The Strange Journeys Of Colonel Polders

An inspiration to many for his style and prose, Lord Dunsany was a pioneer for fantasy fiction, inspiring such famous writers as H. P. Lovecraft, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Neil Gaiman to name a few. Over sixty years since its first publication, The Strange Journeys of Colonel Polders is now once again available to readers. In this classic fantasy, a no-nonsense British officer, having offended an Indian swami in his club, finds his spirit lodged into a successful of animal bodies. Some of the animals the officer’s spirit enters are a cat, goat, eel, fox, and many others. In his fantastic style, Dunsany captures the exact sentiments of each animal, making it believable that the office has, in fact, taken them as his own. Out of print for over sixty years, The Strange Journeys of Colonel Polders is a fantastic tale that takes you to the core of fantasy writing and shows the skill of Lord Dunsany that many writers hold in the absolute highest regard. A lost classic, The Strange Journeys of Colonel Polders is finally available for readers of the beloved fantasy genre. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

The leading critic of supernatural literature here examines the roots of the "weird tale" (as Lovecraft called it) through detailed examinations of five "founding fathers" of the genre: Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, and H.P. Lovecraft. The result is a thorough study of the art, craft, philosophy, and aesthetics of an enduring genre of fantastic literature.

The antecedents of fantasy literature extend back to the very beginnings of storytelling itself, but modern fantasy became recognizable as a distinct literary form only in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the publication of the novels of William Morris and the short stories of Lord Dunsany. The emphasis by these writers and their successors on ideal and sometimes less than ideal places and peoples who exist only in a realm of pure imagination laid the foundation for later works by J. R. R. Tolkien and many others. Book jacket.

A celebrated pioneer of fantasy fiction, the Irish writer and dramatist Lord Dunsany produced seminal works such as ‘The King of Elfland’s Daughter’, noted for their imaginative power and intellectual ingenuity. Dunsany achieved great fame and success with his early short stories and plays, conjuring mysterious kingdoms of fairies and gods in richly coloured prose, while promoting a characteristic element of the macabre. For the first time in publishing history, this comprehensive eBook presents Dunsany’s complete fictional works, with numerous illustrations, many rare texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 2) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Dunsany’s life and works * Concise introductions to the novels and other texts * All 13 novels, with individual contents tables * Features many rare novels appearing for the first time in digital publishing, including THE CHARWOMAN’S SHADOW and THE BLESSING OF PAN * Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the short stories * Includes all of the Jorkens short story collections published during Dunsany’s lifetime – please note: some of the posthumous tales cannot appear due to copyright restrictions. * Rare story collections available in no other eBook, including THE MAN WHO ATE THE PHOENIX * Easily locate the short stories you want to read * Dunsany’s scarce poetry collection, FIFTY POEMS, first time in digital print * Includes the two ‘Sirens’ autobiographies * Features a bonus biography – discover Dunsany’s literary life * Ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres * UPDATED with improved texts and more images CONTENTS: The Novels Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley (1922) The King of Elfland’s Daughter (1924) The Charwoman’s Shadow (1926) The Blessing of Pan (1927) The Curse of the Wise Woman (1933) Up in the Hills (1935) Rory and Bran (1936) My Talks with Dean Spanley (1936) The Story of Mona Sheehy (1939) Guerrilla (1944) The Strange Journeys of Colonel Polders (1950) The Last Revolution (1951) His Fellow Men (1952) The Jorkens Series The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens (1931) Jorkens Remembers Africa (1934) Jorkens Has a Large Whiskey (1940) The Fourth Book of Jorkens (1947) Jorkens Borrows Another Whiskey (1954) Other Short Story Collections The Gods of Pegana (1905) Time and the Gods (1906) The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories (1908) A Dreamer’s Tales (1910) The Book of Wonder (1912) Fifty-One Tales (1915) Tales of Wonder (1916) Tales of War (1918) Unhappy Far-Off Things (1919) Tales of Three Hemispheres (1919) The Man Who Ate the Phoenix (1949) The Little Tales of Smethers and Other Stories (1952) The Short Stories List of Short Stories in Chronological Order List of Short Stories in Alphabetical Order The Plays Five Plays (1914) Plays of Gods and Men (1917) If (1921) Plays of Near and Far (1922) Seven Modern Comedies (1928) Plays for Earth and Air (1937) The Poetry Collection Fifty Poems (1929) The Non-Fiction Nowadays (1918) The Autobiographies While the Sirens Slept (1944) The Sirens Wake (1945) The Biography Dunsany the Dramatist (1917) by Edward Hale Bierstadt

From the publication of his first book in 1905 until his death, Lord Dunsany (1878–1957) was an immensely popular Anglo-Irish writer. He has long been admired in the realms of fantasy, horror, and supernatural fiction and was a friend and colleague of writers W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, James Stephens, and Oliver St. John Gogarty. In recent years he has enjoyed a resurgence as a pioneering fantasy writer and an immense influence on later work in the genre. Critical Essays on Lord Dunsany is the first volume to assemble studies of Dunsany’s short fiction, novels, plays, and memoirs, as well as discussions of his influence on such writers as J. R. R. Tolkien and H. P. Lovecraft. The book also contains early articles and reviews by Yeats, Lovecraft, H. L. Mencken, Rebecca West, and Arthur C. Clarke. Seven original essays by leading contemporary scholars on Dunsany examine the use of medieval archetypes in his fantasy novels; the distinctiveness of his recurring character, clubman Joseph Jorkens; the influence of Don Quixote on his first novel, The Chronicles of Rodriguez (1922); the treatment of religion in his later novels; and other subjects. This anthology presents a comprehensive snapshot of Dunsany’s distinctive work and his contribution to fantasy fiction and world literature. Making a case for the continued study of this neglected but hugely influential writer, Critical Essays on Lord Dunsany will be of great interest to enthusiasts of Dunsany’s work as well as students and scholars of fantasy, horror, the supernatural, and Irish literature.