Plagued with forsoothery

Saturday, March 4th, 2017

E.R. Eddison’s 1922 proto-fantasy The Worm Ouroboros is a book entirely sui generis, John C. Wright explains:

In a genre often plagued with forsoothery and faux-archaic speech, it is a wonder to read an author who can pen an entire novel in Elizabethan English without a false step.

But be warned: this is like hearing a classical symphony after a hearing nothing but jazz, rock, and dance music. It is almost not English, but a language older, richer, more elfin yet more gigantic, and as dignified as a king in full regalia leading a pavane, not merely of noblemen and gracious ladies, but demigods in all their splendors.

It’s one of the Classics of Fantasy that I’ve mentioned before.

Comments

  1. Bob Sykes says:

    And it’s unreadable. Lots of the classics are unreadable, viz. Don Quixote.

  2. Faze says:

    You’re not reading the right translation of Don Quixote. Read one of the recent ones, Edith Grossman or Samuel Putnam. There’s a lot gnarly old fashioned translations out there in the public domain, giving this book a bad name.

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