The fantastic, the supernatural, the poetic, and the macabre entwine in this incomparable culmination of storytelling. Imaginative stories of wit and intelligence weave through vivid landscapes that are alternately wondrous and terrifying. As major literary figures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—from Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Edith Wharton to Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde—these masters of English and American literature created unforgettable tales where goblins and imps comingle with humans from all walks of life.
This deftly curated assemblage of notable classics and unexpected gems from the pre-Tolkien era will captivate and enchant readers. Forerunners of today’s speculative fiction, these are the authors that changed the fantasy genre forever.
“From the evocative images of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’ and Lord Byron's ‘Darkness’ to Mark Twain's devil tale, ‘The Mysterious Stranger’ and Max Beerbohm's devil plus time travel fantasy, ‘Enoch Soames,’ the 44 stories and poems in this compilation of fantastic literature provides a solid grounding in the development of the genre. Because most of the writers are ‘mainstream’ rather than genre authors, this collection also makes a good case for fantasy as literature, while the presence of Edgar Allan Poe, H.G. Wells and Lord Dunsany alongside Edith Wharton, Emily Dickinson, and E.M. Forster breaks down the barrier between literary and genre fiction. VERDICT: This is an important collection for all lovers of fantasy and literature.”
—Library Journal
“The Treasury of the Fantastic truly is a treasury of wonderful stories…Turns out there's not a dud to be found.”
—F&SF
"A marvelous mix of classics and rarely seen works, bibliophile's finds and old favorites....a treasury in every sense and a treasure!"
-Connie Willis, author of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog
“The Treasury of the Fantastic is an amazing…marvellous collection. I love the romanticism of early fantasy, it is very different to the type of fantasy we read now, and yet you can see all the seeds and sparks that inspire much of today’s fantasy. The Treasury of the Fantastic is an anthology that easily fits in on your book shelf.”
—Fantasy Book Review
"The fantasy tradition in English and American literature is rich and varied and strange. This is the book to read to find out what you never knew you needed to know."
—David G. Hartwell, editor of the Year's Best Fantasy series
“It was an absolute delight to see so [many] of these authors collected here and finding new treasures I hadn’t realized really fell into the realm of fantasy.”
—Tabitha Perkins, My Shelf Confessions
“The Treasury of the Fantastic is truly that, a comprehensive collection of fantastical literature from throughout the many years covering the romanticism era to the early twentieth century.... an exquisitely curated collection....”
—The Arched Doorway
