Time and the Gods

Lord Dunsany

Jan 2022 · Graphic Arts Books

About this eBook

Time and the Gods (1906) is a short story collection by Lord Dunsany. Published at the beginning of his career, Time and the Gods, a sequel to The Gods of Pegāna (1905), would influence such writers as J. R. R. Tolkein, Ursula K. Le Guin, and H. P. Lovecraft. Recognized as a pioneering author of fantasy and science fiction, Dunsany is a man whose work, in the words of Lovecraft, remains “unexcelled in the sorcery of crystalline singing prose, and supreme in the creation of a gorgeous and languorous world of incandescently exotic vision.” “Once when the gods were young and only Their swarthy servant Time was without age, the gods lay sleeping by a broad river upon earth. There in a valley that from all the earth the gods had set apart for Their repose the gods dreamed marble dreams.” Time and the Gods, Dunsany’s second collection of stories, contains some of his finest tales of fantasy and adventure. From their “marble dreams” arose a city fit for the gods, a sweeping expanse of towers, terraces, lawns, and fountains known as Sardathrion. Protected by mountains and a vast desert, safe in the heart of a fertile valley, the city of the gods is a place to which few humans go, and from which none can return. Dunsany’s tales of high fantasy continue to delight over a century after they first appeared in print. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Lord Dunsany’s Time and the Gods is a classic of Irish fantasy fiction reimagined for modern readers.

About the author

Lord Dunsany (1878-1957) was a British writer. Born in London, Dunsany—whose name was Edward Plunkett—was raised in a prominent Anglo-Irish family alongside a younger brother. When his father died in 1899, he received the title of Lord Dunsany and moved to Dunsany Castle in 1901. He met Lady Beatrice Child Villiers two years later, and they married in 1904. They were central figures in the social spheres of Dublin and London, donating generously to the Abbey Theatre while forging friendships with W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, and George William Russell. In 1905, he published The Gods of Pegāna, a collection of fantasy stories, launching his career as a leading figure in the Irish Literary Revival. Subsequent collections, such as A Dreamer’s Tales (1910) and The Book of Wonder (1912), would influence generations of writers, including J. R. R. Tolkein, Ursula K. Le Guin, and H. P. Lovecraft. In addition to his pioneering work in the fantasy and science fiction genres, Dunsany was a successful dramatist and poet. His works have been staged and adapted for theatre, radio, television, and cinema, and he was unsuccessfully nominated for the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature.