A Dreamer's Tales

Las historias de Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, o Lord Dunsany, como ha trascendido literariamente, tienen la virtud de ser intemporales. Creó un universo propio, rico en lenguaje, cuyo germen es lo fantástico y onírico. Ciudades prodigiosas, nombres fabulosos, evocadores, y una prosa cercana a la poesía, así como una gran imaginación, hacen de Lord Dunsany un escritor único. Incluso hay un término para referirse a este tipo de literatura, dunsaniana. Lovecraft, Tolkien o Borges son algunos escritores influenciados por el escritor irlandés.

Estos son los dieciséis relatos incluidos en “Cuentos de un soñador” (A Dreamer´s Tales, 1910):

- Poltarness, la que mira al mar
- Blagdaross
- Día de elecciones
- La locura de show more Andelsprutz
- En donde suben y bajan las mareas
- Bethmoora
- Días de ocio en el país del Yann
- La espada y el ídolo
- El hombre del hachís
- En Zaccarath
- La ciudad ociosa
- El campo
- El pobre Bill
- Carcasona
- Los mendigos
- El cuerpo feliz

De entre estos, los que más me gustaron fueron “En donde suben y bajan las mareas”, fascinante cuento sobre una maldición que se alarga durante siglos, y “Días de ocio en el país del Yann”, un viaje fascinante por el País de los Sueños y sus magníficas ciudades.

Esta no es una fantasía de espada y brujería, con acción a raudales. Este es un libro para degustar sin prisas, y recrearse en sus descripciones. show less

Che dire ancora di questo Maestro della letteratura fantastica?
Dreamer's tales per genere e tematiche non mi è apparso molto diverso da "The Sword of Welleran and other stories": racconti dalle atmosfere soffuse, quasi oniriche; storie allegoriche e profonde. Il fantasy di questi racconti non è un mondo di cui si possa tracciare una mappa, sono luoghi che non potrebbero mai esistere, ma che forse esistono dentro ognuno di noi: le terre di Toldees, Mondath e Arizim o il fiume Yann sono più stati dell'animo che non posti di cui si possa definire una geografia.

Un paio di osservazioni su due punti che ritengo interessanti:
- Carcassonne, nell'omonimo racconto, è una città irraggiungibile governata da una splendida e potente dama elfica, show more considerata una strega. Vi ricorda qualcosa? Questo per tutti quelli che blaterano che prima di Tolkien gli elfi erano solo i simpatici folletti burloni delle credenze popolari.

- The Madness of Andelsprutz racconta dell'anima di una città impazzita accolta dalle anime delle altre grandi città del passato, come Cartagine e Persepoli. Che diamine si fumava Dunsany per tirare fuori storie tanto fuori dagli schemi? Non ne ho idea, ma mi piacerebbe farmene dare un po'.

Cinque stelle e sono anche poche. L'inglese è un po' ostico, ma abbordabile.
Consigliato. show less

There was a time, lost in the mists of antiquity, when the dreamer could wander his fantasy land at will and set down his/her experiences on paper at leisure, without worrying about deadlines and contracts: when he/she could pen his words without worrying whether his book will hit the bestseller charts or not: when writing was pure pleasure. Lord Dunsany was a product of those times.

A Dreamer's Tales is exactly that: a bunch of stories, fables and legends (and some pieces which defy any kind of description), varying in quality and length, bunched together in this slim volume. They share only one quality-the gossamer structure of dreams, captured in the early morning before they melt away totally in the harsh light of the day.

It is said show more that dreams last only seconds, and their apparent length is an illusion. Our mind supplies the sequence and pace for a distorted jumble of images which tumble helter-skelter into the brain during the period of sleep called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. However scientifically interesting that may be, subjectively we only know that we inhabit a totally different country when we dream: where aeons may pass, and light-years may pass rapidly beneath our dreaming selves as we fly over fantastic galaxies populated by exotic beings.

One of the stories, Where the Tides Ebb and Flow, is about such a dream where the dreamer dies and watches the city over passing centuries as a dead man. It has got one of the most fantastic opening lines that I have ever read ("I dreamt that I had done a horrible thing, so that burial was to be denied me either in soil or sea, neither could there be any hell for me"). Dunsany does this again and again, using the technique of the storytellers of yore, jumping right into the middle of a tale, engaging the listener and the teller with an easy intimacy. It is one of his main strengths as a writer.

There are tales of doomed cities here, where the place is the protagonist (The Madness of Andelsprutz, Bethmoora); of sea voyagers who visit fantastic places en route in true fairytale fashion (Idle Days on the Yann); and of forlorn quests doomed to failure (Carcassone). The first story, Poltarnees, Beholder of the Ocean, is a true fairy tale. There is more than a hint of menace in many of these dreams which take them to nightmare territory (Poor Old Bill, for example). There is also humour (The Sword and the Idol, The Day of the Poll).

The concluding piece, The Unhappy Body, can be taken as a sort of manifesto for Dunsany: the reason why he (or any writer, for that matter) writes these stories - the soul which will not let the body rest, until it is laid in the grave.

These stories may be too light for today's tastes, when fantasy has become a full-blown field with its own sets of rules and conventions. However, I found them refreshing and enjoyable. Because who does not enjoy a dream, (even "delicious nightmare", to quote Hitchcock), all the more so because one knows one can wake up from it any time? In Dunsany's own words:

"But I arose and opened the window wide, and, stretching my hands out over the little garden, I blessed the birds whose song had woken me up from the troubled and terrible centuries of my dream." show less

Dense, but rewarding. the style is a bit much, but I must admit it ads a certain flavor that adds a lot to the overall experience and sells the dreamy, timeless and mythic feel of the thing.

I was surprised by how much of the raw materials used by later fantasists, in particular H.P. Lovecraft is present.

Lord Dunsany is one of my son's favorite authors. I read one short story of Dunsany's from this collection- online- Blagdeross , which was beautiful, lyrical, wonderful. Now I've been given the recommendation to read the following stories in this collection: Idle Days On The Yann, The Idle City, and Carcassonne. Would love to find a paperback edition but some reviewers have commented that there are many typos and misprints from faulty scanning of the old originals...So perhaps I'll have to resort to Gutenberg...

A collection of fantastic stories by a much underrated author.

Poltarnees, la que mira al mar; Blagdaross; Día de las elecciones; La locura de Andelsprutz; En donde suben y bajan las mareas; Bethmora; Días de ocio en el país del Yann; La espada y el ídolo; El hombre del haschisch; En Zaccarath; La ciudad ociosa; El campo; El pobre Bill; Carcasona; Los mendigos; El cuerpo infeliz