The Worm Ouroboros - Softcover

E. R. Eddison

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486447405 ISBN 13: 9780486447407

Publisher: Dover Publications, 2006

Synopsis

An eccentric masterpiece -- Ursula K. LeGuin
A new climate of the imagination -- C. S. Lewis
A masterpiece -- James Stephens
This is the book that shaped the landscape of contemporary science fiction and fantasy. When The Lord of the Rings first appeared, the critics inevitably compared it to this 1922 landmark work. Tolkien himself frankly acknowledged its influence, with warm praise for its imaginative appeal. The story of a remote planet's great war between two kingdoms, it ranks as the Iliad of heroic fantasy.
In the best traditions of Homeric epics, Norse sagas, and Arthurian myths, author E. R. Eddison weaves a compelling adventure, with a majestic, Shakespearean narrative style. His sweeping tale recounts battles between warriors and witches on fog-shrouded mountaintops and in the ocean's depths -- along with romantic interludes, backroom intrigues, and episodes of direst treachery. Generations of readers have joyfully lost themselves in the timeless worlds of The Worm Ouroboros. This new edition, magnificently illustrated with the classic original images, continues the enchantment.

About this title

Review

In 1922, Eddison published his first novel The Worm Ourobouros, a novel of daring adventures and dastardly treachery set in a never-never-land on Mercury; his four novels channelled the evolution of genre fantasy, not least by being much admired by both Lewis and Tolkien. The gallant and noble lords of Demonland are threatened by an assortment of villains--the various kings Gorice of Witchland and the thuggish generals of their court, aided and abetted by the compulsively treacherous Lord Gro; Gro is one of the more fascinating villains in fantasy: charismatic, intelligent, sensitive and flawed. Eddison was obsessed with the poetry and prose of the Elizabethan era--not trusting his own poetic skills, he simply has his characters quote sonnets and epigrams and ballads, some of them famous; when his characters deliver heroic defiance or counsel betrayal, it is always in a rhetoric that for once sounds like what the characters of a heroic age might say. What makes The Worm Ourobouros a classic fantasy is, quite simply, that it has some of the best battle scenes, some of the more terrifying scenes of magic and some of the most tender love scenes that the genre has ever achieved--it is nice to have it back again. --Roz Kaveney

Book Description

A glorious, lush tale of a great war for domination set on a planet of spectacular beauty

Edition details

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0486447405
• ISBN 13: 9780486447407
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Keith Henderson
• Number of pages: 445