Audiobooks by Lord Dunsany

Reports From The First World War: Nowadays, Tales of War and Unhappy Far-Off Things

Includes the collections Nowadays, Tales of War, & Unhappy Far-Off Things The great fantasy writer Lord Dunsany wrote very little in the way of fantasy after the onset of the First World War. This was partly because he was busy, having volunteered in 1915 and becoming a Captain in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in Derry. However, the reality of the world bore in on our hero at this time, and it is not difficult to imagine that his heart moved to more serious concerns. Dunsany’s days of high fantasy, it seems, ended with the emergence of civil unrest in his nation. This is why the non-fiction section is included at the end of this collection; while he wrote the odd fantasy work in later years, they were written by a distinctly different man, with a very different life. For a week, he lay in a hospital bed, listening to the sounds of the riots as the British forces became increasingly violent and shelled the centre of Dublin with artillery. His military belt was left in the hospital, and eventually buried with the Nationalist leader Michael Collins. This, it seems, was the trigger for his change of heart, as expressed in ‘Nowadays’, towards poetry as the essence of writing. “In January 1917, under the stimulant of shellfire, I turned to poetry and wrote two poems in Plug-Street Wood”. After initially being refused forward positioning, he eventually served in the trenches. In this time, his literary output was focused on writing propaganda material for the War Office, some of which is collected in the non-fiction section of this volume.

Lord Dunsany (Author), Charles Featherstone (Narrator)

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Selections from the Writing of Lord Dunsany

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett was born into a very unusual situation in 1878. He was the eldest scion of a family that had lived in the oldest castle in Ireland since its construction in 1180 CE, and became the 18th Baron Dunsany in 1899 at the age of 21, when his father passed away. He was a soldier, lord, military trainer, propaganda writer, activist, and invented Dunsany’s Chess, in which one player has four ranks of pawns and no other pieces. He published mostly first drafts, writing short stories, fantasy novels, plays, and poems, with over 90 publications in his lifetime. A horseman, hunter and pistol champion whose family and friends were deeply involved in what came to be known as The Troubles. A man court martialled for supporting the Irish War of Independence, who raised toasts to the King in years to come, and worked with W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. The list of those luminaries who acknowledge a debt to Dunsany is absurdly long. Lovecraft saw him on a speaking tour and wrote “There are my 'Poe' pieces and my 'Dunsany' pieces – but alas – where are my Lovecraft pieces?”. Tolkien gave a friend The Book of Wonder in order to help prepare for working on the Silmarillion together. Neil Gaiman, Arthur C Clarke, Ursula Le Guin, Guillermo del Toro, CL Moore, Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock and David Eddings were all influenced by Dunsany’s writings, making him much like the Velvet Underground (“Not that many people listened to them, but everyone that did started a band” – paraphrase from David Bowie) The artist Sydney Syme illustrated his work until 1922, and his visions of these fantasy realms started a lasting genre and style all their own. Syme’s work was the direct inspiration for at least three Dunsany stories, and the artist is mentioned in two tales by HP Lovecraft (Pickman's Model and The Call of Cthulhu)

Lord Dunsany (Author), Charles Featherstone (Narrator)

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The Highwaymen

Immerse yourself in the hauntingly beautiful world of “The Highwaymen' by Lord Dunsany, a mesmerizing short story that transports listeners to a realm of solitude and yearning. As the night blankets the landscape, Tom, an enigmatic figure, hangs from a noose amidst the blackened downs and whispering winds. His longing to escape the earthly realm and enter the gates of Paradise tugs at the heartstrings, while the ethereal imagery of white recumbent sheep and distant hamlets shrouded in mist paints a vivid portrait of a world between worlds. When Tom’s soul is rescued by loyal but rascally friends in the dead of night, he is able to finally find peace. With prose that dances like the wind, this timeless tale beckons listeners to reflect on the depths of the human spirit and the eternal yearning for something beyond the tangible. Lose yourself in the atmospheric beauty of “The Highwaymen,' an audiobook experience that will leave you enchanted and contemplating the mysteries of existence.

Lord Dunsany (Author), R. Douglas Patten (Narrator)

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The Book Of Wonder: A Chronicle Of Little Adventures At The Edge Of The World

Brought to you by Altrusian Grace Media 'The Book of Wonder' is a collection of short stories by Lord Dunsany, published in 1912. It is a remarkable work that showcases Dunsany's imaginative storytelling and his mastery of creating vivid and fantastical worlds. The book consists of numerous individual tales, each offering a glimpse into a unique realm filled with magic, mythology, and mystery. Dunsany's prose is rich and lyrical, transporting readers to extraordinary landscapes and introducing them to a variety of enchanting characters. Throughout the collection, Dunsany explores themes of adventure, heroism, and the power of the human imagination. He weaves together narratives featuring gods, mythical creatures, and ordinary people who find themselves thrust into extraordinary circumstances. From encounters with ancient deities to quests for lost treasures, each story presents a captivating and immersive experience. 'The Book of Wonder' is known for its blend of whimsy and profundity. Dunsany's writing style is often dreamlike, imbuing the tales with a sense of wonder and magic. The stories can be enjoyed both as light entertainment and as reflections on the nature of existence, mortality, and the boundaries of human perception. Dunsany's influence on the fantasy genre cannot be overstated. His work paved the way for later authors, including J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft. Through 'The Book of Wonder,' Lord Dunsany created a timeless collection of stories that continues to inspire and delight readers with its imaginative brilliance and its exploration of the fantastic realms of the human imagination.

Lord Dunsany (Author), Matthew Schmitz (Narrator)

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The Gods Of Pegana

The Gods of Pegana is the first book by Anglo-Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, published on a commission basis in 1905. The book is a series of short stories linked by Dunsany's invented pantheon of deities who dwell in Pegana, and was a huge influence on authors such as Lovecraft and Tolkien. This is one of my favorite works of weird fantasy fiction by Lord Dunsany, and is a masterful cosmological piece of indulgent prose that actually contains some sublime wisdom between the lines.

Lord Dunsany (Author), Matthew Schmitz (Narrator)

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Swords of Kings: Short Stories

Lord Dunsany (Author), Various (Narrator)

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Lord Dunsany's Early Collections: Includes 12 pieces by Lord Dunsany from The Gods of Pegana, The Sw

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett was born into a very unusual situation in 1878. He was the eldest scion of a family that had lived in the oldest castle in Ireland since its construction in 1180 CE, he became the 18th Baron Dunsany in 1899 at the age of 21, when his father passed away. He was a soldier, lord, military trainer, propaganda writer, activist, and invented Dunsany’s Chess, in which one player has four ranks of pawns and no other pieces. He published mostly first drafts, writing short stories, fantasy novels, plays, and poems, with over 90 publications in his lifetime. A horseman, hunter and pistol champion whose family and friends were deeply involved in what came to be known as The Troubles. A man court martialled for supporting the Irish War of Independence, who raised toasts to the King in years to come, and worked with W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. Mostly famed in the modern Era for The King of Elfland’s Daughter, his career before and after that point were dissimilar, and he took on very different creative and personal aspects over the decades. The artist Sydney Syme illustrated his work until 1922, and his visions of these fantasy realms started a lasting genre and style all their own. Syme’s work was the direct inspiration for at least three Dunsany stories, and the artist is mentioned in two tales by HP Lovecraft (Pickman's Model and The Call of Cthulhu) In his own time, his plays and poems were much more popular than the early fantasy and non-fiction collected in this volume. Includes: - The Gods of Pegana - The Sword of Welleran - Time and the Gods - A Dreamer's Tale - The Book of Wonder - Selections from the Writings of Lord Dunsany - Fifty One Tales - Tales of Wonder - Tales of Three Hemispheres - Nowadays - Tales of War - Unhappy Far-Off Things

Lord Dunsany (Author), Charles Featherstone (Narrator)

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The King of Elfland’s Daughter

Lord Dunsany himself wrote a preface to this fairy tale. He said, “I hope that no suggestion of any strange land that may be conveyed by the title will scare readers away from this book; for, though some chapters do indeed tell of Elfland, in the greater part of them there is no more to be shown than the face of the fields we know, and ordinary English woods and a common village and valley, a good twenty or twenty-five miles from the border of Elfland.” The story began when the Lord of Erl was told by his people they wanted a magic lord to rule them. That took some doing, but he sent his son Alveric to retrieve Lirazel, daughter of the King of Elfland, to be his wife and thus fix the situation. At first, the King was angered and sent guards to kill Alveric, but the young man of Erl fought them off, and Lizarel fell for him and decided to leave with him. Later, under a spell, she decided she wanted to see her old home again. The King, sorry to see his daughter ever being sad, used magic to enlarge Elfland and include the land of Erl. “Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever.” —Walt Disney“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.”—Albert Einstein“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”—C. S. Lewis From those wonderful viewpoints, everyone in Erl and Elfland survived eternally in the magic realm, as you will now hear.

Lord Dunsany (Author), John Rayburn (Narrator)

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The Gods of Pegāna (Unabridged)

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. In the world of Pegāna, where twilight bleeds into dawn and mountains touch the sky, dwell capricious gods. Pegana, the moon goddess, forever chases the elusive sea. The drumming god Lorkhan awakens the stars, while the enigmatic Manatha reigns over fate itself. Mortals walk a tightrope between the whims of these celestial beings, their lives a tapestry woven with blessings and curses. A king defies the cycle of day and night, a warrior challenges the unyielding hand of fate, and a simple man longs for the touch of the moon. Enter the world of Pegāna, where gods play with the lives of mortals, and extraordinary tales unfold under a sky painted with the whims of celestial beings.

Lord Dunsany (Author), Digital Voice Marcus G (Narrator)

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The King of Elfland’s Daughter (Unabridged)

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. A king seeks magic for his people, venturing into a realm beyond time. There, he finds not just magic, but love in the form of the King of Elfland's daughter. But love thrives neither in the mortal world nor in the land of eternal youth. One yearns for the fading warmth of life, the other for the unchanging heart of eternity. Torn between two worlds and two loves, they face a choice that will reshape their destinies. Dive into 'The King of Elfland's Daughter' and explore a timeless tale of love, sacrifice, and the bittersweet clash between mortality and immortality.

Lord Dunsany (Author), Digital Voice Marcus G (Narrator)

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The King of Elfland's Daughter

A beautiful, whimsical, and powerful tale, Lord Dunsany's poetic use of language captures the strangeness and mystery of fairy tale magic and reminds us that not all fantasy epics have to culminate in a pitched battle between good and evil. Praised by writers as diverse as Neil Gaiman, Arthur C. Clarke, and H. P. Lovecraft, The King of Elfland's Daughter stands alongside the works of Tolkien and C. S. Lewis as one of the cornerstones of twentieth-century fantasy literature. Sent forth on a quest to bring magic to the Vale of Erl, the young lord Alveric obtains a sword of thunderbolt iron, and crosses the twilight border into Elfland, returning with the beautiful Princess Lirazel as his bride. But, for two people from different worlds, however much in love, happiness is not guaranteed, and in the fields we know, where all things are subject to the remorseless march of time, nothing truly lives happily ever after ...

Lord Dunsany (Author), Malk Williams (Narrator)

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The Vengeance of Thor

Lord Dunsany (Author), Daven Tillinghast, Mike Tortorello, Rita Tortorello (Narrator)

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