The Selected Tales of E. T. A. Hoffmann, 2 ½ inches tall, published by Del Prado in 2003. E. T. A. Hoffman was an early German gothic fiction writer. Some of his stories would inspire the opera “The Tales of Hoffmann” by Jacques Offenbach. Two of those stories are included in this edition, “The Sand-Man” and “The Cremona Violin”, along with “The Deserted House” and “The History of Krakatuk”. Hoffmann is also know for writing “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, on which Tchaikovsky’s ballet is based.
I just love the way my little wooden fellow’s poses came out here.
I came across episode 98 again. It strikes a chord with me, mostly because E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Der Sandmann is one of my favorite books that I had to read for school. The language is great and it is as creepy as it is hilariously over the top. I illustrated one of the scenes back in school and did it and some more again during my Bachelor years. It was such fun.
Also some Maxwell Rayner here: One has I imagined him from Basira’s statement and one for how he is described in the statement from episode 89.
—————————————- [image descriptions: 1) The image is a digital charcoal drawing. In an long, oval shape it depicts a tall figure, with lengthened features looming over two people, a man and a woman lying in a bed. A stream of blackness is gushing out of the figures mouth. In what might be his hands it his holding the edge of a black shape, which melts with the surrounding darkness. The man is propped up on his arms, staring up at the figure, while his wife sleeps peacefully next to him.
2) It is a digital painting in light blues, greys and dirty yellows, showing a creature with a humanoid body and a bird’s head feeding its sharp-beaked bird brood an eyeball. The creature is dressed in a long 17th century frock-coat and wears a wig on its head. In one hand it holds a small string bag. In the background clouds are shifting in front of a moon.
3) This portrait of Rayner shows him as a black middle-aged man, with a collar that hints hat victorian times. His hair is streaked with grey, his eyes are completely white. He too is lit from the front, black shadowy tendrils are staring to envelope him from below.
4) The head of the People’s Church of the Divine Host is depicted as a white old, thin man, wearing a dusty, black robe and being surrounded by darkness in shadow and dark specs hanging in the air. He is lit from the front and slightly from below, the light shining on his white, cloud-like hair and beard, his milky white eyes and a stream of blackness flowing out of his open mouth.]
I read a list recently of the 25 greatest fantasy novels. The vast majority of books on the list were first published in the last 20 years. Now while it’s unlikely that the fantasy published in the last two decades represents 90% or more of the best fantasy of all time, it is understandable why this list appeared as it did; most of the stuff readers buy is new stuff, so there’s a bias toward that. There is of course the angle that the literature that is published now builds upon all that has come before it so has the advantage of a good palette of colours. However, fantasy, being the oldest form of literature is an incredibly rich and varied canon, and it would be a shame to think that not enough people are digging deeper.
As rare booksellers we generally look for books that have contributed to the cultural landscape. It helps us feel that our job is more than just buying and selling. Most books from the last couple of decades haven’t had the chance to contribute fully, or rather their contribution hasn’t yet been fully realised. So the majority of our stock is pre-21st-century. There are some exceptions where the cultural impact is undeniable (Pratchett, Martin, King, Rowling) or where the books have helped progress the variety and strength of the canon (Hobb, Mieville, Abercrombie), but on the whole the fantasy literature we deem ‘important’ has had at least a generation to permeate the cultural membrane.
Of course, important and great aren’t necessarily the same and it takes a lifetime to reconcile the two. A lot of the time we read what we feel is entertaining, because we aren’t always interested in how it impacted the canon. There’s nothing wrong with that. But at the same time, there is a lot of important writing out there that is great (there is also important writing that’s bloody boring). I’m thinking of writers like William Morris, E.T.A. Hoffman, E.R. Eddison, Edmund Spenser, Thomas Malory, and pieces such as Beowulf, Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, The Mabinogion. These are writers and works that have had an incalculable influence on the books of the last 20 years, and continue to do so.
I am slightly biased toward this area of fantasy because these are the scarcer items and these are the items that collectors buy because of their importance within the canon, so they are good stock. But at the same time, in my research and reading I’ve found these to be great and entertaining reads. So I thought I’d write some pieces based around rare books and important works of speculative fiction (i.e. fantasy, science fiction and horror) that are more often seen in university libraries than in the Waterstone’s fantasy section.
I’ll be looking at publication history, cultural impact, various rarities, reading strategies and I encourage you to comment too because I imagine many of you have much more experience in these areas than I do. Many of the books will be new books we’ve just acquired, and many we’ll have little knowledge of, so it will be a learning experience. And if just one of you picks up We’ll start by looking at S. Fowler Wright's The Riding of Lancelot.
