Time And The Gods, Lord Dunsany
Time And The Gods, Lord Dunsany
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Time And The Gods

Author: Lord Dunsany

Narrator: Matthew Schmitz

Unabridged: 3 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/08/2024


Synopsis

Brought to you by Altrusian Grace Media and narrated by Matthew Schmitz. TIME AND THE GODS is the second book by Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, considered a major influence on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le Guin, and others. It is a collection of short stories linked by Dunsany's invented pantheon of deities who dwell in Pegāna. It was preceded by his earlier collection The Gods of Pegāna and followed by some stories in The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories. Dunsany included a brief preface in the original edition and added a new introduction to the 1922 edition. "Preface" "Time and the Gods" "The Coming of the Sea" "A Legend of the Dawn" "The Vengeance of Men" "When the Gods Slept" "The King That Was Not" "The Cave of Kai" "The Sorrow of Search" "The Men of Yarnith" "For the Honour of the Gods" "Night and Morning" "Usury" "Mlideen" "The Secret of the Gods" "The South Wind" "In the Land of Time" "The Relenting of Sardinac" "The Jest of the Gods" "The Dreams of the Prophet" "The Journey of the King" The book was first published in hardcover by William Heinemann in September, 1906, and has been reprinted a number of times since. It was issued by the Modern Library in an unauthorized combined edition with The Book of Wonder under the latter's title in 1918. The book was illustrated by Dunsany's preferred artist Sidney Sime, who provided ten full-page black and white illustrations, the originals of which are still at Dunsany Castle. These were present in the 1906 and 1922 editions, not in the unauthorized collections and not in most modern reproductions. The title is thought to have been influenced by Algernon Swinburne, who wrote the line "Time and the Gods are at strife" in his 1866 poem "Hymn to Proserpine".

About Lord Dunsany

Lord Dunsany was born in London in 1878, the scion of an Anglo-Irish family that could trace its ancestry to the twelfth century. In 1905 he self-published The Gods of Pegana, and its critical and popular success impelled the publication of numerous other collections of short stories, including A Dreamer's Tales, The Book of Wonder, and The Last Book of Wonder. Dunsany also distinguished himself as a dramatist, and his early plays-collected in Five Plays and Plays of Gods and Men-were successful in Ireland, England, and the United States. Dunsany was seriously injured during the Dublin riots of 1916, and he also saw action in World War I as a member of the Coldstream Guards.

In the 1920s Dunsany began writing novels, among them The King of Elfland's Daughter and The Blessing of Pan. He also wrote many tales of the loquacious clubman Joseph Jorkens, eventually collected in five volumes. His later plays include If, Plays of Near and Far, Seven Modern Comedies, and Plays for Earth and Air. By the 1930s, encouraged by W. B. Yeats and others to write about his native Ireland, he produced The Curse of the Wise Woman, The Story of Mona Sheehy, and other novels. His later tales were gathered in The Man Who Ate the Phoenix and The Little Tales of Smethers, but many works remain uncollected. Lord Dunsany died at Dunsany Castle in County Meath, Ireland, in 1957. He is recognized as a leading figure in the development of modern fantasy literature, influencing such writers as J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, and Ursula K. Le Guin.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jonathan on December 25, 2013

Lord Dunsany is one of the most remarkable authors to have ever lived. If not in the way he wrote his prose, then in the way he lived his life as an adventure. And from this sense of adventure he developed a most remarkable perspective on the universe and fantasy. From this perspective he wrote a ne......more

Goodreads review by Fantasy boy on August 02, 2022

Lord Dunsany is one of influential fantasy writer in pre-Tolkien Period, and it has significant influence on Tolkien. After reading The Elf King's Daughter I must say such a beautiful written book beyond a shadow of doubt could influence later generation of excellent writers like Tolkien. Time and t......more

Goodreads review by Paulo "paper books only" on July 21, 2016

Well... Why give 3 stars and make it Favorite. Well, because not all stories within are excelent. Some are quite weak. But others... ulálá... They are masterpieces. They are the foundation of Fantasy. If Tolkien is considered as the father of Fantasy then Lord Dunsany is the Grandfather of it all. Th......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on May 08, 2013

Basically like The Gods of Pegana only moreso. Again, these are primarily vignettes or prose poems or fables rather than anything resembling more traditional stories -- those will start appearing in his next book, The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories. Again, filled with lovely King James prose an......more

Goodreads review by Nicky on November 15, 2013

I haven't read any Dunsany before, but I'm glad I finally got round to it. Having a whole collection of these stories was maybe a bit much to read in one go (ah, train journeys), but I did enjoy the world Dunsany created, and the mythic language he used to tell it. I should read more by and about Du......more