: credo che i "tre emisferi" del titolo siano l'Occidente delle storie urbane, l'Oriente (prettamente Asia ma anche Africa) delle storie esotiche, e il Paese dei Sogni delle storie fiabesche.

[Charles Sheard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, the bulk of the stories collected here are more fragments, vignettes, than stories, and are lacking both the narrative structure and polish the can be found in Dunsany's better tales. The "Idle Days on the Yann" is clearly the standout here, having already appeared previously in A Dreamer's Tales, but its two follow-up tales are not really up to the same mark, even though they are still better than most of the rest of this collection. Of the rest, I probably enjoyed "An Archive of the Older Mysteries" best.

Yet still, there is something enthralling about Dunsany's language, which within mere sentences begins to weave and stretch and ferment scents of heliotrope wafting in the evening breeze, visions of marbled colonnades draped in trumpet vines and jungle creepers, dripping mists flowing off a still river in the morning over a boat moored in the harbor, and the swish of silks across the cool-tiled silence of a sleeping chamber. I will always enjoy coming back to his works.

I also find the parallels interesting here, between Dunsany's concept of "those little cottages on the edge of the fields we know whose upper windows, though dim with antique cobwebs, look out on the fields we know not and are the starting-point of all adventure in all the Lands of Dream," and J.R.R. Tolkien's early concept of a Cottage of Lost Play (Mar Vanwa Tyaliéva), which served as something of a transition between the world of men and the world of fantasy, where Eriol learns of the tales of the elves. Tolkien was writing these early concepts, eventually abandoned, between 1916 and 1920, after Dunsany's 1910 publishing of A Dreamer's Tales and its "Idle Days on the Yann", and the 1912 publishing of its two sequel stories expanding on the cottage concept (republished as part of this collection in England in 1920).

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tales of Three Hemispheres was first published by John W. Luce in the USA in 1919. It was the first book by Lord Dunsany to be published initially in the United States. The British first edition was published a year later by T. Fisher Unwin.

Tales of Three Hemispheres is the eighth volume of fantasy stories by Lord Dunsany. It comes oddly after Dunsany has already left the realm of fantasy with his two volumes of First World War stories, Tales of War and Unhappy Far-off Things. It reads to me as a farewell nod by Dunsany towards the first phase of his writing career, which started with The Gods of Pegāna. Dunsany will never again write whimsical, poetical fantasy, as he did in the years leading up to the First World War. Moreover, Dunsany does not collaborate with his illustrator Sidney H. Sime for this book, and the book seems to be lacking thereby.

The book consists of two parts. The first half contains stories that lean towards Dunsany's new style, witty raconteur of tall tales; the second half recalls the glorious poetic fantasy of early books like A Dreamer's Tales. The three stories in the second half, under the subtitle "Beyond the Fields We know," are "Idle Days on the Yann" (reprinted from A Dreamer's Tales), "A Shop in Go-By Street," and "The Avenger of Perdóndaris."

While they are different in style from the "classical" Dunsany of the early years of the twentieth century, the stories in the first half still display flashes of his magic. "A Pretty Quarrel," for example, is pure fantasy, although perhaps still lacking some of Dunsany's poetical flair. The best part of the book for me is the three stories beginning with "Idle Days on the Yann."

"Idle Days on the Yann" and the other two stories in the second half are set "Beyond the Fields We Know, in the Land of Dream" (p. 69). The first story takes the protagonist straight to the valley of the Yann, and the explanation of how he got there from the Fields We Know only comes later, when he is planning to return. In both "A Shop in Go-by Street" and "The Avenger of Perdóndaris," Dunsany gives explicit instructions at the outset on how to reach the Lands of Dream. Go-By Street is little street that is easy to miss, off the Strand in London; Go-By Street contains a small, out-of-the-way shop operated by a "dreamer":

"Then shall time never slay the gods," I said. And he [the dreamer] answered, "They shall die beside the bedside of the last man. Then Time shall go mad in his solitude and shall not know his hours from his centuries of years and they shall clamour round him crying for recognition and he shall lay his stricken hands on their heads and stare at them blindly and say, 'My children, I do not know you one from another,' and at these words of Time empty worlds shall reel." (p. 108)

The dreamer directs the protagonist through a secret backdoor to some cottages on the Edge of the World. Through the windows on one side of these cottages,

I looked at once toward the mountains of faëry; the afterglow of the sunset flamed on them, their avalanches flashed on their violet slopes coming down tremendous from eternal peaks of ice; and there was the old gap in the blue-grey hills above the precipice of amethyst whence one sees the Lands of Dream. (p. 111)

(In "The Long Porter's Tale” from A Dreamer’s Tales, the Edge of the World is reached by train from Victoria Station in London; in Tales of Three Hemispheres the route is through the back of a shop in Go-By Street, somewhere off the Strand in London.)

The protagonist never does re-encounter the "Bird of the River" and her captain from "Idle Days on the Yann," neither in "A Shop in Go-By Street" nor in "The Avenger of Perdóndaris." Time operates differently in the Lands of Dream. Instead, he participates in a party in the ivory palace in the Lands of Dream, to celebrate the triumph of Singanee over the creature that destroyed Perdóndaris in "Idle Days on the Yann."

Our protagonist gains easy access to this exclusive party in the Lands of Dream once he explains, "I was well known to Mung and Sish and Kib, the gods of Pegana, whose signs I made." These three, respectively, are Pegāna's gods of Death, Time, and Life. Dunsany rarely mentions Pegāna explicitly after Time and the Gods (though in at least one later story he does refer to Mung).

It seems to me that Dunsany is circling back to his fantasy beginnings, with the strong reference to Pegāna and its gods. Perhaps he means it as a farewell to the fantasy of his youth. He is in his early 40's now, having come through the First World War. Dunsany's short stories in future will be dominated by his witty raconteur style, largely through the character of Jorkens. Dunsany will still write 14 novels, including one of the greatest of all fantasy novels, The King of Elfland's Daughter; and he will publish eight volumes of poetry, several more volumes of collected plays, and three volumes of autobiography. His career is still developing, and he has much to write.

Dunsany finishes "The Avenger of Perdóndaris," and perhaps the whole of his early career of whimsical, poetical fantasy, with the words,

... and I determined to walk, as soon as I was rested, in all the streets that I knew and to call on all the people that I had ever met, and to be content for long with the fields we know. (p. 147)

Dunsany seems to be telling us directly of his intention to leave the style of his early fantasy. Much of what he will go on to write is good enough, but with the exception of The King of Elfland's Daughter he will never again repeat the brilliance and originality of his little tales from the Lands of Dream.

[Susana Sussmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se trata de una colección de catorce cuentos que van desde la fantasía onírica hasta la narrativa poética. Son muy cortos y de calidades variables. Me gustó un poco menos que otros libros de este autor, porque a veces la lectura se me hacía difícil. No sé si es porque realmente lo sea o porque estoy en una etapa en la cual estoy bajo mucho estrés y tal vez me cuesta concentrarme un poco más de los normal. Debo mencionar que aquí hay tres cuentos que forman una historia mayor, sobre un soñador que viaja en tres ocasiones a la Tierra de los Sueños, antecedente de la que luego crearía Lovecraft.

[Forked Radish]

"The Last Dream of Bwana Khubla":
"How the Office of the Postman Fell Vacant in Oxford-Under-the-Wold"
"The Prayer of Boob Aheera"
"East and West": rated separately
"A Petty Quarrel"
"How the Gods Avenged Meoul ki Ning"
"The Gift of the Gods"
"A Sack of Emeralds"
"The Old Brown Coat"
"An Archive of Older Mysteries"
"A City of Wonder":
"Beyond the Fields We Know"
Publisher's Note:
First Tale: "Idle Days on the Yann" (see "A Dreamer's Tales")
Second Tale: "A Shop in Go-By Street"
Third Tale: "The Avenger of Perdónaris"

[Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesante colección de cuentos de Dunsany, que mantiene las atmósferas orientales, con tintes de sueño que caracteriza al autor. Es un buen complemento a los Cuentos de un Soñador, obra en la que el autor desarrolla su estilo de forma más plena.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last story collection of Lord Dunsany I will be reading this month (I still have two novels and some plays), this contains fifteen tales, including Idle Days on the Yann from A Dreamer's Tales and two sequels to that.

[Joe Gola]

The final three stories, “Beyond the Fields We Know”, are the best.

[Andrew James Jiao · Rating 5 out of 5]

The section at the latter part of the book he calls Beyond the Fields We Know is beyond remarkable. It includes three short tales that should be read as three chapters of a story: Idle Days on the Yann, A Shop in Go-By Street, and The Avenger of Perdondaris. The first tale, Idle Days on the Yann is part of one of his earlier short story collections, A Dreamer's Tales. In these three tales, the narrator (The Dreamer), tells of his journeys between the "Fields We Know" and the "Lands of Dream".

"It is perfectly clear that Time moves over the Lands of Dream swifter or slower than over the fields we know. For the dead, and the long dead, live again in our dreams; and a dreamer passes through the events of days in a single moment of the Town-Hall's clock."
- from The Avenger of Perdondaris

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro de cuentos cortos, en el que lo mejor a mi gusto es la serie de más allá del mundo conocido, donde el protagonista viaja por un mundo onírico donde el tiempo se mueve a un ritmo diferente al de la realidad. Lord Dunsany es un pilar de la novela de fantasía y de los pioneros del genero de espada y hechicería,

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

All about evoking a feeling. Very good at it, but if you're not in the mood for mysterious wonder you might not enjoy it.

[Alex]

False

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic tales by Lord Dunsany...

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an audiobook from LibriVox.

https://librivox.org/tales-of-three-h...

[Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relatos de gran poder evocador.