One of the things I love about The King of Elfland's Daughter is that, for most of the book, none of the characters have any agency. It's not that I'm against characters having agency, but lazy critics so often tend to reach for it as a point of criticism nowadays that it's kind of glorious to read a novel in which all characters, mortal and faerie ( Read more... )

I'm about halfway through The King of Elfland's Daughter, a 1924 novel by Lord Dunsany. It's good. Like a lot of great fantasy literature, its author shows good instincts for what he should linger on and what he should breeze through quickly ( Read more... )