Fantastic Worlds Myths, Tales, and Stories

by Rabkin, Eric S.

• ISBN13: 9780195025415
• ISBN10: 0195025415
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1979-06-07
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

As the first international anthology to cover the entire scope of fantastic narrative, Fantastic Worlds presents over fifty tales, myths, and stories, ranging from Genesis to Ovid, Hans Christian Andersen to J.R.R. Tolkien, Edgar Allan Poe to James Thurber, and Franz Kafka to Italo Calvino. Including tales of fairies and elves, ghost stories, high fantasy, and stories of social criticism and the conflict between science and religion, this volume presents a diverse selection of writings that all share the same capacity to liberate the human spirit through the wild mental acrobatics of fantasy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. v
Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. 3
The Sources of the Fantastic	p. 27
The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis King James Version	p. 41
Myth	p. 41
The Blackfoot Genesis	p. 47
The Eye of the Giant	p. 53
How I Brought Death into the World	p. 56
The Myth of Actaeon Ovid	p. 62
The Myth of Narcissus	p. 66
The Myth of Philomela	p. 72
The Ghost Wife	p. 80
Folktale	p. 80
The Magic Swan Geese	p. 82
Why Tortoise's Shell Is Not Smooth	p. 84
How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox	p. 87
Paul Bunyan on the Columbia	p. 89
Fairy Tale	p. 96
Little Red-Cap	p. 96
The Sleeping Beauty	p. 100
Hansel and Grethel	p. 104
The Tinderbox	p. 112
The Tale of Cosmo	p. 120
Leaf by Niggle	p. 141
The Diversity of Fantastic Literature	p. 161
Our Ideas of Time	p. 175
Fantasy	p. 175
Ritter Gluck: A Recollection from the Year 1809	p. 179
The Oval Portrait	p. 190
The Garden of Live Flowers	p. 194
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	p. 202
The Royal Banquet	p. 208
Horror Fiction	p. 214
The Sandman	p. 214
The Black Cat	p. 247
The Picture in the House	p. 257
The Hand	p. 266
Ghost Stories	p. 266
The Moonlit Road	p. 274
Lost Hearts	p. 284
Golden Wings	p. 294
Heroic Fantasy	p. 294
The Sword of Welleran	p. 311
The Five Black Swans	p. 325
Science Fiction	p. 333
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar	p. 333
The Birthmark	p. 343
The Star	p. 360
Epicac	p. 372
The Third Level	p. 380
The Star	p. 385
Modern Fantasy	p. 393
The Judgment	p. 399
A Common Confusion	p. 410
Cockroaches	p. 411
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote	p. 415
Axolotl	p. 424
Pastoral	p. 430
All at One Point	p. 438
There Is No Such Place as America	p. 443
The Piano Player	p. 450
Homage to the San Francisco YMCA	p. 453
The Marker	p. 456
The Zebra Storyteller	p. 460
Annotated Bibliography	p. 463
Index	p. 475
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.