Wood Beyond the World - Softcover

Morris, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 048622791X ISBN 13: 9780486227917

Publisher: Dover Publications Inc., 2017

Synopsis

The name Kelmscott bears a legendary and magical sound among bibliophiles. When William Morris founded the Kelmscott Press in 1890, he combined his medieval craft ideals with his skills as one of Britain's most sophisticated, progressive designers. He achieved his goal -- the creation of books as beautiful as those of the Middle Ages -- by abandoning many of the commercial practices of his day. Morris designed types of great elegance and reintroduced color into the body of the page, adding life to the printed word.
Even if there were enough copies for everyone who wanted one, the cost of original Kelmscott books is prohibitively expensive. For this reason, Dover Publications has reissued one of Morris's most noteworthy books in a photographic facsimile that retains the enchantment of the original edition. More than an exquisitely produced book, The Wood Beyond the World ranks among the finest of Morris's prose-romances, a wonderful fantasy in a medieval setting, brimming with high adventure and flights of fancy. This superbly illustrated novel was among the first to combine reality and the supernatural, and it served as inspiration for J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and countless other fantasists.

About this title

Review:

“Robert Boenig's meticulously edited, beautifully annotated edition of William Morris’s late prose romance, The Wood Beyond the World, will satisfy any teacher or reader wanting to learn more about Morris’s preoccupations at the end of his life. Boenig’s introduction alone makes the edition necessary reading. The supplementary materials, ranging from Morris’s work on a translation of Beowulf to his essay on ‘The Socialist Ideal: Art,’ and works by contemporaries such as Marx, Ruskin, and Mallock, expand richly the ways in which this edition may be used.” — Barry Qualls, Rutgers University

“The first new scholarly edition in thirty years, and an admirable achievement.” — Robert Clark, University of East Anglia

"Robert Boenig's meticulously edited, beautifully annotated edition of William Morris's late prose romance, The Wood Beyond the World, will satisfy any teacher or reader wanting to learn more about Morris's preoccupations at the end of his life. Boenig's introduction alone makes the edition necessary reading. The supplementary materials, ranging from Morris's work on a translation of Beowulf to his essay on 'The Socialist Ideal: Art, ' and works by contemporaries such as Marx, Ruskin, and Mallock, expand richly the ways in which this edition may be used." -- Barry Qualls, Rutgers University

"The first new scholarly edition in thirty years, and an admirable achievement." -- Robert Clark, University of East Anglia

"Robert Boenig's meticulously edited, beautifully annotated edition of William Morris's late prose romance, The Wood Beyond the World, will satisfy any teacher or reader wanting to learn more about Morris's preoccupations at the end of his life. Boenig's introduction alone makes the edition necessary reading. The supplementary materials, ranging from Morris's work on a translation of Beowulf to his essay on 'The Socialist Ideal: Art, ' and works by contemporaries such as Marx, Ruskin, and Mallock, expand richly the ways in which this edition may be used." -- Barry Qualls, Rutgers University

"The first new scholarly edition in thirty years, and an admirable achievement." -- Robert Clark, University of East Anglia

From the Back Cover:

A groundbreaking fantasy novel, The Wood Beyond the World tells the story of a young man, Golden Walter, who finds himself in a strange and frightening world after being abandoned by his wife and lost at sea. The novel takes the form of Walter's quest for the visionary Maid that he sees at the beginning of his journey, and takes him from his failed marriage through temptation to emotional fulfillment. Set in Morris's imaginative recreation of a medieval world, the novel is full of vivid imagery and surprising emotional realism.

This edition collates for the first time the three early texts of the work. The introduction discusses the place of the book among Morris's other prose romances, the events of his life, and his activities as a visual artist and a socialist. The appendices provide excerpts from Morris's translation of Beowulf, other medieval texts read by Morris, and writings by his contemporaries on politics and aesthetics.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dover Publications Inc.
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 048622791X
• ISBN 13: 9780486227917
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 261