Short History in Fantasy, 2nd by Farah Mendlesohn

Short History in Fantasy, 2nd by Farah Mendlesohn

Some of the earliest books written - The Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Odyssey - are fantasy, dealing with monsters, marvels, extraordinary voyages and magic. Fantasy remained an essential part of European literature until the rise of the modern realist novel. But even then fantasy remained popular, in the guise of Gothic horror, the ghost story, the fairytale and stories of imaginary worlds: it was in part a reaction to the Enlightenment, to realism and to industrialisation. This book traces the history of fantasy from the earliest years through to the origins of modern fantasy in the twentieth century. From the 1950s (when Tolkien published The Lord of the Rings and Lewis published the Narnia books) the story is dealt with decade by decade. In the 1980s, fantasy earned its own section in bookshops in the English-speaking world and beyond, and by the end of the 1990s, fantasy writers such as Terry Pratchett and J.K. Rowling had become the best-selling writers in Britain, while Tolkien was a best-seller in all the major languages of the world. A Short History of Fantasy explores the great variety of fiction published under the heading 'fantasy' in the twenty-first century, and also seeks to explain its continuing and growing popularity.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781907471667
ISBN 10	1907471669
Title	Short History in Fantasy, 2nd
Author	Farah Mendlesohn
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Libri Publishing
Year published	2012-06-27
Number of pages	296
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.