I don't normally put reviews on books I've not finished, but there are certain books where finishing isn't really the point – they're more for dipping into when the mood takes one, part of the furniture of a life. For some people the Bible would be the obvious candidate, but I'm talking more things like the Anatomy of Melancholy, or the mammoth anthologies the Vandermeers somehow find time to compile on a regular basis. The other one I own from them, The Weird, I've been reading bits and bobs of...

Firstly, let's be clear: when the editors call this a big book, they're not kidding around. It's enormous. "Classic" fantasy here extends from the late 18th to the mid-20th century, and the stories (and excerpts from novels) are arranged chronologically, so patterns emerge naturally as you read through. The early stories are not what we think of as short stories today; they're narrations of a series of events, and the characters are barely characters at all, just names with a couple of qualities...

4.5 starsAn exceptional selection of fantasy stories ranging from the 18th century to the first decades of the 20th century, and encompassing most continents. Many of the classic stories and authors are here (Hoffmann and Hawthorne, Grimm and Gautier, Meyrink and Machen) but there are also a significant number of remarkable and little known works and writers, some never before translated into English. As someone already very familiar with the fantasy canon, these lesser-known works were the most...

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.So this is a great compendium, and one I’ll definitely buy when it’s released, but it has flaws. I appreciate the variety of stories here, most of which I had never read, but a lot of them didn’t have satisfying endings and they’re all super weird. I love that they’re weird, but some of the endings annoyed me. I think a lot of it has to do with them being translated to English. Overall, I think this is an awesome collection of classic fantasy, fairy tales and

Certainly I’ll have read a fair few of these stories before. But 14 unpublished in English until now!! Count me in! eARC received. Read and review to come closer to publication date.

The Big Book of Classic Fantasy has something for everyone is the quintessential book of incredible short story fantasy. Including the works of Kafka, Benson, Tolkein, Sakutaro and Wells is just the tip of this glorious mountain of work. You will find extraordinary stories of fiction written from the past including a whole host of literary geniuses.The classic fantasy collection has an incredible focus on including works of fantasy across many time frames which also has Rip Van Winkle and Poe an...

Some good gems in this here book.

I am a sucker for humongous anthologies -- if it has the words Big, Giant or Mammoth in the title, I'm gonna read it! It might take me awhile to read through a book several inches thick (or an egalley file in this case), but I'm going to read every word and savor each story. I like anthologies of short stories and novellas because every story is different....a different author, a new style, new ideas. When I come across a large anthology I really like...I take my time and savor it like a lovely

This was a great collection, considering the variety of authors and styles, and the fact that Ann and Jeff Vandermeer succeeded in publishing an admirable number of stories that have never been translated to English before.I did not like every story, but it is not the purpose of that book to only tell stories that are public pleasers. This Big Book contained stories of very well-known authors and authors I have never heard of. I liked reading short stories about those famous authors, which were

The title is no exaggeration: there are, by my count, ninety stories here, the vast majority of which I had never read before. To put it in different terms, the stories occupy eight hundred eight large pages in not-especially-large type, two columned, plus a thorough introduction. Or, another way: there's near-on half a million words in this volume.By "classic" the VanderMeers do not mean "canonical" - though some stories here certainly are part of any reasonable fantasy canon - but "published b...

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This will be available to purchase on July second.In case it isn’t painfully obvious based on my other blog posts, I love fantasy of every kind. I was so excited to delve into this collection of stories, some that are well-known to me, and many others that I read for the first time.And let me tell you; this selection is vast. The editors went through a ton of effort to gather a varied representation of an e...

Full disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.The editors define classic fantasy to include stories written between the early 1800s and WWII. They attempt to represent the natural diversity of the genre (which they point out is far more extensive than what most readers might assume, given the conservative biases of many other anthologies), while being mindful of how many of the stories of this era have aged (for example, in rega...

This book is what it says it is: a big book of fantasy stories, by authors who have either created classics in the genre, or are well known for other types of writing but also dipped into the realm of the fantastic.While some selections will be familiar to those well-versed in fantasy literature, others are more obscure, and the editors have made a laudable effort to counter the "Anglo bias" in most anthologies. With so many stories, if some are not to your taste, you need only move on and you'l...

Somewhat disappointing, I was expecting more sword and sorcery adventure. Much of the book is not what I think of as traditional fantasy. There are stories of the surreal and strange, including the over-anthologized "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka, but not much to scratch a Tolkien itch. While some stories are fun discoveries, many are tedious. "Dance of the Comets: An Astral Pantomime in Two Acts" by Paul Scheerbart is particularly hard to get through. Most of it reads as stage direction and tec...

808 pages of classical fantasy: new and old. Multiple authors representing the foundations of the genre. A long haul, but imminently worthwhile to the reader.

First, let's define our terms.The Vandermeers define “classic fantasy” as strange tales written between the early 1800s and WWII, when the concept of the 'fantasy' was being formed. They do not mean “classic” in the sense of “works that are widely accepted as the definitive works in the field”. There are actually very few of those works in this book (Kafka's “The Metamorphosis” one of the notable exceptions), since they saw it as boring to reprint the famous fairy tales and fantasies that everyo...

Eclectic collection of stories. And a lot of really good stories. Some of my favorites:Iktomi Tales by Zitkala-Sa. This makes me wonder how big an influence Dakota folktales were on Jack Vance's creation of Cugel the Clever.The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan by W.B. Laughead. I have loved Paul Bunyan stories since early childhood.The Shadow Kingdom by Robert E. Howard. I am a huge fan of the Kull of Atlanta series.The Jewels in the Forest by Fritz Lieber. I love Fahfrd and Gray Mouser stories...

It's hard to summarize this mammoth treasury in a 1-to-5-star rating. From a purely entertainment perspective, I didn't always enjoy the stories featured. I didn't even "understand" all of them. When these 90 stories span 150 years and over 20 countries, the divide in culture, language, and time was sometimes too great for me to bridge. Nonetheless, I still give this anthology 5 stars for its ambition and uniqueness. The editors--Ann and Jeff Vandermeer--have an "agenda" at work in this volume's...

The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, Ann and Jeff Vander Meer Ed.- As they did with the Big Book of Science Fiction, the Vander Meer's have fashioned a large volume of early classical fantasies. Not much swords and sorcery here, no Conan, no Elric, just as it states, classic fantasies of the likes of Washington Irving, Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe and many more. Also early fairy tales from different countries around the world add a new dimension to the classic tale. It's a really b...

Every child learns to use their imagination through fairy tales. As the VanderMeer's tell the stories, the readers "see" the characters and feel, hear, and smell the stories come to life. The old stories are still the best, but there's always room for one or two more. We read these stories to our children and grandchildren and delight in their reactions. We've built many good memories with the stories in this book. Pick a few and build some for you too.