Мартин Гринберг - My Favorite Fantasy Story

Jean Ingelow (1820-1897) wrote fantasy that many critics of her time labeled feminist, but she was writing for children, not just girls, and a closer examination of her fiction reveals this. She created a haunting, evocative wonderland that was at once eerie yet captivating, quite unlike the worlds of L. Frank Baum or Lewis Carroll. In "Mopsa the Fairy" she examines one possible permutation of a very unstereotypical fairy princess.

Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986) got his start in the pulps, contributing science fiction and horror tales to Weird Tales and Astounding Stories in 1927. He is best known for his fantasy stories involving paranormal investigators, the most famous of which are his stories set in the Apalachian mountains featuring John the Balladeer, a wandering minstrel who battles evil with the help of magic and his silver-stringed guitar. While he wrote more than twenty adult novels, his largest body of work was in children's novels, with dozens of books published. His work was honored by critics and audiences alike, and he won awards as diverse as the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, the American Association of Local Historians Award of Merit, and the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement.

Robert Bloch (1917-1994) is remembered as the writer of the book Psycho, the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's famous film of the same name. He got his start writing stories for pulp magazines such as Weird Tales, Fantastic Adventures, and Unknown. Later in his career he wrote the novels American Gothic, Firebug, and Fear and Trembling, among many others. He also edited several anthologies, including Psycho-paths and Monsters in Our Midst.

M. John Harrison began his writing career as a critic for the magazine New Worlds in the late 1960s. He has since published several novels of lyrical fantasy about the city of Virconium, including The Pastel City, and A Storm of Wings, as well as three collections of short stories and several other non-series novels, including Luck in the Head and Signs of Life. He was also a regular contributor to the New Manchester Review in the late 1970s. He lives in London, England.

Influenced by the novels of H. G. Wells, the theme of humans dealing with catastrophe is prominent in the work of John Wyndham (1903-1969). The novel Day of the Triffids is his best-known work dealing with this subject. Alien invasion, telepathy, mutation, and fantastic events occurring in everyday life are also explored in his work, usually as the catalyst for change in the Earth of his novels.

As one of the leading novelists of his age, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) helped legitimize the literary use of horror and the supernatural in such novels as The Pickwick Papers and Bleak House, and the unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood. He also popularized the concept of the Christmas ghost story with his seminal work A Christmas Carol. He is also remembered for his mainstream novels, including Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and Great Expectations.

Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) burst onto the science-fiction writing scene as part of the "New Wave" group of writers in the mid to late 1960s. His novels This Immortal and Lord of Light met universal praise, the latter winning a Hugo Award for best novel. His work is notable for its lyrical style and innovative use of language both in description and dialogue. His most recognized series is the Amber novels, about a parallel universe which is the one true world, with all others, Earth included, being mere reflections of his created universe. Besides the Hugo, he was also awarded three Nebulas, three more Hugos, and two Locus Awards.

1. 'And… more' Ingelow's own verses head chapters 1,3,4,6,8,9,12 and 16

2. albatrosssea-bird associated with the imagination ever since Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798)

3. Will-o'-the-wispSee note 17

4. gannetsnorthern sea birds

5. flamingoesCarroll's Alice used flamingoes as mallets in the croquet game in which soldiers formed arches

6. pannierscarrying baskets placed on horses or mules

7. water-snakecf. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." lines 272-73

8. Othello II.iv.62-66

9. turnipThe baby whom the duchess flings with similar abandon in Alice in Wonderland also turns out to be no real child.

10. haycockSee note 6

11. Cloughfrom Clough's Dipsychus, act 1, scene iv

12. The TempestIII.ii.144-45

13. and so… for another dayThe apple-woman's rationale for not wanting to return to her human world bears comparing with the reasons adduced by the captive slave woman in Ewing's "Amelia and the Dwarfs."

14. But Fate… reigns here.The words "fay" and "fairy" actually do derive from the Latin fata or fate, a connection Ingelow will exploit in her later characterization of old Mother Fate and her daughters.

15. Guelder rose treewhite-flowered bush, also called "snowball"

16. CrakenThe sea-monster of Scandinavian mythology was the subject of Tennyson's short poem "The Kraken" (1830).

17. Laverock in the LiftSky-larks (known as "lavericks" in the North) are noted for their airy acrobatic lifts.

18. rasped rollsbreakfast buns with a rough exterior

19. As You Like it II.iv.15-18

20. costs him allOrpheus, the son of a Muse, managed to rescue his wife Eurydice through the power of his lyre, but lost her by looking back at Hades before they had reached the safety of the upper world.

21. wedding feastJack fails to see that the "ridiculous" song is directed at himself; the nursery rhyme is intended to remind Jack of "Jenny," the name he is trying to repress, and to prepare him for his displacement.