The Wood Beyond the World (Wildside Fantasy) - Softcover

Morris, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1587152142 ISBN 13: 9781587152146

Publisher: Wildside Press, 2005

Synopsis

"In The Wood Beyond the World, a sea voyage separates the more fantastic realms from the hero Walter's mundane home town, though the land of the Wood sends visions even there--of the land's witchy Mistress, her enslaved Maid, and a hideous, savagely energetic dwarf servitor. . . . Walter defies all advice and reason, abandons his fellows, and sets off through mountains and wastes to the Wood where he can meet the mysterious three . . . the stage is set for triangular games of love and power." -- David Langford "C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien both acknowledged the influence of William Morris." -- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy "No mountains in literature are as far away as the distant mountains of Morris." -- C.S. Lewis "With his epochal novels of the 1880s, William Morris established the tradition of the tale set in a completely imaginary world of the author's own invention." -- Lin Carter

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: Wildside Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1587152142
• ISBN 13: 9781587152146
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 118