The book you hold in your hands is the first great
fantasy novel ever written: the first of them all;
all the others. Dunsany, Eddison, Pratt, Tolkein,
Peake, Howard, et al., are successors to this great
original.
By fantasy, I mean the tale of quest, adventure
or war set in an invented age and worldscape of the
author's own imagination.
-Lin Carter (Introduction to The Wood Beyond the World)
I like the definition of fantasy that Carter provides there and William
Morris is certainly an early practitioner of the genre, but I think you've
got to give pride of place to George MacDonald [see Orrin's review of The
Princess and the Goblin (1872) (George MacDonald 1824-1902)
(Grade:
A)]
At any rate, William Morris is one of the more interesting and influential
characters of Victorian England. Repelled by the changes that the
Industrial Revolution had brought to Britain, he yearned for more pastoral
times. By profession a Medievalist, he translated Norse sagas and
printed them in beautiful editions. An artist and founder of the
Pre-Raphaelite movement, he designed many of the flowery tapestries and
wallpapers that we associate with the Victorian drawing room. Politically
he was a utopian Socialist. And, as Carter says, as a writer he helped
to create the fantasy novel. In all of these pursuits he harkened
back to an idealized past, no where more so than in his writing.
The language, style and story of this novel lend it an aura of antiquity,
as if it too was merely a translation of some medieval romance. The
hero of the story, Golden Walter, flees his home upon realizing that his
new bride hates him. Sailing forth on one of his merchant father's
ships, his fate becomes intertwined with a mysterious trio: a splendid
lady, her evil dwarf servant and a young maiden whom the lady has enslaved.
Walter pursues the trio beyond the reaches of his own world to The Golden
House, governed by the lady, known only as The Mistress. There he
will battle the dwarf, free the maiden, with whom he has fallen in love,
and together they will flee the Mistress.
Though Morris may have intended to recall a lost past, he truly does
create a unique world of his own. It is a world in which the reader
can lose himself for hours and it makes for a wonderful and unusual reading
experience.
(Reviewed:04-Jun-00)
Grade: (B+)
Websites:
Book-related and General Links:
-ENCYCLOPAEDIA
BRITANNICA: Your search: "william morris"
-William
Morris Page
-William
Morris Society of Canada
-William
Morris Gallery
-IMAGES:
Morris, William
-William
Morris, 1834-1896, English Socialist and Artist Manuscript Collection on
the Internet
-The
William Morris Internet Archive (marxists.org)
-William
Morris
-William
Morris (1834-1896)( Bob Speel)
-John
Ruskin, William Morris and the Gothic Revival (Electronic Labyrinth)
-William
Morris: from design to socialism
-The
Pursuit Of The Ideal: The Life And Art Of William Morris (An
Exhibition at the University of Michigan Special Collections Library)
-World
Wide Web version of "William Morris and His Circle" (Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center, UT Austin)
-William
Morris Overview (Victorian Web, Brown U)
-C.S.
Lewis and Related Authors (Taylor University)
-ETEXTS:
William Morris: The hard working free spirit (Grand Inspiritors)
-REVIEW:
of THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF WILLIAM MORRIS Volume
One: 1848-1880. Edited by Norman Kelvin (William S. Peterson, NY Times
Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF WILLIAM MORRIS Volume Two: 1881-1888.
Edited by Norman Kelvin (Peter Stansky, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
Richard Dorment: The Perfectionist, NY Review of Books
William Morris: A Life for
Our Time by Fiona MacCarthy
The Collected Letters of
William Morris edited by Norman Kelvin
Vol. I, 1848-1880
Vol. II, Part A, 1881-1884
Vol. II, Part B, 1885-1888
Vols. III and IV forthcoming
-REVIEW:
of WILLIAM MORRIS A Life for Our Time. By Fiona MacCarthy (William
S. Peterson, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
Lewis Mumford: A Universal Man, NY Review of Books
William Morris: His Life,
Work and Friends by Philip Henderson
The Work of William Morris
by Paul Thompson
William Morris as Designer
by Ray Watkinson
-REVIEW:
Geoffrey Grigson: Mining Morris, NY Review of Books
William Morris: Romantic
to Revolutionary by E.P. Thompson
William Morris and the Art
of the Book edited by Paul Needham
-REVIEW:
of REDESIGNING THE WORLD. William Morris, the 1880s, and the Arts and
Crafts. By Peter Stansky (Michiko Kakutani, NY Times)
-REVIEW:
of REDESIGNING THE WORLD William Morris, the 1880s, and the Arts and
Crafts. By Peter Stansky (Quentin Bell, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
Tim Hilton: Unhappy Utopian, NY Review of Books
Redesigning the World: William
Morris, the 1880s, and the Arts and Crafts by Peter Stansky
The Collected Letters of
William Morris Volume I, 1848-1880 edited by Norman Kelvin
William Morris and the Middle
Ages edited by Joanna Banham and Jennifer Harris
-REVIEW:
of THE KELMSCOTT PRESS A History of William Morris's Typographical
Adventure. By William S. Peterson (Penelope Fitzgerald, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of SELECTED ESSAYS ON THE HISTORY OF LETTER FORMS IN MANUSCRIPT AND PRINT
By Stanley Morison (Samuel N. Antupi, NY Times Book Review)
GENERAL:
-REVIEW:
Janet Adam Smith: Big Little Books, NY Review of Books
Secret Gardens: A Study
of the Golden Age of Children's Literature by Humphrey Carpenter
-REVIEW:
Janet Adam Smith: Does Frodo Live?, NY Review of Books
Master of Middle-earth:
The Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien by Paul H. Kocher
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings, Vol.
I: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings, Vol.
II: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings, Vol.
III: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
-REVIEW:
Julian Symons: The Heavy Fantastic, NY Review of Books
The Language of the Night:
Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. LeGuin
Fantastic Worlds: Myths,
Tales and Stories edited and with commentaries by Eric S. Rabkin
-ESSAY:
What Possessed A.S. Byatt? (Mira Stout, NY Times)
Comments:
Orrin welcomes reader comments on his reviews.
Add yours here.
