General Fiction – Allende, Ariosto, Banville, Barnes & Bedford

To resume…

Back to general fiction and to begin -  two volumes by Isobel Allende. You may have noticed that I haven’t posted her most famous novel The House of the Spirits. That is because my original paperback copy of the book went missing and to replace it I bought (second hand) a movie edition – pretty boring, so I’m not showing it here.

The below editions are Eva Luna in an uncorrected proof edition and The Stories of Eva Luna in a  Penguin edition. 

Next a book, that crazily was popular in the 1970s as a result of the Ballantine  Adult Fantasy Series. I do believe that there was a Ballantine edition of Orlando Furioso
by Ludovico Ariosto, but this edition was  published by Oxford University Press in1974.

John Banville won the Booker Prize for his novel The Sea in 2005, but the two below novels are much earlier. Kepler is part of his Revolutions series and is an imaginative biography of Johannes Kepler the German mathematician and astronomer. Birchwood is an odd sort of book, a tale of decadence and decay set in a dilapidated Irish Manor.

Julian Barnes wonderful novel Arthur and George was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005.  It is described on his website as “A novel about low crime and high spirituality; guilt and innocence; identity, nationality and race; and thwarted passion.” and contains an illuminating character study of Arthur Conan Doyle, who is indeed the Arthur of the title.

And finally for tonight, my small collection of Sybille Bedford novels.

Next – more general fiction.

The Fantasy Novels of Thomas Burnett Swann

Cat Rambo, guest blogging on Jeff VanderMeer’s Ecstatic Days, recently mentioned the novels of Thomas Burnett Swann and I recalled that I had quite a collection of them on my fantasy bookshelf.

Thomas Burnett Swann is virtually unknown these days but many of his fantasy novels were published in the heady days of the 1970s. Though I really can’t recall the substance of his novels, I do remember liking his books a lot. They had a gentle quality about them – as Cat Rambo says, they were NICE. Perhaps they are not to everyone’s taste, but were a pleasant interlude in some OTHERWHERE in ancient Greece maybe, with fauns and other mythological creatures.

Below is my collection of Thomas Burnett Swann books, in various paperback editions with cover illustrations by various artists.

The above books all have cover art and illustrations by George Barr

These editions published by Mayflower Books UK 1975
Cover art by Brian Froud

Wolf Winter published by Ballantine 1972- cover art by Gene Szafran
Tournament of Thorns - Ace 1976 - cover artist not credited.

A blurb from the back of the Tournament of Thorns by Theodore Sturgeon says:
"He writes blissfully and beautifully separated from trend and fashion"

And finally two short story collections...

Both books published by Ace.

Coming next - James Branch Cabell.

Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series - Part 5

Finally, I've reached the end of my collection of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series with this mish mash of single volumes.

Firstly, Poul Anderson's Broken Sword about which I can't remember a thing, and Red Moon And Black Mountain by Joy Chant, which I remember being quite an engaging young adult fantasy where three teenagers are transported to another world with the purpose of saving it from an evil destiny.

Then there's Excalibur, an Arthurian fantasy by Sanders Anne Laubenthal and the fabulously strange Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay.

Finally The Shaving of Shagpat, a middle eastern fantasy by George Meredith and the The Blue Star by Fletcher Pratt. This edition is not really in the Ballantine series, though originally an earlier edition was.

An lastly, another collection of fantasy stories edited by Lin Carter, Golden Cities Far.

Coming next, more paperback fantasy, when I have had time to scan them for your visual pleasure.

Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series - Part 4

I'm drawing to an end with my collection of the Ballantine Fantasy Series, so this will be the second last entry on the topic.

Katherine Kurtz first Deryni Series was published by Ballantine from 1971 to 1973. Camber of Culdi is not strictly speaking part of the Adult Fantasy series, but I'll put the cover up anyway to balance the display. I can't remember much about this series other than they had some pretty good battles of magic.

Also Ballantine published several books by James Branch Cabell. I remember loving the urbane witty and irreverent prose of Cabell. I really must read them again. I have two Ballantine editions of his books, but I have more in Del Ray editions which I'll get to later.

And finally for this entry, two fantasy novels by George Macdonald. His books, though of a Christian bent, are quite weird nonetheless.

Next- the remainder of my BAF collection ...

Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series - Part 3

This entry will cover books in the Lost Race genre of fantasy - writers such as H Rider Haggard and C J Cutliffe Hyne. There is a great site by Jessica Amanda Salmonson called Violet Books which covers this sort of fantasy and other odd stuff.

As well as Lost Race literature, the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series also published several short story collections, edited by Lin Carter.

And to end this entry, two books by H Warner Munn.

Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series - Part 2

Here for you delectation are more covers from the fabulous Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.

Firstly, Evangeline Walton's retelling of the Mabinogian in her series of four books.

Then there are the strange fantasies of E R Eddison. I haven't read any of these books for over 30 years so I can't remember much about their contents. The only image that has stayed with me through the years is Florinda (?) in Fish Dinner at Memison leaning forward and pricking the bubble of fantasy with a pin. Whether this is actually in the book or not, I can't say.

A few solitary novels from various authors...

One of the rarest of the Adult Fantasies is G K Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday - a bizarre novel involving anarchists and a secret society whose members are known by days of the week.

And Hope Mirrlees wonderful Lud-in-the Mist - a delightful fairy tale and her best known novel.

Enough for tonight, or else the post won't load from Live Writer which is my preferred way of composing blog entries these days.

There are more in this series to come...